



PRESENTED 11Y 



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■paaai , 




THE HISTORY 



L ..V . linxfrll 

1 2.v iV . y 



SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



THE FORMS OF SLAVERY THAT PREVAILED IN ANCIENT NATIONS, 
PARTICULARLY IN GREECE AND ROME. 



THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE 



AND THE 



POLITICAL HISTOEY OF SLAVERY 



UNITED STATES. 



COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC MATERIALS 
BY W. 0. BLAKE. 



COLUMBUS, OHIO: 

PUBLISHED AND SOLD EXCLUSIVELY BY SUBSCRIPTION 
BY H. MILLER. 

3 S 6 . 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1857, 

BY J. & H. MILLER, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District 

of Ohio. 



St™. 



STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY OSGOOD k PEAECB, 

COLUMBUS, O 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Preliminary Sketch. — Ancient Slavery. 

Early existence of Slavery in the wnrlil. — Tl *■]• -titutions in regard to Slav- 
ery. — Hebrews, how reduced to servitude. — The Jubilee. — Distinction between 
native and foreign Slaves. — Voluntary Slaves : the Mercenarii of the Romans ; 
the Prodigals or debtor Slaves; the Delinquents ; the Enthusiasts. — Involuntary 
Slaves ; prisoners of war, and captives stolen in peace, with the children and de- 
scendants of both. — Voluntary Slavery introduced by decree of the Roman Sen- 
ate. — Slavery in Rome : condition of the Slaves ; cruelty to the old and sick ; 
prisons for Slaves; Sicily: servile war and breaking up of the prisons. — Piracy 
esteemed honorable by the early Greeks. — Piratical expeditions to procure 
Slaves. — Causes of the gradual extinction of Slavery in Europe. — Origin of the 
African Slave Trade by the Portuguese. — Followed by most of the maritime na- 
tions of Europe 17 

CHAPTER II. 

Slavery in Greece. — Athenian Slaves. 

Inrly existence of Slavery in Greece. — Proportion of Slaves to Freemen. — Their 
numbers in Athens and Sparta. — Mild government of Slaves in Athens — the re- 
verse in Sparta. — Instances of noble conduct of Slaves towards their masters. — 
Probable origin of Slavery, prisoners of war. — Examples in history of whole cities 
and states being reduced to Slavery : Judea, Miletos, Thebes. — Slaves obtained by 
kidnapping and piracy. — The traffic supposed to be attended by a curse. — Certain 
nations sell their own people into Slavery. — Power of masters over their Slaves ; 
the power of Life and Death. — The Chians, the first Greeks who engaged in a 
regular Slave-trade. — Their fate in being themselves finally reduced to Slavery. — 
First type of the Maroon wars. — The Chian Slaves revolt. — The hero slave Dri- 
macos. — His history. — Honors paid to his memory.. — Servile war among the Sa- 
mians. — Athenian laws to protect Slaves from cruelty.. — Slaves entitled to bring an 
action for assault. — Death penalty for crimes against Slaves. — Slaves entitled to 
purchase freedom. — Privileges of Slaves in Athens. — Revolt of Slaves working in 
Mines.— The temples a privileged sanctuary for Slaves who were cruelly treated. 
Tyrannical masters compelled to sell their Slaves. — Slave auctions. — Diogenes.— 
Price of Slaves. — Public Slaves, their employment. — Educated by the State, and 
intrusted with important duties. — Domestic Slaves ; their food and treatment. — 
The Slaves partake in the general decline of morals. — History and Description of 
Athens 23 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Slaves of Sparta, Crete, Thessalt, &c. — The Helots. 

The Helots: — leading events of their History summed up. — Their Masters de- 
scribed. — The Spartans, their manners, customs and constitutions. — Distinguish- 
ing traits : severity, resolution and perseverance, treachery and craftiness. — Mar- 
riage. — Treatment of Infants. — Physical Education of Youth. — Their endurance 
of hardships. — The Helots : their origin ; supposed to belong to the State ; power 
of life and death over them ; how subsisted ; property acquired by them ; their 
military service. — Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch and other writers convict 
the Spartans of barbarity towards them ; the testimony of Myfon on this point ; 
instances of tyranny and cruelty. — Institution of the Crypteia ; annual massacre 
of the Helots. — Terrible instance of treachery. — Bloody servile wars. — Sparta en- 
gaged in contests with her own vassals. — Relies upon foreign aid. — Earthquake, 
and vengeance of the Helots. — Constant source of terror to their masters. — Other 
classes of Slaves. — Their privileges and advancement. — Slavery in Crete : classes 
and condition.— Mild treatment. — Strange privileges during certain Festivals. — 
Slaves of Syracuse rebel and triumph. — The Arcadians 38 

CHAPTER IV. 

Slavery in Rome. 

Slavery nnder the kings and in the early ages of the Republic. — Its spread, and 
effect on the poorer class of Freemen. — The Lieinian law. — Prevalence of the two 
extremes, immense wealth and abject poverty. — Immense number of Slaves in 
Sicily. — They revolt. — Eunus, their leader. — Their arms. — Horrible atrocities 
committed by them. — The insurrection crushed. — Fate of Eunus. — Increase of 
Slaves in Rome. — Their employment in the arts. — Numbers trained for the Am- 
phitheatre. — The Gladiators rebel. — Spartacus, his history. — Laws passed to re- 
strain the cruelty of masters. — Effects of Christianity on their condition. — Their 
numbers increased by the invasion of northern hordes. — Sale of prisoners of war 
into slavery. — Slave-dealers follow the armies. — Foreign Slave-trade. — Slave auc- 
tions. — The Slave markets. — Value of Slaves at different periods. — Slaves owned 
by the State, and their condition and occupations. — Private Slaves, their grades 
and occupations. — Treatment of Slaves, publio and private.— Punishment of of- 
fenses. — Fugitives and Criminals. — Festival of Saturnus, their privileges. — Their 
dress. — Their sepulchres. — The Gladiators, their combats 46 

CHAPTER V. 

Slavery in Rome. — Continued. 

Abstract of the laws in regard to Slavery. — Power of Life and Death. — Cruelty ol 
Masters. — Laws to protect the Slave. — Constitution of Antoninus : of Claudius. — 
Husband and Wife could not be separated ; nor parents and children. — Slave 
could not contract marriage, nor own property. — His peculium, or private prop- 
erty, held only by U3age. — Regulations in respect to it. — Master liable for damages 
for wrongful acts of his Slave. — The murderer of a Slave, liable for a capital 
offense, or for damages.— Fugitive Slaves, not lawfully harbored : to conceal them, 
theft. — Master entitled to pursue them. — Duties of the authorities. — Slave hunters. 
— Laws defining the condition of children born of Slaves. — Laws to reduce free 



comma. v 

person9 to Slavery. — How the state of Slavery might be terminated; L>y manu- 
mission ; by special enactments ; what Slaves entitled to freedom. — Practice of 
giving lil-erty to Slaves in times of civil tumult and revolution. — Effects of Slav- 
ery under th»- Republic, and under the Empire 5f 

CHAPTER VI. 
Christian Slavery in Northern Africa. 

Barbary — the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals. — Northern Africa annexed 
to the Greek Empire. — Conquered by the Saracens. — The Spanish Moors pass 
over to Africa. — Their expeditions to plunder the coasts of Spain, and carry off 
the Christian Spaniards into Slavery. — Cardinal Ximenes invades Barbary, 1509, 
to release the captives. — Barbarossa, the sea-rover, becomes king of Algiers.— 
The Christian Slaves build the mole. — Expeditions of Charles V. against the 
Moors. — Insurrection of the Slaves. — Charles releases 20,000 Christians from Sla- 
very, and carries off 10,000 Mohammedans to be reduced to Slav rj in Spain. — 
The Moors retaliate by seizing 6000 Minorcans for Slaves. Second expedition of 
Charles — its disastrous termination — his army destroyed — | I 1 into 
Slavery. — The Algerines extend their depredations into the English Channel. — 
Condition of the Christian slaves in Barbary — treated with more humanity than 
African slaves among Christians. — Ransom of the Slaves by their countrymen. — 
British Parliament appropriates money for the purpose. — The French send bomb 
vessels in 1688. — Lord Exmouth in 1S16 releases 3000 captives, and puts an end 
to Christian Slave.-y in Barbary 68 

CHAPTER VII. 

African Slave Trade from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century. 

Negroland, or Nigritia, described. — Slavery among the Natives. — Mango Park's esti- 
mate of the number of Slaves. — The Portuguese navigators explore the African 
loast. — Natives first carried off in 1434. — Portuguese establish the Slave-Trade on 
'.he Western Coast — followed by the Spaniards. — America discovered — colonized 
by the Spaniards, who reduce the Natives to Slavery — they die by thousands in 
consequence. — The Dominican priests intercede for them. — Negroes from Africa 
substituted as Slaves, 1510. — Cardinal Ximenes remonstrates. — Charles V. en- 
courages the trade. — Insurrection of the Slaves at Segovia. — Other nations colo- 
nize America. — First recognition of the Slave-Trade by the English government 
in 1562, reign of Elizabeth. — First Negroes imported into Virginia in a Dutch ves- 
sel in 1620. — The French and other commericial notions engage in the traffic. — 
The great demand for Slaves on the African coast. — Negroes fighting and kidnap- 
ping each other. — Slave factories established by the English, French, Dutch, 
Spanish, and Portuguese. — Slave factory described. — How Slaves were procured 
in the interior 93 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Slave Traffic of the Levant — N jbtan Slaves. 

The Mohammedan slave-trade. — Nubian slaves captured for the slave market of tl 
Levant. — Mohammed Ali. — Grand expeditions for hunting. — Annua! tribute of 



VI CONTENTS. 

slaves. — The encampment. — Attack upon the villages. — Courage of the Natives. 
— Their heroic resistance. — Cruelty of the victors. — Destruction of villages. — The 
oaptives sold into slavery 102 

CHAPTER IX. 

African Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century. 

England first engages in the Slave-Trade in 1562 — Sir John Hawkins' voyages. — 
British first establish a regular trade in 1618. — Second charter granted in 1631. 
— Third charter in 1662. — Capture of the Dutch Forts. — Retaken hyDe Ruyter. 
—Fourth charter in 1672; the King and Duke of York shareholders.— Monopoly 
abolished, and free trade in Slaves declared. — Flourishing condition of the Trade. 
— Numbers annually exported. — Public sentimeDt aroused against the Slave-Trade 
in England. — Parliament resolve to hear Evidence upon the subject. — Abstract of 
the Evidence taken before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1790 
and 1791. — Revealing the Enormities committed by the Natives on the persons of 
one another to procure Slaves for the Europeans. — War and Kidnapping — imput- 
ed Crimes. — Villages attacked and burned, and inhabitants seized and sold. — 
African chiefs excited by intoxication to sell their subjects 106 

CHAPTER X. 

African Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century, continued. — The 
Middle Passage. 

Abstract of Evidence before House of Commons, continued. — The enslaved Africans 
on board the Ships — their dejection. — Methods of confining, airing, feeding and 
exercising them. — Mode of stowing them, and its horrible consequences. — Inci- 
dents of the terrible Middle Passage — shackles, chains, whips, filth, foul air, dis- 
ease, suffocation. — Suicides by drowning, by starvation, by wounds, by strang- 
ling. — Insanity and Death. — Manner of selling them when arrived at their desti- 
nation. — Deplorable situation of the refuse or sickly Slaves. — Mortality among 
Seamen engaged in the Slave-Trade. — Their miserable condition and sufferings 
from disease,, and cruel treatment 126 

CHAPTER XI. 

Slavery in the West Indies, 1750 to 1790. 

Abstract of Evidence continued. — Slavery in the West Indies from 1750 to 1790. — 
General estimation and treatment of the Slaves. — Labor of Plantation Slaves — 
their days of rest, food, clothing, property. — Ordinary punishment by the whip 
and cowskin. — Frequency and severity of these Punishments. — Extraordinary 
Punishments of various kinds, for nominal offenses. — Capital offenses and Pun- 
ishments. — Slaves turned off to steal, beg, or starve, when incapable of labor. — 
Slaves had little or no redress against ill usage 143 

CHAPTER XII. 

Early Opponents of African Slavery in England and America. 
Period from 1660 to 1760 ; Godwin, Richard Baxter, Atkins, Hughes, Bishop War- 



CONTENTS. VH 

burton. — Planters accustomed to take their Slaves to England, and to carry them 
back into slavery by force. — Important case of James Somerset decided, 1772. — 
John Wesley. — Motion in House of Commons against Slave-Trade, 177(5. — Case of 
ship Zong. — Bridgwater Petitions. — The Quakers in England oppose Slavery. — 
Resolutions of the Quakers, from 1727 .o 1760. — They Petition House of Com- 
mons. — First Society formed, 1783. — Thu Quakers and others in America. — Ao- 
tion of the Quakers of Pennsylvania froni 1S88 to 178S. — Benezet writes tracts 
against Slavery. — His letter to the Queen. - Sentiment in America favorable to 
Africans, 1772. — House of Burgesses of Vbgl. ia addresses the King. — Original 
draft of Declaration of Independence. — First Society formed in America "for Pro- 
moting Abolition of Slavery," 1774. — Opposition to the SUve-Trade in America.. 158 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Movements in England to Abolish the Slave Trade. 

Thomas Clarkson, the historian of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade. — Devotes his 
life to the cause, 1785.— Publishes his Essay on Slavery. — His coadjutors. — Wil- 
liam Wilberforce, parliamentary leader in the cause. — Middleton, Dr. Porteus, 
Lord Scarsdale, Granville Sharp. — Clarkson's first visit to a slave-ship. — Associa- 
tion formed — Correspondence opened in Europe and America. — Petitions sent to 
Parliament. — Committee of Privy Council ordered by the King, 1788. — Great ex- 
ertions of the friends of the cause. — Clarkson's interview with Pitt 179 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Parliamentary History. — The Twenty Years' Struggle. 

Mr. Pitt introduces the subject of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade into the House 
of Commons, May 9, 1788. — Speech of Mr. Pitt on the occasion. — Parliamentary 
action in 1789. — Debate of 12th of May. — Speech of William Wilberforce. — Trav- 
els and exertions of Clarkson. — Sessions of 1791 and 1792. — Debates in the Com- 
mons. — Speeches of Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox, Bailie, Thornton, Whitbread, Dundas, 
and Jenkinson. — Gradual abolition agreed upon by House of Commons 188 

CHAPTER XV. 

Parliamentary History. — Slave Trade Rendered Illegal. 

Action of the House of Lords in 1792. — Clarkson retires from the field from ill 
health, in 1794. — Mr. Wilberforce's annual motion. — Session of 1799. — Speech of 
Canning. — Sessions of 1S04 and 1805. — Clarkson resumes his labors. — Death of 
Mr. Pitt, January, 1806. — Administration of Granville and Fox. — Session of 1806. 
— Debate in the House of Lords. — Speeches of Lord Granville, Erskine, Dr. Por- 
teus, Earls Stanhope and Spencer, Lords Holland and Ellenborough. — Death of Fox, 
October, 1806. — Contest and triumph in 1807. — Final passage of the Bill for the 
Abolition of the African Slave-Trade. — Slave-trade declared felony in 1811, and 
declared piracy in 1824, by England. — England abolishes slavery in her colonies, 
1833. — Prohibition of Slave-Trade by European governments. — Slavery abolished 
in Mexico, 1829 — In Guatemala and Colombia 237 



VU1 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Indian and African Slavery in St. Domingo. — The Insurrections. 

Discovery and settlement of the island by the Spaniards. — The natives reduced to 
slavery. — Cruelty of the Spaniards towards them.— Great mortality in conse- 
quence. — Their numbers replenished from the Bahamas. — The Dominicans be- 
come interested for them. — Las Casas appeals to Cardinal Ximenes, who sends 
commissioners. — They set the natives at liberty. — The colonists remonstrate 
against the measure, and the Indians again reduced to slavery. — Las Casas seeks 
a remedy. — The Emperor allows the introduction of Africans. — Guinea slave- 
trade established. — The buccaneers. — The French Colony. — Its condition in 1789. 
— Enormous slave-population. — The Mulattoes. — The French Revolution — its ef- 
fect on the Colonists. — First Insurrection. — Terrible execution of the leaders. — 
Second Insurrection — massacre and conflagration — unparalleled horrors. — Burn- 
ing of Port-au-Prince. — L'Ouverture appears, the spirit and ruler of the storm. — 
French expedition of 25,000 men sent to suppress the Insurrection. — Toussaint 
sent prisoner to France — dies in prison. — The slaves establish their freedom. — In- 
dependence of Hayti acknowledged by France 252 

CHAPTER XVII. 

African Slave Trade after its Nominal Abolition. 

State of the slave-trade since its nominal abolition. — Numbers imported and losses 
on the passage. — Increased horrors of the trade. — Scenes on board a captured 
slaver in Sierra Leone. — The Progresso. — Walsh's description of a slaver in 1829. 
— The trade in 1S20. — The slave-trade in Cuba — officers of government interested 
in it. — Efforts of Spain insincere. — Slave barracoons near Governor's palace — con- 
duct of the inmates. — The Bozals. — Bryan Edwards' description of natives of Gold 
Coast — their courage and endurance. — Number of slaves landed at Rio in 1838 — 
barracoons at Rio — government tax. — Slave-trade Insurance — Courts of Mixed 
Commission — their proceedings at Sierra Leone in 1838. — Joint stock slave-trade 
companies at Rio.— The Cruisers — intercepted letters. — Mortality of the trade. — 
Abuses of the American flag. — Consul Trist and British commissioners. — Corre- 
spondence of American Ministers to Brazil, Mr. Todd, Mr. Proffit, Mr. Wise. — Ex- 
tracts from Parliamentary papers. — Full list of Conventions and Treaties made by 
Eugland for suppression of Slave-trade 280 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Efforts to Suppress the Slave-Trade. — Operations of the Cruisers 

Treaty between England and the United States, signed at Washington in 1842. — U. 
S. African Squadron under the treaty. — The Truxton captures an American slaver, 
the Spitfire, of New Orleans. — The Yorktown captures the Am. bark Pons, with 
896 slaves on board. — Commander Bell's description of the sufferings of the slaves 
— they are landed at Monrovia and taken care of. — Squadron of 1846. — Capture 
of the Chancellor. — Slave establishment destroyed by the English and natives. — 
A slaver's history — embarkation and treatment of slaves. — How disposed of in 
Cuba. — Natural scenery of Africa. — Excnrsion to procure slaves — their horror at 
the prospeot of slavery. — Passage from Mozambique — the small-pox on board. — 
More horrors of the Middle Passage. — The Estrella — revolt of negroes on board. . 303 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Operations op the Cruisers under the Ashburton Treaty. 

The American Squadrons from 1847 to 1861. — More captures. — U. S. brig Ferry 
cruises off the southern coast. — Capture of a slayer with 800 slaves, by an Eng- 
lish cruiser. — Abuses of the American flag. — The Lucy Ann captured. — Case of 
the Navarre. — Capture by the Perry of the Martha of New York — her condemna- 
tion. — Case of the Chatsworth — of the Louisa Beaton. — The Chatsworth seized 
and sent to Baltimore — is condemned as a slaver. State of the slave-trade on the 
southern coast. — Importance of the squadron. — -The Brazilian slave-trade dimin- 
ishes 344 

' CHAPTER XX. 

Historical Sketch of Sierra Leone and Liberia. 

Colony of Sierra Leone founded by the English, 1787. — Free negroes colonized. — 
Present extent and condition of the colony. — Establishment of English factories 
on the slave coast. — Treaties with the African chiefs. — Scheme of African Coloniza- 
tion agitated in 17S3 — by Jefferson and others. — Movements in Va., in 1800 and 
1805. — Formation of the American Colonization Society in 1816. — Its object "to 
colonize the free people of color." — Cape Mesurado purchased and colonized in 
X821. — Defense of the infant settlement from an attack by the natives. — Mortality 
among the early settlers. — Increase of the colony in 1835. — State colonization 
societies establish settlements. — Consolidation of the state colonies, and estab- 
lishment of the Commonwealth. — Governor Buchanan's efforts to suppress the 
slave-trade. — His death, 1841. — Republic of Liberia established in 1S47. — Joseph 
J. Roberts (colored) first President. — Its independence acknowledged by European 
powers. — The Republic attacks the slave establishments. — Natural resources of 
Liberia — its climate, soil, productions, exports, schools, churches, &c. — Settle- 
ments and population. — The Maryland settlement at Cape Paknas 358 

CHAPTER XXI. 

History of Slavery in the North American Colonies. 

Early existence of Slavery in England. — Its forms. — The Feudal System. — Serf- 
dom. — Its extinction. — African Slavery introduced into the North American Colo- 
nies, 1620. — Slavery in Virginia. — Massachusetts sanctions Negro and Indian 
slavery, 1641: Kidnapping declared unlawful, 1645. — Negro and Indian slavery 
authorized in Connecticut, 1650. — Decree against perpetual slavery in Rhode Isl- 
and, 1652. — Slavery in New Netherland among the Dutch, 1650 — Its mild form. — 
First slavery statute of Virginia, 1662. — In Maryland, 1663, against amalgama- 
tion. Statute of Virginia, conversion and baptism not to confer freedom ; other 

provisions, 1667. — Maryland encourages slave-trade. — Slave code of Virginia, 
1682, fugitives may be killed. — New anti-amalgamation act of Maryland, 1681. — Set- 
tlement of South Carolina, 1660. — Absolute power conferred on masters. — Law of 
Slavery in New York, 1665. — Slave code of Virginia, 1692: offenses of slaves, 
how punishable. — Revision of Virginia code, 1705: slaves made real estate. — 
Pennsylvania protests against importation of Indian slaves from Carolina, 1705. — 
New act of 1712 to stop importation of negroes and slaves, prohibition duty of 
,£20. — Act repealed by Queen. — First slave law of, Carolina, 1712. — Its remarka- 



X CONTENTS. 

We provisions. — Census of 1715. — Maryland code of 1715 — baptism not to confer 
freedom. — Georgia colonized, 1732 : rum and slavery prohibited. — Cruel delusion 
in New York: plot falsely imputed to negroes to burn the city, 1741. — Slavery 
legalized in Georgia, 1750. — Review of the state of Slavery in all the colonies in 
1750. — Period of the Revolution. — Controversy in Massachusetts on the subject 
of slavery, 1766 to 1773. — Slaves gain their freedom in the courts of Massachu- 
setts. — Court of King's Bench decision. — Mansfield declares the law of England, 
1772. — Continental Congress declares against African slave-trade, 1784 369 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Slavery under the Confederation. — Emancipation by the States 

Number of Slaves in the United States at the period of the declaration of Independ- 
, ;,,,.. — Proportion in each of the thirteen States. — Declaration against slavery in 
the State Constitution of Delaware. — Constitutions of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire held to prohibit slavery, by Supreme Courts, 1783. — Act of Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly, 17S0, forbids introduction of slaves, and gives freedom to all 
persons thereafter bom in that State. — A similar law enacted in Connecticut and 
Rhode Island, 1784. — Virginia Assembly prohibits further introduction of slaves, 
1778, and emancipation encouraged, 1782. — Maryland enacts similar laws, 1783. — 
Opinions of Washington, Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. — New York and New Jer- 
sey prohibit further introduction of slaves. — North Carolina declares further in- 
troduction of slaves highly impolitic, 1786. — Example of other States not followed 
by Georgia and South Carolina. — Action of Congress on the subject of the Terri- 
tories, 1784. — Jefferson's provision excluding slavery, struck out of ordinance. — 
Proceedings of 1787. — Ordinance for the government of the territory north-west 
of the Ohio, including Jefferson's provision prohibiting slavery, passed by un^n* 
mous vote 388 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Formation of the Constitution — Slavery Compromises. 

Convention assembles at Philadelphia, 1787. — Proceedings in reference to the slav» 
basis of representation, the second compromise of the Constitution. — Debate. — 
Remarks of Patterson, Wilson, King, Gouverneur Morris, and Sherman. — Debate 
on the Importation of slaves, by Rutledge, Ellsworth, Sherman, C. Pinckney. — 
Denunciation of slavery by Mason of Virginia. — The third Compromise, the con- 
tinuance of the African slave-trade for twenty years, and the unrestricted power 
of Congress to enact Navigation laws 392 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Political History of Slavery in the United States from 1789 to 1800. 

First session of First Congress, 17S9. — Tariff bill — duty imposed on imported slaves. 
— The Debate — views of Roger Sherman, Fisher Ames, Madison, &c. — Review of 
the state of slavery in the States in 1790. — Second session. — Petitions from the 
Quakers of Pennsylvania, Deleware, and New York. — Petition of Pennsylvania 
Society, signed by Franklin. — Exciting debate — power of Congress over slavery. — 
Census of 1790. — Slave population. — Vermont the first State to abolish and pro- 



CONTENTS. XI 

hibit slavery. — Constitution of Kentucky — provisions in respect to slavery. — Ses- 
sion of 1791. — Memorials for suppression of slave-trade, from Virginia, Maryland, 
New York, &c. — The Right of Petition discussed. — First fugitive slave law, 1793. 
First law to suppress African Slave Trade, 1794. — The Quakers again, 1797 — their 
emancipated slaves reduced again to slavery, under expost facto law of North 
Carolina. — Mississippi territory — slavery clause debated.— Foreign slaves prohi- 
bited. — Constitution of Georgia — importation of slaves prohibited, 1798— provi- 
sions against cruelty to slaves. — New York provides for gradual extinguishment 
of slavery, 1799. — Failure of similar attempt in Kentucky. — Colored citizens of 
Pennsylvania petition Congress against Fugitive Slave law and slave-trade — their 
petition referred to a committee ; bill reported and passed, 1800 403 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Political History of Slavery in the United States, from 1800 to 1807. 

Slave population in 1800. — Georgia cedes territory — slavery clause. — Territory of 
Indiana — attempt to introduce Slavery in 1803 — Petition Congress — Com. of H. R. 
report against it. — Session of 1804, committee report in favor of it, limited to ten 
years. — No action on report. — Foreign slave-trade prohibited with Orleans Terri- 
tory, 1804. — South Carolina revives slave-trade ; the subject before Congress. — 
New Jersey provides for gradual extinction of slavery, 1804. — Attempt to gradu- 
ally abolish slavery in District of Columbia, unsuccessful in Congress. — Renewed 
attempt to introduce slavery into Territory of Indiana, 1806, unsuccessful. — Leg- 
islature of Territory in favor of it, 1807 — Congressional committee report against 
it. — Jefferson's Message — recommendation to abolish African slave-trade — the 
subject before Congress — bill reported — the debate — Speeches of members — Act 
passed 1807, its provisions 430 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Political History of Slavery in the United States from 1807 to 1820. 

Slave population in 1810.— Period of the war. — John Randolph's denunciations. — 
Proclamation of Admiral Cochrane to the slaves. — Treaty of Peace — arbitration 
on slave property. — Opinions of the domestic slave-trade by southern statesmen. 
—Constitution of Mississippi — slave provisions. — The African slave-trade and 
fugitive law. — Missouri applies for admission — proviso to prohibit slavery. — De- 
bate — speeches of Fuller, Tallmadge, Scott, Cobb, and Livermore. — Proceedings, 
1820. — Bill for organizing Arkansas Territory — proviso to prohibit slavery lost. — 
Excitement in the North.— Public meetings. — Massachusetts memorial. — Resolu- 
tions of state legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
and Kentuoky. — Congress — the Missouri struggle renewed. — The. compromise. — 
Proviso to exclude slavery in territory north of 36° 30' carried. — Proviso to pro- 
hibit slavery in Missouri lost.— Opinions of Monroe's cabinet. — Reflections of J. Q. 
Adams. — State Constitution of Missouri — final struggle. — Missouri admitted as a 
slave state 447 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Period from 1820 to 1825. — Political History of Slavery. 
Cemsus of 1S20. — Session of 1824-5. — Gov. Troup's demonstrations. — Georgia legia- 



Xii CONTENTS. 

lature— Secession threatened.— Slaves in Canada— their surrender refused by Eng- 
land. Citizens of District of Columbia petition for gradual abolition.— Census of 

183£) Anti-slavery societies formed in the north — counter movements north and 

south.— The mail troubles.— Manifesto of American Anti-slavery Society.— Peti- 
tions to congress — Discussion on the disposal of them. — Bill to prohibit the circu- 
lation of Anti-slavery publications through the mails. — Calhoun's report — Meas- 
ure opposed by Webster, Clay, Benton, and others.— Buchanan, Tallmadge, &c, 
favor it — Bill lost. — Atherton's gag resolutions passed 498 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Period from 1835 to 1842.— Political History. 

Free territory annexed to Missouri, 1836.— Texas applies for annexation. — Remon- 
strances.— Preston's resolution in 1838, in favor of it, debated by Preston, John 
Quincy Adams and Henry A. Wise.— The Amistad— Captives liberated.— Census 

of 1840. Session of 1841-2. — Mr. Adams presents petition for dissolution of the 

Union. — Excitement in the house. — Resolutions of censure, advocated by Mar- 
shall.— Remarks of Mr. Wise and Mr. Adams.— Resolutions opposed by Under- 
wood, of Kentucky, Botts, of Virginia, Arnold, of Tennessee, and others. — Mr. 
Giddings, of Ohio, presents a petition for amicable division of the Union — resolu- 
tion of censure not received. — Case of the Creole. — Censure of Mr. Giddings ; he 
resigns, is re-elected GU 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Period from 1842 to 1849. — Annexation of Texas. 

Object of the acquisition set forth by Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee legisla- 
tures, and by Mr. Wise and Mr. Gilmer, 1842.— Tyler's treaty of annexation— re- 
jected by the senate.— Presidential campaign of 1844.— Clay and Van Buren on 
annexation.— Calhoun's Letter.— Session of 1844-5 ; joint resolution passed, and 
approved March 1, 1845.— Mexican minister protests.— War with Mexico.— The 
$2,000,000 bill.— Wilmot Proviso.— Session of 1847-8.— Bill to organize Oregon 
territory.— Power of Congress over slavery in the territories discussed,— Dix and 
Calhoun.— Mr. Calhoun controverts the doctrines of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. — Cass' Nicholson letter 531 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Political History of Slavery.— -Compromises of 1850. 

Message of President Taylor— Sam. Houston's propositions— Taylor's Special Message. 
—Mr. Clay's propositions for arrangement of slavery controversy .—His resolutions. 
Resolutions of Mr. Bell.— The debate on Clay's resolutions, by Rusk, Foote, of Mis- 
sissippi, Mason, Jefferson Davis, King, Clay, and Butler.— Remarks of Benton, 
Calhoun, Webster, Seward, and Cass.— Resolutions referred.— Report of Com- 
mittee.— The omnibus bill.— California admitted.— New Mexico organized.— Tex- 
as boundary established.— Utah organized.— Slave-trade in the District of Co- 
lumbia abolished.— Fugitive Slave law passed 663 



CONTENTS. XU1 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Repeal of Missouri Compromise. — Kansas and Nebraska Organized 

The platforms, slavery agitation repudiated by both parties.- — Mr. Pierce's Inaugu- 
ral and Message denounce agitation. — Session of 1853-4 : — the storm bursts 
forth. — Proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise. — Kansas-Nebraska bill. — 
Mr. Douglas' defense of the bill — Mr. Chase's reply— Remarks of Houston, Cass, 
Seward, and others. — Passage of the bill in the house. — Passed by senate, and 
approved. — The territories organized 608 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Affairs of Kansas. — Congressional Proceedings. 

Session of 1S55-6. — The President's special message referred. — Report of committee 
by Mr. Douglas. — Emigrant Aid Societies. — Minority report by Mr. Collamer. — 
Special Committee of the House sent to Kansas to investigate affairs. — Report of 
the Committee. — Armed Missourians enter the territory and control the elections. 
— Second foray of armed Missourians. — Purposes of Aid Societies defended. — Mob 
violence. — Legislature assembles at Pawnee. — Its acts. — Topeka Constitutional 
Convention.- -Free State Constitution framed. — Adopted by the people. — Election 
for State officers. — Topeka legislature. — The Wakarusa war. — Outrages upon the 
citizens. — Robberies and murders. — Lawrence attacked. — Free state constitution 
submitted to Congress. — Bill to admit Kansas under free state constitution passes 
the house. — Douglas' bill before the senate. — Trumbull's propositions rejected. — 
Amendments proposed by Foster, Collamer, Wilson and Seward, rejected. — Bill 
passed by senate. — Dunn's bill passed by house. — Appropriation bills. — Proviso 
to army bill. — Session terminates. — Extra session. — President stands firm, house 
firmer, ««wte firmest. — The army bill passed without the proviso 643 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

History of td.e Troubles in Kansas, continued. 

Judge Lncompte's charge to Grand Jury — Presentments. — Official correspondence. 
— Attack on Lawrence. — Free State bands organized — attack pro-slavery set- 
tlements. — Fights at Palmyra, Franklin, and Ossawattamie. — Murders. — Shannon 
removed. — -Atchison's army retreat. — Geary appointed governor. — Deplorable 
condition of the territory. — Letter to Secretary Marcy. — Inaugural address and pro- 
clamations. — -Atchison's call upon the South. — Woodson's proclamation. — Armed 
bands enter the territory. — Lawrence doomed to destruction. — Gov. Geary's deci- 
sive measures. — Army dispersed and Lawrence saved. — Hickory Point — capture 
of Free State company.— Dispatch to Secretary Marcy. — Mnrder of Buffum. — 
Geary and Lecompte in collision. — Official documents. — The Judiciary.- — Rumors 
of Lane's army. — Redpath's company captured — released by governor. — Capture 
of Eldridge's company. — Official correspondence. — Assembling of Topeka legisla- 
ture — Members arrested. — Territorial Legislative Assembly convened. — Inaugural 
— Vetoes of the governor. — The "Census Bill"— its provisions for forming State 
Constitution. — Constitution not to be submitted to the people. — Gov. Geary's prop- 
osition rejected. — He vetoes the bill- — Bill passed. — Disturbances in the capital. — 
Geary's requisition for XJ. S. troops refused. — His application for money refusod. 
— Difficulties of his situation — he resigns — his farewell address. — Robert J. 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Walker appointed his successor. — Secretary Stanton. — Fraudulent apportion- 
ment. — Walker's Inaugural — his recommendation to have Constitution submitted 
to the people. — This measure denounced at the South. — Convention assembles 
September, 1857.— Adjourns to October 26th, 1857 719 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Statistical Tables constructed from the Census of 1850. 

Territory— Area of Free States ; area of Slave States. — Population— Free colored in 
Free States; Free colored in Slave States ; Slaves. — Amalgamation ; Mulattoes of 
Free States; Mulattoes of Slave States ; Proportion to Whites. — Manumitted Slaves ; 
Fugitive Slaves ; Occupation of Slaves ; Number of Slave Holders ; Proportion to 
Non-Slave Holders. — Representation — Number of Representatives from Slave 
States. — Number of Representatives from Free States ; Basis in numbers and 
classes. — Moral and Social — Churches, Church Property, Colleges, Public Schools, 
Private Schools ; Number of Pupils ; Annual Expenditure ; Persons who cannot 
read and write ; Lands appropriated by General Government for Education ; Peri- 
odical Press ; Libraries. — Charities — Pauperism in Free States ; in Slave States. 
— Criminals — Number of Prisoners. — Agriculture — Value of Farms and Imple- 
ments in Free and Slave States. — Manufactures, Mining, Mechanic Arts — Cap- 
ital invested; Annual Product. — Rail Roads and Canals — Number of Miles; 
Cost. — Total Real and Personal Estate. — Value of Real Estate in Free States ; 
in Slave States; value of Personal in Free States; in Slave States, including 
and excluding Slaves. — Miscellaneous 809 

Appendix — Died Scott decision 807 



PREFACE. 



This book is intended for general reading, and may also serve as a book of 
reference. It is an attempt to compile and present in one volume the histori- 
cal records of slavery in ancient and modern times — the laws of Greece and 
Rome and the legislation of England and America upon the subject — and to 
exhibit some of its effects upon the destinies of nations. It is compiled from 
what are conceded to be authentic and reliable books, documents, and records. 
In looking up material for that portion of the book which treats of slavery in 
the nations of antiquity, the compiler found small encouragement among the 
historians. " There is no class so abject and despised upon which the fate of 
nations may not sometimes turn;" and it is strange that a system which per- 
vaded and weakened, if it did not ruin, the republics of Greece and the empire 
of the Caesars, should not be more frequently noticed by historical writers. 
They refer, only incidentally, to the existence of slavery. An insurrection or 
other remarkable event with which the slaves are connected, occasionally re- 
minds the reader of history of the existence of a servile class. The historian 
of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire devotes but two pages to what 
he describes as " that unhappy condition of men who existed in every province 
and every family, exposed to the wanton rigor of despotism," and who, accord- 
ing to his own account, numbered, in the age of the Antonines, sixty millions ! 
Yet " slavery was the chief and most direct cause of the ruin of the Roman 
Empire," if we may credit the assertions made in the legislature of Virginia 
shortly after an insurrection in that state. How few of the historians of Eng- 
land refer to the existence in that country of a system of unmitigated, hope- 
less, hereditary slavery. Yet it prevailed throughout England in Saxon and 
Norman times. In the time of the Heptarchy, slaves were an article of ex- 
port. " Great numbers were exported, like cattle, from the British coasts." 
The Roman market was partially supplied with slaves from the shores of Brit- 
ain. Pope Gregory the Great, struck with the blooming complexions and fair 
hair of some Saxon children in the slave market, sent over St. Augustine from 
Rome to convert the islanders to Christianity. In the time of Alfred, slaves 
were so numerous that their sale was regulated by law. As a general thing, 
however, feudalism strangled the old forms of slavery, and both disappeared 
in England in the advancing light of Christianity. The historians of the 
United States, also, with the exception of Hildreth, seldom refer to the sub- 
ject of slavery. They perhaps imagine that they descend below the dignity 
of history if they treat of any thing but " battles and seiges, and the rise and 
fall of administrations." Yet the printed annals of congress, from the foun- 
dation of the government to the present time, are filled with controversies upon 



XVI PREFACE. 

the ever prominent "slavery question"; and every important measure seems 
to have had a " slavery issue " involved in it. 

Meantime, and while awaiting the advent of a regular " philosophical " 
historian of slavery, we present an imperfect, but, we trust, useful compilation. 
The greater part of the volume is devoted to the Political History of Slavery 
in the United States. The legislation of congress upon subjects embracing 
questions of slavery extension or prohibition, has been faithfully rendered 
from the record ; and the arguments used on both sides of controverted ques- 
tions have been impartially presented. The parliamentary history of the 
abolition of the African slave-trade has been made to occupy considerable 
space, chiefly in order to lay before the reader the views upon the subject of 
slavery entertained by that class of unrivaled statesmen which embraced the 
names of Pitt, Fox, Burke, and others not unknown to fame. The history 
of the legislation of our own country upon subjects in which slavery issues 
were involved, will also bring before the reader another array of eminent. 
statesmen, with whose familiar names he is accustomed to associate the idea 
of intellectual power. Chapters upon slavery in Greece and Florae have 
been introduced into the book, as various opinions seem to prevail in regard 
to the forms, features, laws, extent and eft'ects of ancient slavery. Some point 
with exultation 1 to the prosperity of imperial Rome with her millions of slaves; 
others with equal exultation point to her decay as the work of the avenging 
spirit of slavery. Others, again, contend that slavery was confined to but a 
small portion of the empire, and had small effect upon its prosperity or ad- 
versity. 

To gratify a class of readers to whom the relation of exciting incidents is 
of more interest than the details of legislative action, we have devoted a space 
to the abominations of the old legalized slave traffic, and to the increased hor- 
rors of the trade after it had been declared piracy by Christian nations. It is 
a fearful chapter of wrong, violence and crime. 

"According to an enlightened philosophy," we quote from the Conversations 
Lexicon, "each human being retains inherently the right to his own person, 
and can neither sell himself, nor be legally bound by any act of aggression on 
his natural liberty. Slavery, therefore, cau never be a legal relation. It rests 
entirely on force. The slave being treated as property, and not allowed legal 
rights, cannot be under legal obligations. Slavery is also inconsistent with the 
moral nature of man. Each man has an individual worth, significance, and 
responsibility ; is bound to the work of self-improvement, and to labor in a 
sphere for svhich his capacity is adapted. To give up this individual liberty 
is to disqualify himself for fulfilling the great objects of his being. Hence, 
political societies which have made a considerable degree of advancement do 
not allow any one to resign his liberty any more than his life, to the pleasure 
of another. In fact, the great object of political institutions in civilized na- 
tions is to enable man to fulfill most perfectly the ends of his individual be- 
ing. Christianity, moreover, lays down the doctrine of doing as we would be 
done by, as one of its fundamental maxims, which is wholly opposed to the 
idea of "one man becoming the property of another. These two principles of 
mutual obligation, and the worth of the individual, were beyond the compre- 
hension of the states of antiquity, but are now at the basis of morals, politics, 
and religion." 



HISTORY OE SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Preliminary Sketch. — Ancient Slavery. 

Early existence of Slavery in the world. — The Mosaic institutions in regard to Slavery. — 
Hebrews, how reduced to servitude. — The Jubilee. — Distinction between native and for- 
eign Slaves. — Voluntary Slaves : the Mercenarii of the Romans ; the Prodigals or debtor 
blaves ; the Delinquents ; the Enthusiasts. — Involuntary Slaves : prisoners of war, and 
captives stolen in peace, with the children and descendants of both. — Voluntary 
Slavery introduced by decree of the Roman Senate. — Slavery in Rome : condition of 
the Slaves ; cruelty to the old and sick ; prisons for Slaves ; Sicily : servile war and 
breaking up of the prisons. — Piracy esteemed honorable by the early Greeks. — Pirati- 
cal expeditions to procure Slaves. — Causes of the gradual extinction of Slavery in 
Europe. — Origin of the African Slave Trade by the Portuguese. — Followed by most of 
the maritime nations of Europe. 

J.T is certainly a curious fact, that so far as we can trace back the history of 
the human race, we discover the existence of Slavery. One of the most obvi- 
ous causes of this, is to be found in the almost incessant wars which were car- 
ried on in the early periods of the world, between tribes and nations, in which 
the prisoners taken were either slain or reduced to slavery. 

The Mosaic institutions were rather predicated upon the previous existence 
of slavery in the surrounding nations, than designed to establish it for the first 
time ; and the provisions of the Jewish law upon this subject, effected changes 
and modifications which must have improved the condition of slaves among 
that peculiar people. There were various modes by which the Hebrews might 
be reduced to servitude. A poor man might sell himself ; a father might sell 
his children ; debtors might be delivered as slaves to their creditors ; thieves, 
who were unable to make restitution for the property stolen, were sold for the 
benefit of the sufferers. Prisoners of war were subjected to servitude ; and if 
a Hebrew captive was redeemed by another Hebrew from a Gentile, he might 
be sold by his deliverer to another Israelite. At the return of the year of 
jubilee all Jewish captives were set free. However, by some writers it is 
stated that this did not apply to foreign slaves held in bondage ; as over these 
the master had entire control. He might sell them, judge them, and even pun- 
ish them capitally without any form of legal process. The law of Moses pro- 
vides that "if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under 



I 



18 ANCIENT SLAVERY. 

his hand, he shall be surely punished ; notwithstanding if he continue a day 01 
two he shall not be punished, for he is his money." This restriction is said, by 
some, to have applied only to Hebrew slaves, and not to foreign captives who 
were owned by Jews. In general, if any one purchased a Hebrew slave, he 
could hold him only six years. Among other provisions, the Mosaic laws 
declared the terms upon which a Hebrew, who had been sold, could redeem 
himself, or be redeemed by his friends, and his right to take with him his wife 
and children, when discharged from bondage. 

Among those who were denominated slaves in the more lax or general use 
jf the term, we may reckon those who were distinguished among the Romans 
by the appellation of " mercenarii," so called from the circumstances of their hire. 
These were free-born citizens, who, from the various contingencies of fortune, 
were under the necessity of recurring for support to the service of the rich. A 
contract subsisted between the parties, and most of the dependents had the 
right to demand and obtain their discharge, if they were ill-used by their mas- 
ters. Among the ancients there was another class of servants, which consisted 
wholly of those who had suffered the loss of libeity from their own imprudence. 
Such were the Grecian prodigals, who were detained in the service of their 
creditors, until the fruits of their labor were equivalent to their debts ; the 
delinquents, who were sentenced to the oar; and the German enthusiasts, 
mentioned by Tacitus, who were so addicted to gaming, that when they had 
parted with every thing else, they staked their liberty and their persons. "The 
loser," says the historian, " goes into a voluntary servitude ; and though younger 
and stronger than the person with whom he played, patiently suffers himself to 
be bound and sold. Their perseverance in so bad a custom is styled honor. 
The slaves thus obtained are immediately exchanged away in commerce, that 
the winner may get rid of the scandal of his victory." The two classes now 
enumerated comprehend those that may be called the Voluntary Slaves, and 
they are distinguished from those denominated Involuntary Slaves, who were 
forced, without any previous condition or choice, into a situation, which, as it 
tended to degrade a part of the human species, and to class it with the brutal, 
must have been, of all situations, the most wretched and insupportable. The 
class of involuntary slaves included those who were " prisoners of war," and 
these were more ancient than the voluntary slaves, who are first mentioned in 
the time of Pharaoh. The practice of reducing prisoners of war to the condi- 
tion of slaves existed both among the eastern nations and the people of the 
west ; for as the Helots became the slaves of the Spartans merely from the 
right of conquest, so prisoners of war were reduced to the same situation by 
the other inhabitants of Greece. The Romans, also, were actuated by the same 
principle; and all those nations which contributed to overturn the empire, 
adopted a similar custom ; so that it was a general maxim in their polity 
that those who fell under their power as prisoners of war, should immediately 
be reduced to the condition of slaves. The slaves of the Greeks wore gener- 
ally barbarians, and imported from foreign countries. 



ANCIENT SLAVERY. 19 

" By the civil law the power of making slaves is esteemed a right of nations, 
and follows, as a natural consequence of captivity in war." This is the first 
origin of the right of slavery assigned by Justinian. The conqueror, say the 
civilians, had the right to the life of his captive ; and having spared that, has 
the right to deal with him as he pleases. This position, taken generally, is 
deuied by Blackstone, who observes that a man has a right to kill his enemy, 
only in cases of absolute necessity for self-defense ; and it is plain this absolute 
necessity did not exist, since the victior did not kill him, but made him prison- 
er. Since, therefore, the right of making slaves by captivity depends on a 
supposed right of slaughter, that foundation failing, the consequence drawn 
from it must fail likewise. Farther, it is said, slavery may begin "jure civili," 
when one man sells himself to another; but this, when applied to strict slavery, 
in the sense of the laws of old Rome or modern Barbary, is also impossible. 
Every sale implies a price, an equivalent given to the seller in lieu of what he 
transfers to the buyer; but what equivalent can be given for life and liberty, 
both of which, in absolute slavery, are held to be at the master's disposal? 
His property, also, the very price he seems to receive, devolves to his master 
the instant he becomes his slave : and besides, if it be not lawful for a man to 
kill himself, because he robs his country of his person, for the same reason he 
is not allowed to barter his freedom ; — the freedom of every citizen constitutes 
a part of the public liberty. In this case, therefore, the buyer gives nothing, 
and the seller receives nothing ; of what validity, then, can a sale be, which 
destroys the very principle upon which all sales are founded ? Lastly, we are 
told, that besides these two ways, by which slaves may be acquired, they may 
also be hereditary; the children of acquired slaves being, by a negative kind 
of birthright, slaves also; but this being founded on the two former rights, 
must fall together with them. If neither captivity, nor the sale of one's self, 
can, by the law of nature and reason, reduce the parent to slavery, much less 
can they reduce the offspring.* 

Voluntary slavery was first introduced in Rome by a decree of the senate in 
the time of the emperor Claudius, and at length was abrogated by Leo. The 
Romans had the power of life and death over their slaves ; which no other 
nations had. This severity was afterwards modified by the laws of the emper- 
ors ; and by one of Adrian it was made capital to kill a slave without a cause. 
The slaves were esteemed the proper goods oftMif- masters, and all they got 
belonged to them ; but if the master wasjjJPBBel in his domestic corrections, 
he was obliged to sell his slave at a nioirerate price. The custom of exposing 
old, useless or sick slaves, in an island of the Tiber, there to starve, seems to 
have been very common in Rome ; and whoever recovered, after having been 
so exposed, had his liberty given him, by an edict of the emperor Claudius, iu 
which it was likewise forbidden to kill any slave merely for old age or sickness. 
Nevertheless, it was a professed maxim of the elder Cato, to sell his superaunu- 

* Blackstone 's Com. : Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. 



20 AXCEENT SLAVERY. 

ated slaves at any price, rather than maintain what he deemed a useless burden. 
The dungeons, where slaves in chains were forced to work, were common all 
over Italy. Columella advises that they be built under ground ; and recom- 
mends the duty of having a careful overseer to call over the names of the 
slaves, in order to know when any of them had deserted. Sicily was full of 
these dungeons, and the soil was cultivated by laborers in chains. Eunus and 
Athenio excited the servile war, by breaking up these monstrous prisons, and 
giving liberty to 60,000 slaves. 

In the ancient and uncivilized ages of the world, "Piracy" was regarded as 
an honorable profession ; and this was supposed to give a right of making 
slaves. " The Grecians," says Thucydides, " in their primitive state, as well as 
the cotemporary barbarians who inhabited the sea coast and islands, addicted 
themselves wholly to it ; it was, in short, their only profession and support." 
The writings of Homer establish this account, as they show that this was a 
common practice at so early a period as that of the Trojan war. The reputa- 
tion which piracy seems to have acquired among the ancients, was owing to the 
skill, strength, agility and valor which were necessary for conducting it with 
success ; and these erroneous notions led to other consequences immediately 
connected with the slavery of the human species. Avarice and ambition 
availed themselves of these mistaken notions ; and people were robbed, stolen, 
and even murdered, under the pretended idea that these were reputable adven- 
tures. But in proportion as men's sentiments and manners became more refined, 
the practice of piracy lost its reputation, and began gradually to disappear. 
The practice, however, was found to be lucrative ; and it was continued with a 
view to the emolument attending it, long after it ceased to be thought honora- 
able, and when it was sinking into disgrace. The profits arising from the sale 
of slaves presented a temptation which avarice could not resist ; many were 
stolen bv their own countrymen and sold for slaves ; and merchants traded on 
the different coasts in order to facilitate the disposal of this article of com- 
merce. The merchants of Thessaly, — according to Aristophanes, who never 
spared the vices of the times, — were particularly infamous for this latter kind 
of depredation ; the Athenians were notorious for the former ; for they had 
practiced these robberies to such an extent, that it was found necessary to enact 
a law to punish kidnappers with death. 

From the above statement it appears that there were among the ancients two 
classes of involuntary slaves :• captives taken in war, and those who were 
privately stolen in peace ; to which might be added, a third class, comprehend- 
ing the children and descendants of the two former. 

The condition of slaves and their personal treatment were sufficiently 
humiliating and grievous, and may well excite our pity and abhorrence. They 
were beaten, starved, tortured, and murdered at discretion ; they were dead in 
a civil sense ; they had neither name nor tribe ; they were incapable of judicial 
process ; and they were, in short, without appeal. To this cruel treatment, 
however, there were some exceptions. The Egyptian slave, though perhaps a 



ANCIENT SLAVERY. 21 

greater drudge than any other, yet if he had time to reach the temple of Her- 
cules found a certain retreat from the persecution of his master ; and he derived 
additional comfort from the reflection that his life could not be taken with im- 
punity.* But no place seems to have been so favorable to slaves as Atheus. 
Here they were allowed a greater liberty of speech; they had their convivial 
meetings, their amours, their hours of relaxation, pleasantry and mirth ; and 
here, if persecution exceeded the bounds of lenity, they had their temple, like 
the Egyptians, for refuge. The legislature were so attentive as to examine 
into their complaints, and if founded in justice, they were ordered to be sold to 
another master. They were allowed an opportunity of working for themselves ; 
and if they earned the price of their ransom, they could demand their freedom 
forever. 

To the honor of Athens and Egypt, and the cities of the Jews, their slaves 
were considered with some humanity. The inhabitants of other parts of the 
world seemed to vie with each other in the oppression and debasement of this 
unfortunate class. 

A modern writer, to whom the cause of humanity is under inexpressible 
obligations, proceeds to inquire by what circumstances the barbarous and in- 
human treatment of slaves were produced. The first of these circumstances 
which he mentions, was "commerce;" for if men could be considered as 
possessions, if like cattle they might be bought and sold, it will be natural to 
suppose that they would be regarded and treated in the same manner. This 
kind of commerce, which began in the primitive ages of the world, depressed 
the human species in the general estimation ; and they were tamed like brutes 
by hunger and the lash, and the treatment of them so conducted as to render 
them docile instruments of labor for their possessors. This degradation of 
course depressed their minds ; restricted the expansion of their faculties ; stifled 
almost every effort of genius, and exhibited them to the world as beings endued 
with inferior capacities to the rest of mankind. But for this opinion of them 
there seems to have been no foundation in truth and justice. Equal to their 
fellow men in natural talents, and alike capable of improvement, any apparent, 
or even real difference between them and others, must have been owing to the 
treatment they received, and the rank they were doomed to occupy. 

This commerce of the human species commenced at an early period. The 
history of Joseph points to a remote era for its introduction. Egypt seems to 
have been, at this time, the principal market for the sale of human beings. 
It was indeed so famous as to have been known, within a few centuries from 
the time of Pharaoh, to the Grecian colonies in Asia and to the Grecian islands. 
Homer mentions Cyprus and Egypt as the common markets for slaves, about 
the time of the Trojan war. Egypt is represented in the book of Genesis as a 
market for slaves, and in Exodus as famous for the severity of its servitude. 






22 ANCIENT SLAVERY. 

Tyre and Sidon, as wc learn from the book of Joel, were notorious for the pro- 
secution of this trade. 

This custom appears also to have existed in other States. It traveled all 
over Asia. It spread through the Grecian and Roman world. It was in use 
among the barbarous nations that overturned the Roman empire ; and was 
therefore practised at the same period throughout Europe. However, as the 
northern nations were settled in their conquests, the slavery and commerce of the 
human species began to decline, and were finally abolished. Some writers have 
ascribed this result to the prevalence of the feudal system ; while others, a 
much more numerous class, have maintained that it was the natural effect of 
Christianity. The advocates of the former opinion allege, that "the multitude 
of little states which sprung up from one great one at this era occasioned in- 
finite bickerings and matter for contention. There was not a state or seignory 
that did not want all the men it could muster, either to defend their own right 
or to dispute that of their neighbors. Thus every man was taken into service : 
whom they armed they must trust ; and there could be no trust but in free men. 
Thus the barrier between the two classes was thrown down, and slavery was no 
more heard of in the west." 

On the other hand, it must be allowed that Christianity was admirably 
adapted to this purpose. It taught "that all men were originally equal ; that 
the Deity was no respecter of persons ; and that, as all men were to give an 
account of their actions hereafter, it was necessary that they should be free." 
These doctrines could not fail of having their proper iufluence upon those who 
first embraced Christianity from a conviction of its truth. We find them ac- 
cordingly actuated by these principles. The greatest part of the charters 
which were granted for the freedom of slaves, many of which are still extant, 
were granted "pro amore Dei, pro mercede animas." They were founded in 
short on religious considerations, " that they might procure the favor of the 
Deity, which they had forfeited by the subjugation of those who were the 
objects of divine benevolence and attention equally with themselves." These 
considerations began to produce their effects, as the different nations were con- 
verted to Christianity, and procured that general liberty at last, which at the 
close of the twelfth century was conspicuous in the west of Europe. 

But still we find that within two centuries after the suppression of slavery in 
Europe, the Portuguese, in close imitation of those piracies which we have 
mentioned as existing in the uncivilized ages of the world, made their descents 
upon Africa, and committing depredations upon the coast, first carried the 
wretched inhabitants into slavery. This practice, thus inconsiderable in its 
commencement, soon became general, and we find most of the maritime Chris- 
tian nations of Europe following the piratical example. Thus did the Europeans, 
in their eternal infamy, revive a custom, which their own ancestors had so lately 
exploded from a consciousness of its impiety. The unfortunate Africans fled 
from the coast, and sought in the interior part of the country a retreat from 
the persecution of their invaders. But the Europeans still pursued them ; they 



ery ix 



entered their rivers, sailed up into the heart of the country, surprised the 
Africans in their recesses, and carried them into slavery. The next step which 
the Europeans found it necessary to take, was that of settling in the country ; 
of securing themselves by fortified posts ; of changing their system of force 
into that of pretended liberality ; and of opening, by every species of bribery 
and corruption, a communication with the natives. Accordingly they erected 
their forts and factories ; landed their merchandize, and endeavored by a 
peaceable deportment, by presents, and by every appearance of munificence, to 
allure the attachment and confidence of the Africans. The Portuguese erected 
their first fort in 1481, about forty years after Alonzo Gonzales had pointed 
out to his countrymen, as articles of commerce, the southern Africans. 

The scheme succeeded. An intercourse took place between the Europeans 
and Africans, attended with a confidence highly favorable to the views of am- 
bition and avarice. In order to render this intercourse permanent as well as 
lucrative, the Europeans paid their court to the African chiefs, and a treaty of 
peace and commerce was concluded, in which it was agreed that the kings, on 
their part, should sentence prisoners of war, and convicts, to European servi- 
tude ; and that the Europeans should in return supply them with the luxuries 
of the north. Thus were laid the foundations of that nefarious commerce, of 
which, in subsequent chapters, we intend to give the details. * 



CHAPTER II. 
Slavery in Greece. — Athenian Slaves. 

Early existence of Slavery in Greece. — Proportion of Slaves to Freemen. — Their numbers 
in Athens and Sparta. — Mild government of Slaves in Athens — the reverse in Sparta. 
Instances of noble conduct of Slaves towards their masters. — Probable origin of Slavery, 
prisoners of war. — Examples in history of whole cities and states being reduced to 
Slavery : Judea, Miletos, Thebes. — Slaves obtained by kidnapping and piracy. — The 
traffic supposed to be attended by a curse. — Certain nations sell their own people into 
Slavery. — Power of masters over their Slaves ; the power of Life and Death. — The 
Chians, the first Greeks who engaged in a regular Slave-trade. — Their fate in being 
themselves finally reduced to Slavery. — First type of the Maroon wars. — The Chian 
Slaves revolt. — The hero slave Drimacos. — His history. — Honors paid to his memory. 
Servile war among the Samians. — Athenian laws to protect Slaves from cruelty.— 
Slaves entitled to bring an action for assault. — Death penalty for crimes against slaves. 
Slaves entitled to purchase freedom. — Privileges of Slaves in Athens. — Revolt of Slaves 
working in Mines. — The temples a privileged sanctuary for Slaves who were cruelly 
treated. — Tyrannical masters compelled to sell their Slaves. — Slave auctions. — Diogenes. 
Price of Slaves. — Public Slaves, their employment. — Educated by the State, and in- 
trusted with important duties. — Domestic Slaves : their food and treatment. — The 
Slaves partake in the general decline of morals. — History and Description of Athens. 

J_N Greece, slavery existed from the earliest period of her history. Before 
the days of Ilomer it generally prevailed. The various states of Greece had 



♦Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species : Encyclopedia Britt.: Antiquities of 
Greece and Rome. 



# 



> 



24 SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 

different codes of laws, but in all of them the slaves were a majority of the 
people. The proportion of slaves to freemen probably varied in different 
states, and in the same state at different times. A historian states the propor- 
tion to have been at one period as 400 to 30. In Athens, another writer 
states, there were three slaves to one freeman. In Sparta, the proportion of 
slaves was much greater than in Athens. 

The greatest writers of antiquity were, on this subject, perplexed and un- 
decided. They appear to have comprehended the extent of the evil, but to 
have been themselves too much the slaves of habit and prejudice to discover 
that no form or modification of slavery is consistent with justice. Most per- 
plexing of all, however, was the Laeonian Heloteia ; because in that case the 
comparatively great number of the servile class rendered it necessary, in the 
opinion of some, to break their spirit and bring them down to their condition 
by a system of severity which constitutes the infamy of Sparta. * 

The discredit of subsisting on slave labor was, to a certain extent, shared 
by all the states of Greece, even by Athens. But in the treatment of that 
unfortunate class, there was as much variation as from the differences of 
national character might have been inferred. The Athenians, in this respect, 
as in most others, are represented as the antipodes of the Spartans ; inasmuch 
as they treated their slaves with humanity, and even indulgence, f We read, 
accordingly, of slaves whose love for their masters exceeded the love of broth- 
ers ; they have toiled, fought, and died for them ; they have sometimes sur- 
passed them in courage, and taught them, in situations of imminent danger, 
how to die. An example is recorded of a slave, who put on the disguise of 
his lord, that he might be slain in his stead. These examples, however, do 
not prove that there is any thing ennobling in servitude. On the contrary, 
the inference is, that great and noble souls had been' dealt with unjustly by 
fortune. ( 

As soon as men began to give quarter in war, and became possessed of 
prisoners, the idea of employing them and rendering their labors profitable, 
naturally suggested itself. When it was found that advantages could be de- 
rived from captured 1 enemies instead of butchering them in the field, their lives 
were spared. At the outset, therefore, it is argued, slavery sprung from feel- 
ings of humanity. A distinguished historian remarks : " When warlike peo- 
ple, emerging from the savage state, first set about agriculture, the ideS ot 
sparing the lives of prisoners, on condition of their becoming useful to the 
conquerors by labor, was an obvious improvement upon the practice of former 
times, when conquered enemies were constantly put to death, not from a spirit 
of cruelty, but from necessity, for the conquerors were unable to maintain 
them in captivity, and dared not set them free. "J 



* Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece. 

fHerodes Atticus lamented the death of his Slaves as if they had been his relatives, 
and erected statui-s to their memory in woods, or fields, or beside fountains. 
X Mitford's History of Greece. 



X 



* 



SLAVERY IN ATHENS 25 

Possibly the practice was borrowed from the East, where the mention of 
slaves occurs in the remotest ages. In later times, the Queen of Persia is 
represented to have urged Darius into the Grecian war, that she might possess 
Athenian, Spartan, Argive and Corinthian slaves. The practice was, when a 
number o' prifoners had been taken, to make a division of them among the 
chiefs, generally by lot, and then to sell them for slaves. 

Examples occur in antiquity of whole cities and states being at once sub- 
jected to servitude. Thus the inhabitants of Judea were twice carried away 
captive to Babylon, where their,m§Siters7not perhaps from mockery, required 
of them to sing some of their nationalNsongs ; to which, as we learn from the 
prophet, they replied, " How can w_e sina the songs of Zion in a strange land ? " 
The citizens of Miletos, after the unsuccessful revolt of Aristagoras, were 
carried into Persia, as were those also of other places. Like the Israelites, 
those Greeks long preserved in cap^vity'tbeii^jia.tional manners and language, 
though surrounded by strangers, and urged^-byevery Inducement to assimilate 
themselves to their conquerors. A similar fl^j overtook the inhabitants of 
Thebes, who were sold iato slavery by Alexander, 

As the supply produced- by war seldom efualed thie demand, the race of 
kidnappers alluded to»in a fpftner chapter, mrunjfup, who, partly merchants 
and partly pirates, roamed about the shores of the Mediterranean,. as similar 
miscreants now do about the slave coasts of A#ica. Neither war, however, 
nor piracy, sufficed at length to furnish that vast multitude oPslaves which the 
growing luxury of the times induced 'the Greeks to consider necessary. Com- 
merce, by degrees, conducted them to Caria 'and other parte of Asia Minor, 
particularly the southern coasts of the Black* j5ea, those great nurseries of 
slaves from that time until now. The first Greeks who engaged in this traffic, 
which even by the Pagans was supposed to be attended by a curse, are said 
to have been the^Chians: ^They purchased their slaves from the barbarians, 
among whom the Eydians, the Phrygians and the natives of Pontos, with 
many others, were^ accustomed, Jjke the modern-Circassians, to carry on a trade 
in their own people^ 

Before proceeding farther with the history of the traffic, it may be well to 
describe the power possessed by masters over their domestics during the heroic 
ages. Ever} man appears then to have been a king in his own house, and to 
have exercised his authority most regally. Power, generally, when unchecked 
by law, is fierce and inhuman ; and over their household, gentlemen, in those 
ages, exercised the greatest and most awful power, that of life and death, as 
they afterwards did at Rome. When supposed to deserve death, the slaves 
were executed ignominiously by hanging. This was regarded as an impure 
end. To die honorably was to perish by the sword. 

The Chians, as before observed, are said to have been the first Grecian peo- 
ple who engaged in a regular slave-trade. For although the Thessalians and 
Spartans possessed slaves at a period much anterior, they obtained them by 
different means ; the latter by reducing to subjection the ancient Achaean in- 



26 SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 

habitants ; the former by their conquests over other nations. But the Chians 
possessed only such slaves as they had purchased with money ; in which they 
resembled the slave-holding nations of modern times. Other circumstances 
strongly suggest the parallel. We have here, perhaps, the first type of the 
Maroon wars, though on a smaller scale, and marked by fewer outbreaks of 
atrocity.* It is not, indeed, stated that the females were flogged, though 
throughout Greece the males were so corrected ; but whatever the nature of 
the severities practiced upon them may have been, the yoke of bondage was 
found too galling to be borne, and whole" gangs took refuge in the mountains. 
Fortunately for them, the interior of the island abounded in fastnesses, and 
was in those days covered with forest. 

Here, therefore, the fugitives, erecting themselves dwellings, or taking 
possession of caverns among the almost inaccessible cliffs, successfully defended 
themselves, subsisting on the pjjnder of their former owners. Shortly before 
the time of the writer, to whom 'we are indebted for these details, a bondsman 
named Drimacos, made his es#kpe from the city, and reached the mountains, 
where, by valor and conduct, he'soon placed himself at' the head of the servile 
insurgents, over whom he ruled|like a king. The Chians led several expedi- 
tions against him in vain. iHe defeated them in-the field with great slaughter ; 
but at length, to spare the useless effusion of human blood, invited them to a 
conference, wherein he observed, that the slaves being encouraged in their revolt 
by an oracle, would never, lay down their arms, or submit to the drudgery of 
servitude. Nevertheless, the war might be terminated, "for if my advice," 
said he, " be followed, and we be suffered to enjoy tranquility, numerous 
advantages will thence accrue to the state." 

There being little prospect of a satisfactory settlement of the matter by arms, 
the Chians consented to enter into a truce, as with a public enemy. Humbled 
by their losses and defeats, Drimacos found them submissive to reason. He 
therefore provided himself with weights, measures, and a signet, and exhibit- 
ing them to his former masters, said : " When, in future, our necessities require 
that I should supply myself from your stores, it shall always be by these 
weights and measures ; and having taken the necessary quantity of provisions, 
I shall be careful to seal your warehouses with this signet. With respect to 
such of your slaves as may fly and come to me, I will institute a«-igid exami- 
nation into their story, and if they have just grounds for complaint, I will pro- 
tect them — if not, they shall be sent back to their owners." 

To these conditions the magistrates readily acceded ; upon which the slaves 

*Maroons ; the name given to revolted negroes in the West Indies and in some parts 
of South America. The appellation is supposed to be derived from Marony, a liver sep- 
arating Dutch and French Guiana, where larges numbers of the fugitives resided. In 
many cases, by taking to the forests and mountains, they have rendered themselves 
formidable to the colonies, and sustained a long and brave resistance against the whites. 
When Jamaica was conquered by the English, in 1655, about 1500 slaves retreated te 
the mountains, and were called Maroons. The.y continued to harass the isl rid till the 
end of the last century, when they were te -u.c i, by tin aid oJ ! < I oun Is. (See 
Dallas's History of the M m . 



SLAVEKY IN ATHENS. 27 

who still remained with their masters grew more obedient, and seldom took to 
flight, dreading the decision of Drimaeos. Over his own followers he exer- 
cised a despotic authority t They, in fact, stood far more in fear of him, than, 
when in bondage, of their lords ; and performed his bidding without question 
or murmur. lie was severe in the punishment of the unruly, and permitted no 
man to plunder and lay waste the country, or commit any act of injustice. The 
public festivals he was careful to observe, going round and collecting from the 
proprietors of the land, who bestowed upon him both wine and the finest vic- 
tims ; but if, on these occasions, he discovered that a plot was hatching, or any 
ambush laid for him, he would take speedy vengeance. 

Observing old age to be creeping upon Drimaeos, and rendered wanton ap- 
parently by prosperity, the government issued a proclamation, offering a great 
reward to any one who should capture him, or bring them his head. The old 
chief, discerning signals of treachery, or convinced that, at last, it must come 
to that, took aside a young man whom he loved, and said, " I have ever re- 
garded you with a stronger affection than any other man, and to me you have 
been a brother. But now the days of my life are at an end, nor would I have 
them prolonged. With you, however, it is not so. Youth, and the bloom of 
youth, are yours. What, then, is to be done ? You must prove yourself to 
possess valor and greatness of soul : and, since the state offers riches and free- 
dom to whomsoever shall slay me and bear them my head, let the reward be 
yours. Strike it off, and be happy !" 

At first the youth rejected the proposal, but ultimately Drimaeos prevailed. 
The old man fell, and his friend, on presenting his head, received the reward, 
together with his freedom ; and, after burying his benefactor's remains, he sailed 
away to his own country. 

The Chians, however, underwent the just punishment of their treachery. No 
longer guided by the wisdom and authority of Drimaeos, the fugitive slaves re- 
turned to their original habits of plunder and devastation ; whereupon, the 
Chians, remembering the moderation of the dead, erected an heroon upon his 
grave, and denominated hirn the propitious hero. The insurgents, also, hold- 
ing his memory in veneration, continued for generations to offer up the first 
fruits of their spoil upon his tomb. He was, in fact, honored with a kind of 
apotheosis, and canonized among the £ods of the island ; for it was believed 
that his shade often appeared to men in dreams, for the purpose of revealing 
some servile conspiracy, while yet in the bud ; and they to whom he vouchsafed 
these warning visits, never failed to proceed to his chapel, and offer sacrifice to 
his manes. 

In process of time the Chians themselves were compelled to drain the bitter 
cup of servitude. For, as we find recorded, they were subjugated by Mithri- 
dates, and were delivered up to their own slaves, to be carried away captive 
into Colchis. This, Athenseus considers the just punishment of their wicked- 
ness in having been the first who introduced the slave trade into Greece, when 
they might have been better served by freemen for hire. 



28 SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 

The servile war which took place among the Saniians had a more fortunate 
issue, though but few particulars respecting it have come down to us. It was 
related, however, by Malacos in his annals of the Siphnians, that Ephesos was 
first founded by a number of Samian slaves, who, having retired to a mountain 
on the island to the number of a thousand, inflicted numerous evils on their former 
tyrants. These, in the sixth year of the war, having consulted the oracle, came 
to an understanding with their slaves, who were permitted to depart in safety 
from the island. They sailed away, and became the founders of the city and 
people of Ephesos. 

In Attica the institution of slavery, though attended by innumerable evils 
is said to have exhibited itself under the mildest form which it any where as- 
sumed in the ancient world. With their characteristic attention to the inter- 
ests of humanity, the Athenians enacted a law, in virtue of which, slaves could 
indict their masters for assault and battery. Hyperides observed in his oration 
against Mautitheos, " our laws, making no distinction in this respect between 
freemen and slaves, grant to all alike the privilege of bringing an action against 
those who insult or injure them." To the same effect spoke Lycurgus in his 
first oratiou against Lycophron. Plato was less just to them than the laws of 
their country. If, in his imaginary state, a slave killed a slave in self-defense, 
he was judged innocent ; if a freeman, he was put to death like a parricide. 
But Demosthenes has preserved the law which empowered any Athenian, not 
laboring under legal disability, to denounce to the Thesmothetas the person 
who offered violence to man, woman or child, whether slave or free. Such ac- 
tions were tried before the court of Heliiea, and numerous were the examples 
of men who suffered death for crimes committed against slaves. Another priv- 
ilege enjoyed by the slave class in Attica was that of purchasing their own 
freedom, as often as, by the careful management of the peculium secured them 
by law, they were enabled to offer their owners an equivalent for their services. 

At Athens, with some exceptions, every temple in the city appears to have 
been open to them. Occasionally, certain of their number were selected to 
accompany their masters to consult the oracle at Delphi, when they were per- 
mitted, like free citizens, to wear crowns upon then- heads, which, for the time, 
conferred upon them exemption from blows or stripes. Among their more se- 
rious grievances was their liability to personal chastisement ; which was too 
much left to the discretion of their owners. In time of war, however, this 
privilege was not practised, since the flogged slaves could go over to the ene- 
my, as sometimes happened. They are said, besides, to have worked the mines 
in fetters ; probably, however, only in consequence of a revolt, in which they 
slew the overseers of the mines, and taking possession of the acropolis of Su- 
niura, laid waste, for a time, the whole of the adjacent districts. This took 
place simultaneously with the second insurrection of the slaves in Sicily, in the 
quelling of which nearly a million of their number were destroyed. 

We find from contemporary writers, that except in cases of incorrigible 
perverseness, slaves were encouraged to marry ; it being supposed they would 



SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 29 

thus become more attached to their masters, who, in return, would put more 
trust in slaves born and brought up in the house, than in such as were pur- 
chased. 

We have seen that slaves were protected by the laws from grievous insults 
and contumely ; but if, in spite of legal protection, their masters found means 
to render their lives a burden, the state provided them with an asylum in the 
temple of Theseus and the Eumenides. Having there taken sanctuary, their 
oppressors could not force them thence without incurring the guilt of sacrilege. 
Thus in a fragment of Aristophanes' Seasons, we find a slave deliberating 
whether he should take refuge in the Theseion, and there remain until he could 
procure his transfer to a new master ; for any one who conducted himself too 
harshly towards his slaves, was by law compelled to sell them. Not only so, 
but the slave could institute an action against his lord and master, or against 
any other citizen who behaved unjustly or injuriously towards him. The right 
of sanctuary was, however, limited, and extended from the time of the slave's 
flight to the next new moon, when a periodical slave auction appears to have 
been held. 

On this occasion the slaves were stationed in a circle in the market place, 
and the one whose turn it was to be sold, mounted a table, where he exhibited 
himself and was knocked down to the best bidder. The sales seem to have 
been conducted precisely like those of the present day in Richmond, Charles- 
ton, New Orleans and other cities of the south. The Greek auctioneer, or 
slave-broker, however, was answerable at law if the quality of the persons 
sold did not correspond with the description given of them in the catalogue. 
It appears that, sometimes, when the articles were lively, or witty, they made 
great sport for the company, as in the case of Diogenes, who bawled aloud — 
" whoever among you wants a master, let him buy me." 

Diogenes, of Sinope, flourished about the fourth century before Christ, and 
was the most famous of the Cynic philosophers. Having been banished from 
his native place with his father, who had been accused of coining false money, 
he went to Athens, and requested Antisthenes to admit him among his disci- 
ples. That philosopher in vain attempted to repel the importunate supplicant, 
even by blows, and finally granted his request. Diogenes devoted himself, 
with the greatest diligence, to the lessons of his master, whose doctrines he 
extended still further. He not only, like Antisthenes, despised all philosophi- 
cal speculations, and opposed the corrupt morals of his time, but also carried 
the application of his doctrines, in his own person, to the extreme. The stern 
austerity of Antisthenes was repulsive ; but Diogenes exposed the follies of his 
contemporaries with wit and humor, and was, therefore, better adapted to be 
the censor and instructer of the people, though he really accomplished little in 
the way of reforming them. At the same time, he applied, in its fullest extent, 
his principle of divesting himself of all superfluities. He taught that a wise 
man, in order to be happy, must endeavor to preserve himself independent of 
fortune, of men, and of himself: in order to do this, he must despise riches, 



30 SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 

power, honor, arts and sciences, and all the enjoyments of life. He endeavor 
ed to exhibit, in his own person, a model of Cynic virtue. For this purpose 
he subjected himself to the severest trials, and disregarded all the forms of 
polite society. He often struggled to overcome his appetite, or satisfied it 
with the coarsest food ; practised the most rigid temperance, even at feasts, in 
the midst of the greatest abundance, and did not even consider it beneath his 
dignity to ask alms. By day, he walked through the streets of Athens bare- 
foot, without any coat, with a long beard, a stick in his hand, and a wallet on 
his shoulders ; by night, he slept in a tub, though this has been doubted. He 
defied the inclemency of the weather, and bore the scoffs and insults of the 
people with the greatest equanimity. Seeing a boy draw water with his hand, 
he threw away his wooden goblet as an unnecessary utensil. He never spared 
the follies of men, but openly and loudly inveighed against vice and corruption, 
attacking them with satire and irony. The people, and even the higher classes, 
heard him with pleasure, and tried their wit upon him. When he made them feel 
his superiority, they often had recourse to abuse, by which, however, he was little 
moved. He rebuked them for expressions and actions which violated decency 
and modesty, and therefore it is not credible that he was guilty of the excesses 
with which his enemies have reproached him. His rudeness offended the laws 
of good breeding rather than the principles of morality. Many anecdotes, 
however, related of this singular person, are mere fictions. On a voyage to 
iEgina, he fell into the hands of pirates, who sold him as a slave to the 
Corinthian Xeniades in Crete. The latter emancipated him, and intrusted 
him with the education of his children. He attended to the duties of his new 
employment with the greatest care, commonly living in summer at Corinth, 
and in winter at Athens. It was at the former place that Alexander found 
him on the road-side, basking in the sun, and, astonished at the indifference 
with which the ragged beggar regarded him, entered into conversation with 
him, and finally gave him permission to ask for a boon. " I ask nothing." 
answered the philosopher, "but that thou wonldst get out of my sunshine." 
Surprised at this proof of content, the king is said to have exclaimed, " Were 
I not Alexander, I would be Diogenes." At another time, he was carrying a 
lantern through the streets of Athens, in the daytime : on being asked what he 
was looking for, he answered, " I am seeking a man." Thinking he had found, 
in the Spartans, the greatest capacity for becoming such men as he wished, he 
said, " Men I have found nowhere ; but children, at least, I have seen at Lace- 
dsemon." Being asked, " What is the most dangerous animal?" his answei 
was, " Among wild animals, the slanderer; among tame, the flatterer." He 
died 324 B. C, at a great age. When he felt death approaching, he seated 
himself on the road leading to Olympia, where he died with philosophical 
calmness, in the presence of a great number of people, who were collected 
around him. 

Slaves of little or no value, were contemptuously called " salt bought," from 
a custom prevalent among the inland Tnracians, of bartering their captives foi 



SLAVERY IN ATHENS* 31 

gait ; whence it may be inferred that domestics from tnax part of the world were 
considered inferior. 

Respecting the price of slaves, a passage occurs in the Memorabilia, where 
Socrates inquires whether friends were to be valued at so much per head, like 
slaves ; some of whom, he says, were not worth a demimina, while others would 
fetch two, five, or even ten minae ; that is, the price varied from ten to two 
hundred dollars. Nicias bought an overseer for his silver mines at the price 
of a talent, or about twelve hundred dollars. 

Exclusively of the fluctuations caused by the variations in the supply and 
demand, the market price of slaves was affected by their age, health, strength, 
beauty, natural abilities, mechanical ingenuity, and moral qualities. The mean- 
est and cheapest class were those who worked in the mills, where mere bodily 
strength was required. A low value was set upon slaves who worked in the 
mines — a sum equal to about eight dollars. In the age of Demosthenes, ordi- 
nary house slaves, male or female, were valued at about the same price. De- 
mosthenes considered two minae and a half, fifty dollars, a large sum for a 
person of this class. Of the sword cutlers possessed by the orator's father, 
some were valued at six nrina:, others at five, while the lowest were worth 
above three. Chairmakers sold for about two ininte, forty dollars. The wages 
of slaves, when let out for hire by their masters, varied greatly, as did the profit 
derived from them. Expert manufacturers of fine goods produced their own- 
ers much larger returns than miners. 

Slaves at Athens were divided into two classes, private and public. The 
latter, who were the property of the state, performed several kinds of < 
supposed to be unworthy of freemen. They were, for example, employed as 
vergers, messengers, scribes, clerks of public works, and inferior servants of 
the gods. Most of the temples of Greece possessed a great number of ' 
or serfs, who cultivated the sacred domains, exercised various humbler offi 
religion, and were ready on all occasions to execute the orders of the pries:.-. 
At Corinth, where the worship of Aphrodite chiefly prevailed, these slaves con- 
sisted almost exclusively of women, who, having on certain occasions burn: 
frankincense, and offered up public prayers to the goddess, were sumptuously 
feasted within the precincts of her fane.* 

Among the Athenians, the slaves of the republic, generally captives taken 
hi war, received a careful education, and were sometimes intrusted with im- 
portant duties. Out of their number were selected the secretaries, who, in timo 
of war, accompanied the generals and treasurers of the army, and made exait 
minutes of the expenditure, in order that, when, on their return, these officers 
should come to render an account of their proceedings, their books mio-ht be 
compared with those of the secretaries. In cases of difficulty, these unfortu- 



* Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love among the Greeks, synonymous with Aphroneneii 
that is. born of the foam of the sea. Aphrodisia was a festival sacred to Venus 
was celebrated in various parts of Greece, but with the ereatest solemnity in the island 
of Cyprus. 



hi SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 

nate individuals were subjected to torture, in order to obtain that kind of evi- 
dence which the ancients deemed most satisfactory, but which the moderns 
regard with extreme uncertainty. 

-<Esop, the oldest Greek fabulist, was a native of Phrygia, and a slave, until 
he was set free by his last owner. He lived about the middle of the sixth cen- 
tury B. C. He inculcated rules of practical morality, drawn from the habits 
of the inferior creation, and thus spread his fame through Greece and all the 
neighboring countries. Croesus, king of Lydia, invited iEsop to his court, and 
kept him always about his person. Indeed, he was never absent, except dur- 
ing his journeys to Greece, Persia and Egypt. Crcesus once sent him to Del- 
phi to offer sacrifice to Apollo ; while engaged in this embassy, he wrote his 
fable of the Floating Log, which appeared terrible at a distance, but lost its 
terrors when approached. The priests of Delphi, applying the fable to them- 
selves, resolved to take vengeance on the author, and plunged him from a preci- 
pice. Planudes, who wrote a miserable romance, of which he makes jEsop 
the hero, describes him as excessively deformed and disagreeable in his appear- 
ance, and given to stuttering ; but this account does not agree with what his 
contemporaries say of him. The stories related of iEsop, even by the an- 
cients, are not entitled to credit. A collection of fables made by Planudes, 
which are still extant under the name of the Grecian fabulist, are ascribed to 
him with little foundation ; their origin is lost in the darkness of antiquity. 

A very significant and pleasant custom prevailed when a slave newly pur- 
chased was first brought into the house. They placed him before the hearth, 
his future master, mistress and fellows ervants poured baskets of ripe 
fruit, dates, figs, filberts, walnuts, &c, upon his head, to intimate that he was 
come into the abode of plenty. The occasion was converted by his fellow 
slaves into a holiday and feast; for custom appropriated to them whatever 
was cast upon the new comer. 

Their food was commonly, as might be expected, inferior to that of their 
masters. Thus the dates grown in Greece, which ripened but imperfectly, were 
appropriated to their use ; and for their drink they had a thin wine, made of 
the husks of grapes, laid, after they had been pressed, to soak in water, and 
then squeezed again. A drink precisely similar is now made in the wine dis- 
tricts of France. They generally ate barley bread ; the citizens themselves 
frequently did the same. To give a relish to their plain meal of bread, plain 
broth and salted fish, they were indulged with pickles. In the early ages of 
the commonwealth, they imitated the frugal manner of their lords, so that nt 
slave, who valued his reputation, would be seen to enter a tavern ; but in latei 
times they naturally shared largely in the general depravity of morals, and 
placed their greatest good in eating and drinking. Their whole creed, on this 
point, has been summed up in a few words by the poet Socian. " Wherefore," 
exclaims a slave, " dole forth these absurdities ; these ravings of sophists, 
prating up and down the Lyceum, the Academy, and the gates of the Odeion ? 
In all these there is nothing of value. Let is drink — let us drink deeply 



SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 33 

Let us rejoice, whilst it is yet permitted us to delight our souls. Enjoy thyself, 
Manes ! Nothing is sweeter than eating and drinking. Virtues, embassies, 
generalships, are vain pomps, resembling the plaudits of a dream. Heaven at 
the fated hour will deliver thee to the cold grasp of death, and thou wilt bear 
with thee nothing but what thou hast drunk and eaten I All else is dust, like 
Pericles, Codros and Cimou." 

The employment of household slaves necessarily varied according to the 
rank and condition of their lords. In the dwellings of the wealthy and lux- 
urious, they were accustomed to fan their masters and mistresses, and drive 
away the flies with branches of myrtle. Among the Roman ladies, it was 
customary to retain a female slave, for the sole purpose of looking after the 
Melitensian lap-dogs of their mistresses, in which they were less ambitious 
than that dame in Lucian, who kept a philosopher for this purpose. Female 
cup-bearers and ladies' maids were likewise slaves ; the latter were initiated in 
all the arts of the toilet. 

There seems to have been a set of men who earned their subsistence by 
initiating slaves in household labors. In the bakers' business, Anaxarchos, a 
philosopher, introduced an improvement, by which modern times may profit, — 
to preserve his bread pure from the touch, and even from the breath of the 
slaves who made it, he caused them to knead, the dough with gloves on their 
hands, and to wear a respirator of some gauze-like substance over their mouths. 
Other individuals, who grudged their domestics a taste of their delicacies, 
obliged them to wear a broad collar like a wheel around their necks, which 
prevented them from bringing their hands to their mouths. This odious prac- 
tice, however, could not have been general. 

Besides working at the mill and fetching water, both somewhat laborious 
employments, we find that female slaves were sometimes engaged in wood cut- 
ting upon the mountains. Towards the decline of the commonwealth, it became 
a mark of wealth and consequence to be served by black domestics ; as was 
also the fashion among the Romans and the Egyptian Greeks. Cleopatra had 
negro boys for torch-bearers ; and the Athenian ladies, as a foil, perhaps, liked 
to be attended by black waiting maids. 

When men have usurped an undue dominion over their fellows, they seldom 
know where to stop. The Syrians, themselves enslaved politically, and often 
sold into servitude abroad, affected when rich a peculiarly luxurious manner : 
female attendants waited on their ladies, who, when mounting their carriages, 
required them to bend on all fours, that they might make a footstool of their 
backs. 

"We append to our notice of slavery in Athens, a description of the splendors 
of that celebrated city, from whence the light of intellectual cultivation has 
spread for thousands of years down to our own time. This capital of the old 
kingdom of Attica, and of the more modern democracy, was founded by 
Cecrops, 1550 years before Christ. The old city was built on the summit of 
some rocks, which lie in the midst of a wide and pleasant plain, which became 
3 



34 SLAVERY IN ATHENS. 

filled with buildings as the inhabitants increased ; and this made the distinction 
between Acropolis and Catapolis, or the upper and lower city. The citadel 
or Acropolis was 60 stadia in circumference, and included many extensive 
buildings. Athens lies on the Saronic gulf, opposite the eastern coast of the 
Peloponnesus. It is built on a peninsula formed by the junction of the Ceph- 
issus and Ilissus. From the sea, where its real power lay, it was distant 
about five leagues. It was connected, by walls of great strength and extent, 
with three harbors — the Piraus, Munychia and Phalerum. The first was con- 
sidered the most convenient, and was one of the emporiums of Grecian com- 
merce. The surrounding coast was covered with magnificent buildings, whose 
splendor vied with those of the city. The walls of rough stone, which con- 
nected the harbors with the city, were so broad, that carriages could go on 
their top. The Acropolis contained the most splendid works of art of which 
Athens could boast. Its chief ornament was the Parthenon, or temple of 
Minerva. This magnificent building, which, even in ruins, has been the won- 
der of the world, was 21*7 feet long, 98 broad, and 65 high. Destroyed by 
the Persians, it was rebuilt in a noble manner by Pericles, 444 years B. C. 
Here stood the statue of Minerva by Phidias, a masterpiece of art, formed of 
ivory, 46 feet high, and richly decorated with gold, whose weight was estimated 
at from 40 to 44 talents (2000 to- 2200 pounds), which, if we reckon, accord- 
ing to Barthelemy, the silver talent at 5700 livres, and the ratio of gold to 
silver as 1 to 13, would make a sum of 2,964,000, or 3,260,400 livres (523,700, 
or 576,004 dollars). The Propyteum, built of white marble, formed the 
entrance to the Parthenon. This building lay on the north side of the Acrop- 
olis, close to the Erectheum, also of white marble, consisting of two temples, 
the one dedicated to Pallas Minerva, and the other to Neptune ; besides an- 
other remarkable building, called the Pandroseum. In the circle of Minerva's 
temple stood the olive-tree, sacred to that goddess. On the front part of the 
Acropolis, and m each end, two theatres are visible, the one of Bacchus, the 
other, the Odeum ; the former for dramatic exhibitions, the latter for musical 
competitions, also built with extraordinary splendor. The treasury is also in 
the back part of the temple of Minerva. In the lower city were many fine 
specimens of architecture, viz : the Poikile, or the gallery of historical paint- 
ings ; besides the temple of the "Winds, and the monuments of celebrated men. 
But the greatest pieces of architecture were without the city — the temples of 
Theseus and Jupiter Olympius, one of which stood on the north, the other on 
the south side of the city. The first was of Doric architecture, and resembled 
the Parthenon. On the metopes of this temple the famous deeds of old heroes 
and kings were excellently represented. The temple of Jupiter Olympius was 
of Ionic architecture, and far surpassed all the other buildings of Athens in 
splendor and beauty. Incalculable sums were spent on it. It was from time 
to time enlarged, and rendered more beautiful, until, at length, it was finished 
by Adrian. The outside of this temple was adorned by nearly 120 fluted 
columns, 60 feet high, and feet in diameter. The inside was nearly half a 



DESCRIPTION OF ATHENS. 35 

league in circumference. Here stood the renowned statue of the god made 
by Phidias, of gold and ivory. The Pantheon (sacred to all the gods) must 
not be forgotten. Of this the Pantheon at Rome is an exact copy. Besides 
these wonderful works of art, Athens contains many other places which must 
always be interesting, from the recollections connected with them. The old 
philosophers were not accustomed, as is well known, to shut up their scholars 
in lecture-rooms, but mingled with them on the freest and pleasantest terms, 
and, for this purpose, sought out spots which were still and retired. Such a 
spot was the renowned academy where Plato taught, lying about six stadia 
north of the city, forming a part of a place called Geramicus. This spot, 
originally marshy, had been made a very pleasant place, by planting rows of 
trees, and turning through it streams of fresh water. Such a place was the 
Lyceum, where Aristotle taught, and which, through him, became the seat of 
the Peripatetic school. It lay on the bank of the Ilissus, opposite the city, 
and was also used for gymnastic exercises. Not far from thence was the less 
renowned Cynosarges, where Antisthenes, the founder of the Cynic school, 
taught. The sects of Zeno and Epicurus held their meetings in the city. 
Zeuo chose the well-known Poikile, and Epicurus established himself in a 
garden within the walls, for he loved both society and rural quiet. Not only 
literary, but political assemblies gave a particular interest to different places 
in Athens. Here was the court of areopagus, where that illustrious body 
gave their decisions ; the Prytaneum, or senate-house ; the Pnyx, where the 
free people of Athens deliberated. After 23 centuries of war and devastation, 
of changes from civilized to savage masters, have passed over this great city, 
its ruins still excite astonishment. No inconsiderable part of the Acropolis 
was lately standing. The Turks have surrounded it with a broad, irregular 
wall. In this wall one may perceive the remains of the old wall, together with 
fragments of ancient pillars, which have been taken from the ruins of the old 
to construct new edifices. The right wing of the Propylseum, built by 
Pericles at the expense of 2012 talents, and which formed the ancient entrance, 
was a temple of victory. The roof of this building stood as late as 1656, 
when it was destroyed by the explosion of some powder kept there. In a part 
of the present wall, there are fragments of excellent designs in basso relievo, 
representing the contest of the Athenians with the Amazons. On the opposite 
wing of the Propylasuru are six whole columns, with gate-ways between them. 
These pillars, half covered on the front side by the wall built by the Turks, 
are of marble, white as snow, and of the finest workmanship. They consist 
of three or four stones, so artfully joined together, that, though they have been 
exposed to the weather for 2000 years, yet no separation has been observed. 
From the Propyloeum we step into the Parthenon. On the eastern front of 
this building, also, there are eight columns standing, and several colonnades on 
the side. Of the pediment, which represented the contest of Neptune and 
Minerva for Athens, there is nothing remaining but the head of a sea-horse, and 
the figures of two women without heads ; but in all we must admire the highest 



30 DESCRIPTION OF ATHENS. 

degree of truth and beauty. The battle between the Centaurs and Lapithoa 
is better preserved. Of all the statues with which it was adorned, that of 
Adrian alone remains. The inside of this temple is now changed into a mosque. 
In the whole of this mutilated building, we find an indescribable expression of 
grandeur and sublimity. There are also astonishing remains to be seen of the 
Erectheum (the temple of Neptune Erectheus), especially the beautiful female 
figures called Caryatides, and which form two arch-ways. Of both theatres 
there is only so much of the outer walls remaining, that one can estimate their 
former condition and enormous size. The arena has sunk down, and is now 
planted with corn. In the lower city itself, there are no vestiges to be found 
of equal beauty and extent. Near a church, sacred to Santa Maria Maggiore, 
stand three very beautiful Corinthian columns, which support an architrave. 
They have been supposed to be the remains of a temple of Jupiter Olympius, 
but the opinion is not well grounded : probably, they are the remains of the 
old Poikile. The temple of the Winds, built by Andronicus Cyrrhestes, is not 
entire. Its form is an octagon : on each side it is covered with reliefs, which 
represent one of the principal winds : the work is excellent. The preservation 
of this edifice is owing to its being occupied by the dervises as a mosque. Of 
the monuments of distinguished men, with which a whole street was filled, only 
the fine one of Lysicrates remains. It consists of a pedestal surrounded by a 
colonnade, and is surmounted by a dome of Corinthian architecture. This has 
been supposed to be the spot which Demosthenes used for his study, but the 
supposition is not well supported. Some prostrate walls are the only remains 
of the splendid gymnasium built by Ptolemy. Outside of the city, our wonder 
is excited by the lofty ruins of the temple of the Olympian Jupiter. Of 120 
pillars, 16 remain; but none of the statues are in existence. The pedestals 
and inscriptions are scattered here and there, and partly buried in the earth. 
The main body of the temple of Theseus has remained almost entire, but much 
of it, as it now stands, is of modern origin. The figures on the outside are 
mostly destroyed, but those which adorn the frieze within are well preserved. 
They represent the actions of the heroes of antiquity. The battle between 
Theseus and the Centaur is likewise depicted. On the hill where the famous 
court of areopagus held its sittings, you find steps hewn in the rock, places for 
the judges to sit, and over against these the stations of the accuser and the 
accused. The hill is now a Turkish burial-ground, and is covered with monu- 
ments. The Pnyx, the place of assembly for the people, not far from the 
Areopagus, is very nearly in its primitive state One may see the place from 
which the orators spoke hewn in the rock, the seats of the scribes, and, at both 
ends, the places of those officers whose duty it was to preserve silence, and to 
make known the event of public deliberations. The niches are still to be seen, 
where those who had any favor to ask of the people deposited their petitions. 
The paths for running are still visible, where the gymnastic exercises were per- 
formed, and which Herodes Atticus built of white marble. The spot occupied 
by the Lyceum is only known by a quantity of fallen stones. A more modern 



DESCRIPTION OF ATHENS. 37 

edifice stands in the garden in the place of the academy. In the surrounding 
space, the walks of the Peripatetics can be discerned, and some olive-trees of 
high antiquity still command the reverence of the beholder. The long walls 
are totally destroyed, though the foundations are yet to be found on the plain. 
The Piraeus has scarcely any thing of its ancient splendor, except a few ruined 
pillars, scattered here and there : the same is the case with the Phalerum and 
Munychia. It appears probable, that, in the time of Pausanius, many monu- 
ments were extant which belonged to the period before the Persian war ; because 
so transitory a possession as Xerxes had of the city, scarcely gave him time to 
finish the destruction of the walls and principal public edifices. In the restor- 
ation of the city to its former state, Themistocles looked more to the useful, 
Cimon to magnificence and splendor ; and Pericles far surpassed them both in 
his buildings. The great supply of money which he had from the tribute of 
the other states, belonged to no succeeding ruler. Athens at length saw much 
of her ancient splendor restored ; but, unluckily, Attica was not an island, and, 
after the sources of power, which belonged to the fruitful and extensive country 
of Macedonia, were developed by an able and enlightened prince, the opposing 
interests of many free states could not long withstand the disciplined army of 
a warlike people, led by an active, able and ambitious monarch. When Sylla 
destroyed the works of the Piraeus, the power of Athens by sea was at an end, 
and with that fell the whole city. Flattered by the triumvirate, favored by 
Adrian's love of the arts, Athens was at no time so splendid as under the An- 
tonines, when the magnificent works of from eight to ten centuries stood in 
view, and the edifices of Pericles were in equal preservation with the new 
buildings. Plutarch himself wonders how the structures of Ictinus, of Menes- 
icles and Phidias, which were built with such surprising rapidity, could retain 
such a perpetual freshness. Probably Pausanius saw Greece yet unplundered. 
The Romans, from reverence towards a religion approaching so nearly to their 
own, and wishing to conciliate a people more cultivated than themselves, were 
ashamed to rob temples where the masterpieces of art were kept as sacred, and 
were satisfied with a tribute of money, although in Sicily they did not abstain 
from the plunder of the temples, on account of the prevalence of Carthaginian 
and Phoenician influence in that island. Pictures, even in the time of Pausa- 
nias, may have been left in their places. The wholesale robberies of collectors, 
the removal of great quantities of the works of art to Constantinople, when 
the creation of new specimens was no longer possible, Christian zeal, and the 
attacks of barbarians, destroyed, after a time, in Athens, what the emperors 
had spared. We have reason to think, that the colossal statue of Minerva 
Promajhos was standing in the time of Alaric. About 420 A. D., paganism 
was totally annihilated at Athens, and, when Justinian closed even the schools 
of the philosophers, the recollection of the mythology was lost. The Parthe- 
non was turned into a church of the Virgin Mary, and St. George stepped into 
the place of Theseus. The manufactory of silk, which had hitherto remained, 
was destroyed by the transportation of a colony of weavers, by Roger of 



38 SLAVERY DC SPARTA. 

Sicily, and, in 1456, the place fell into the hands of Omar. To complete its 
degradation, the city of Minerva obtained the privilege (an enviable one in the 
East) of being governed by a black eunuch, as an appendage to the harem. 
The Parthenon became a mosqne, and, at the west end of the Acropolis, those 
alterations were commenced, which the new discovery of artillery then made 

v. In 1687, at the siege of Athens by the Venetians under Morosini, 
i; appears that the temple of Victory was destroyed, the beautiful remains of 
which are to be seen in the British museum. September 28, of this year, a 
bomb tired the powder magazine kept by the Turks in the Parthenon, and, with 
this building, destroyed the ever memorable remains of the genius of Phidias. 
Probably, the Venetians knew not what they destroyed ; they could not have 
1 1 that their artillery should accomplish such devastation. The city was 
surrendered to them September 29. They wished to send the chariot of Vic- 
tory, which stood on the west pediment of the Parthenon, to Venice, as a tro- 
phy of their conquest, but, in removing, it fell and was dashed to pieces. April, 
1688, Athens was again surrendered to the Turks, in spite of the remonstrances 
of the inhabitants, who, with good reason, feared the revenge of their return- 
ing masters. Learned travelers have, since that time, often visited Athens; 

may thank their relations and drawings for the knowledge which we 
of many of the monuments of the place.* 



CHAPTER III. 

Slaves of Sparta, Crete, Thessaly, &c. — The Helots. 

The Helots -—leading events of their History summed up.— Their Masters described.— 
The Spartans, their manners, customs and constitutions.— Distinguishing traits : se- 
verity, resolution and perseverance, treachery and craftiness.— Marriage.— Treatment 
of Infants.— Physical Education of Youth.— Their endurance of hardships.— The He- 
lots • their origin ; supposed to belong to the State ; power of life and death over 
them • how subsisted ; property acquired by them ; their military service.— Plato, 
Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch and other writers convict the Spartans of barbarity 
towards them ; the testimony of Myron on this point ; instances of tyranny and 
cruelty. — Institution of the Crypteia; annual massacre of the Helots.-— Terrible 
instance of treachery.— Bloody servile wars.— Sparta engaged in contests with her own 
vassals.— Relies upon foreign aid.— Earthquake, and vengeance of the Helots.— Con- 
stant source of terror to their masters.— Other classes of slaves.— Their privileges and 
ncement.— Slavery in Crete: classes and condition.— Mild treatment.— Strange 
privileges during certain Festivals.— Slaves of Syracuse rebel and triumph.— lie Ar- 
cadians. 

1 HERE seems to be a diversity of opinion among modern writers, as to the 
, a of the Spartan Helots. The American Encyclopedia, in giving 

* Encyclopedia Americana. 



THE HELOTS. 39 

briefly the prominent events of their history, states, that the name is generally 
derived from the town of Helos, the inhabitants of which were carried off and 
reduced to slavery by the Heraclidae, about 1000 B. C. They differed from 
the other Greek slaves in not belonging individually to separate masters ; they 
were the property of the state, which alone had the disposal of their freedom. 
They formed a separate class of inhabitants, and their condition was, in many 
respects, similar to that of the boors in some countries of Europe. The state 
assigned them to certain citizens, by whom they were employed in private 
labors, though not exclusively, as the state still exacted certain services from 
them. Agriculture and all mechanical arts at Sparta were in the hands of the 
Helots, since the laws of Lycurgus prohibited the Spartans from all lucrative 
occupations. But the Helots were also obliged to bear arms for the state, in 
case of necessity. The barbarous treatment to which they were exposed often 
excited them to insurrection. Their dress, by which they were contemptuously 
distinguished from the free Spartans, consisted of cat's-skin, and a leather cap, 
of a peculiar shape. They were sometimes liberated for their services, or for 
a sum of money. If their numbers increased too much, the young Spartans, 
it is said, were sent out to assassinate them. Their number is uncertain, but 
Thncydides says that it was greater than that of the slaves in any other Gre- 
cian state. It has been variously estimated, at from 320,000 to 800,000. They 
several times rose against their masters, but were always finally reduced. 

Before we proceed with the history of the Spartan Helots, it will be well 
enough tq digress, in order to understand the character of their masters, who 
were, in many respects, a peculiar people. 

Sparta, or Lacedaemon, the capital of Laconia and of the Spartan state, lay 
on the west bank of the river Eurotas, and embraced a circuit of six miles. 
The ruins are still seen nearly a league to the east of Misistra, and are known 
by the name of Palaeopolis, or "ancient city." The Spartans were distin- 
guished among the people of Greece by their manners, customs and constitu- 
tion. Their kings ruled only through the popular will, as they had no other 
privileges than those of giving their opinion first in the popular assemblies, 
acting as umpires in disputes, and of commanding the army : their only other 
advantages were a considerable landed estate, a large share of the spoils, and 
the chief seat in assemblies and at meals. The Spartans, that is, the descend 
ants of the Dorians, who acquired possession of Laconia under the Heraclidae 
were occupied only with war and the chase, and left the agricultural labors to 
the Helots ; but the Lacedaemonians, or Periceci {the ancient inhabitants of 
the country), engaged in commerce, navigation and manufactures. Although 
the Spartan conquerors were superior in refinement and cultivation to the 
Lacedaemonians, the arts of industry flourished only among the latter. They 
gradually intermingled with the Spartans, whom they exceeded in number, and 
formed one people. Both people constituted one state, with a national assem- 
bly, to which the towns sent deputies. The military contributions in money 
and troops formed the principal tribute of the free Lacedaemonians to the 



40 THE SPARTANS. 

Spartans (Dorians). The former were sometimes divided by jealousy from 
the latter, and in the Theban war several towns withdrew their troops from 
the Spartans, and joined Epaminondas. The distinguishing traits of the 
Spartans were severity, resolution and perseverance. Defeat and reverse 
never discouraged them. But they were faithless and crafty, as appears from 
their conduct in the Messenian wars, in which they not only bribed the Arca- 
dian king, Aristocrates, to the basest treachery towards the Messenians, but 
also corrupted the Delphic oracle, of which they made use to the prejudice of 
the Messenians. The age at which marriage might be contracted was fixed by 
Lycurgus at thirty for men and twenty for women. When a Spartan woman 
was pregnant, it was required that pictures of the handsomest young men 
should be hung up in her chamber, for the purpose of producing a favorable 
effect on the fruit of her womb. The other Greeks washed the new-born infants 
with water, and afterwards rubbed them over with oil; but the Spartans 
bathed them in wine, to try the strength of their constitution. They had a 
notion that a wine bath produced convulsions or even death in weakly chil- 
dren, but confirmed the health of the strong. If the infant proved vigorous 
and sound, the state received it into the number of citizens ; otherwise it was 
thrown into a cave on mount Taygetus? In the other Grecian states, the 
exposition of children was a matter of custom; in Sparta it was forbidden by 
law-. The Spartan children were early inured to hardship and accustomed to 
freedom. Stays, w T hich were in use among the other Grecians, were unknown 
to the Spartans. To accustom the children to endure hunger, they gave them 
but little food ; and, if they stood in need of more, they were obliged to steal 
it ; and, if discovered, they were severely punished, not for the theft, but foi 
their awkwardness. Every ten days, they were required to present themselves 
before the ephori, and whoever was found to be too fat, received a flogging. 
Wine was not generally given to girls in Greece, but was commonly allowed to 
boys from earliest childhood. In Sparta, the boys were obliged to wear the 
hair short, until they attained the age of manhood, when it was suffered to 
grow. They usually ran naked, and were generally dirty, as they did not 
bathe and anoint themselves, like the other Greeks. They took pride in hav- 
ing the body covered with marks of bruises and wounds. They wore no outer 
garment, except in bad weather, and no shoes at any time. They were obliged 
to make their beds of rushes from the Eurotas. Till the seventh year, the 
child was kept in the gynaecenm, under the care of the women ; from that age 
to the eighteenth year, they were called boys, and thence to the age of thirty, 
youths. In the thirtieth year the Spartan entered the period of manhood, 
and enjoyed the full rights of a citizen. At the age of seven, the boy was 
withdrawn from the paternal care, and educated under the public eye, in com- 
pany with others of the same age, without distinction of rank or fortune. If 
any person withheld his son from the care of the state, he forfeited his civil 
rights. The principal object of attention, during the periods of boyhood and 
youth, was the physical education, which consisted in the practice of various 



THE HELOTS. 41 

gymnastic exorcises — running, leaping, throwing the discus, wrestling, boxing, 
and the chase. These exercises were performed naked, in certain buildings 
called gymnasia. Besides gymnastics, dancing and the military exercises were 
practiced. A singular custom was the flogging the boys on the annual festival of 
Diana Orthia, for the purpose of inuring them to bear pain with firmness : the 
priestess stood by with a small, light, wooden image of Diana, and if she 
observed that any boy was spared, she called out that the image of the goddess 
was so heavy, that she could not support it, and the blows were then redoubled. 
The men who were present exhorted their sons to fortitude, while the boys en- 
deavored to surpass each other in firmness. Whoever uttered the least cry 
during the scourging, which was so severe as sometimes to prove fatal, was 
considered as disgraced, while he who bore it without shrinking was crowned, 
and received the praises of the whole city. According to some, this usage was 
established by Lycurgus ; others refer it to the period of the battle of Platasae. 
To teach the youth cunning, vigilance and activity, they were encouraged, as 
has been already mentioned, to practice theft in certain cases ; but if detected, 
they were flogged, or obliged to go without food, or compelled to dance round 
an altar, singing songs in ridicule of themselves. The fear of the shame of 
being discovered sometimes led to the most extraordinary acts. Thus it is re- 
lated that a boy who had stolen a young fox, and concealed it under his clothes, 
suffered it to gnaw out his bowels, rather than reveal the theft, by suffering the 
fox to escape. Swimming was considered indispensable among them ; they 
had a proverb to intimate that a man was good for nothing, — He cannot swim. 
Modesty of deportment was particularly attended to ; and conciseness of lan- 
guage was much studied. The Spartans were the only people of Greece who 
despised learning, and excluded it from the education of youth. Their whole 
instrutions consisted in learning obedience to their superiors, the endurance of 
hardships, and to conquer or die in war. The youth were, however, carefully 
instructed in a knowledge of the laws, which, not being reduced to writing, 
were taught orally. The education of females was entirely different from that 
of the Athenians. Instead of remaining at home, as in Athens, spinning, &c, 
they danced in public, wrestled with each other, ran on the course, threw the 
discus, &c. This was not only done in public, but in a half-naked state. The 
object of this training of the women, was to give a vigorous constitution to 
the children.* 

From a valuable work on the manners and customs of ancient Greece, 
by a distinguished English author, to whom we have been indebted in our 
description of the Athenian slavery, we gather some interesting particulars 
relative to the Spartan Helots, f who, he says, were Greeks of the Achaian 
race, who fell together with the land into the power of the conquerors. He 
quotes the remark of Ephoros, that "they were, in a certain point of view, 

* See Mutter's History and Antiquities of the Doric race. 

t See Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London. 



42 SLAVES IN SPARTA. 

public slaves ; their possessor could neither liberate them, nor sell them beyond 
the borders." His inference is, that they were the property of individuals, but 
that the state reserved to itself the right of enfranchising them and preventing 
their emancipation, lest persons should be found, who would sell or give them 
their liberty when too old to labor. It is true there was an ancient law pro- 
hibiting the exportation of the Helots ; but we find that there was a regular 
trade carried on in females, who were exported into all the neighboring coun- 
tries for nurses. Thus it seems that the state exercised the power to convert 
its serfs into merchandize. It is stated that over the Helots, " not the state 
only, but even private individuals, possessed the power of life and death, as 
well as the right of beating and maiming them." 

As the Spartans possessed estates, which personally they never cultivated, 
the Helots were stationed throughout the country upon those estates, which 
it was their business to till for the owners. To live, it was of course necessary 
that they should eat, and therefore a portion of the produce was set aside for 
them, — one-half, according to Tyrtseos, — a division not over generous, since 
their numbers were five times greater than those of the Spartans. The learned 
historian Herodotus remarks upon this, "as the quantity had been definitively 
settled at a very early period, to raise the amount being forbidden under very 
heavy imprecations, the Helots were the persons who profited by a good, and 
lost by a bad harvest, which must have been to them an encouragement to in- 
dustry and good husbandry ; a motive which would have been wanting, if the 
profit and loss had merely affected the landlords." 

There appear to have been instances of Helots becoming comparatively 
wealthy in spite of the oppressions they endured ; as did the Jews of the mid- 
dle ages, notwithstanding the terrible robberies, persecutions and cruelties they 
were subject to. This fact proves that no pressure of hardship or ill-usage 
can entirely destroy the elasticity of the spirit : and no doubt the Helots, like 
all slaves, sought to soften their miseries by a gratification which the sense of 
property procures even in bondage. But of what value is property to a man 
who is himself the property of another ? It appears, however, according to 
Herodotus, that " by means of the rich produce of the land, and in part by 
plunder obtained in war, they collected a considerable property." 

But very little intercourse took place between the Spartans and Helots, at 
least in earlier times. Afterwards, when the masters quitted the capital, took 
to husbandry, and went to reside on their estates, the link must necessarily 
have been more closely drawn. Intercommunion begot more humane feel- 
ings in the master, and more attachment in the slave ; for the Spartans felt 
the influence of intimacy, as is proved by their enfranchising the slave com- 
panions of their childhood. A certain number of Helots were retained in 
the city as personal attendants, and these waited at the public tables, and were 
lent by one person to another. 

In the military service of the state, the Helots fought and bled by the side of 
their masters. The state was, no doubt, reluctant to admit them among the 



TI1E HELOTS. 43 

Hoplitse, or heavy armed, where the discipline was rigorous, and their weapons 
would have placed theui on a level with their oppressors. But even this 
was sometimes hazarded, as in the reinforcements forwarded to Gyleppus, at 
Syracuse, when six hundred Neodomades and picked Helots were compli- 
mented with this dangerous distinction. As light troops, however, they 
almost invariably formed the major part of the Lacedaemonian forces. In 
. other countries, where the subject races were treated more humanely, no fear 
was entertained at entrusting them with arms. Among the Dardanians, for 
example, where it was not uncommon for a private individual to possess a 
thousand slaves, they in time of peace cultivated the land, and in war, filled 
the ranks of the army. 

Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch, and a number of other writers, agree 
in convicting the Spartans of great barbarity towards their bondmen, differing, 
however, as to the degree of that barbarity. The following passage occurs in 
the work of Myron, of Priene, whose testimony, however, is rejected by 
Miiller : " The Helots perform for the Spartans every ignominious service. 
They are compelled to wear a cap of dog-skin, and a covering of sheep-skin ; 
and are severely beaten every year, without having committed any fault, in 
order that they might never forget that they are slaves. In addition to this, 
those amongst them who, either by their stature or their beauty, raise them- 
selves above the ordinary condition of a slave, are condemned to death, and 
the masters who do not destroy the most manly of them are liable to punish- 
ment." Plutarch relates that " the Helots were compelled to intoxicate them- 
selves, and perform indecent dances, as a warning to the Spartan youth." 
From other authors it appears that it was the constant policy of Sparta to 
demoralize the Helots. They were commanded to sing obscene songs, and 
dance indecent jigs, while the Pyrrhic dance, and every warlike lay were for- 
bidden them. It is related, that when the Thebans invaded Laconia and 
made prisoners a number of Helots, they commanded them to sing some of the 
songs of Sparta ; but the Helots professed their inability, observing that the 
acquisition of those lays was forbidden them. In shbrt, to adopt the words 
of Theopompos, they were at all times cruelly and bitterly treated. Critias 
observes, that, as the freemen of Sparta were of all men the most free, so 
were the serfs of Sparta of all slaves the most slavish. They were deluded, 
sometimes, from the protection of sanctuary by perjury, and then assassinated 
in contempt of oaths and religion. But all this harsh usage was mild, com- 
pared with other injuries which the laws of Sparta inflicted on them. We 
allude to the institution of the Crypteia. Isocrates describes this annual 
massacre of the Helots, and, with Aristotle, he attributes to the Ephori, 
magistrates, the direction of this servile war, in which the reins of slaughter 
were loosed or tightened by their authority. Plutarch says : 'According to 
this ordinance, the Crypteia, the rulers, selecting from among the youths those 
most distinguished for ability, sent them forth armed with daggers and furnish- 
ed with the necessary provisions to scour the country, separating and conceal- 



44 SLAVES TS SPARTA. 

ing themselves by day, in unfrequented places, but issuing out at night and 
slaughtering all such of the Helots as they found abroad. Sometimes, 
indeed, they fell upon them while engaged in the labors of the fields, and then 
cut off the best and bravest of the race." Flowing from the same policy, and 
designed to effect the same purpose, were those extensive massacres recorded 
in history, by one of which more than two thousand of those unhappy men, 
haviug been insidiously deluded into the assertion of sentiments conformable 
to the gallant actions they had performed in the service of the state, were 
removed in a day. Lulled by the gift of freedom, crowned with garlands, 
smiled upon, they were conducted to the temples, as if to implicate the very 
gods in the treachery, — and then they disappeared. Their fate was never 
revealed. 

Every year, on takiug office, the magistrates formally declared war against 
their unarmed and unhappy slaves, "that they might be massacred under pre- 
tence of law." It seems reasonable to believe that these oppressions kindled 
those bloody servile wars which Sparta could not qnench without foreign aid. 
The Spartans were, in fact, during many years, prevented from disputing with 
the Athenians the supremacy in Greece, by contests with their own vassals. 
On the occasion of the great earthquake, when nearly every house in Sparta 
was shaken to the ground, the Helots rejoiced at the calamity, and flocked to 
the environs of the city from the whole country around, in order to put an end 
to their tyrants as they were escaping in terror from their tottering habita- 
tions. 

It is known that the Helots were a constant source of terror to their mas- 
ters, — that whenever occasion offered, they revolted, — whenever an enemy to 
the state appeared, they joined him, — that they fled whenever flight was possi- 
ble, — and were so numerous and so bold, that Sparta was compelled, in her 
treaties with foreign states, to stipulate "for aid against her own subjects."* 

The Spartans appear to have possessed other slaves besides the oppressed 
Helots, with whom they have often been confounded. These were not viewed 
with equal dread, sine* they were brought together from various countries, 
and had no common bond of union. Many of this class were enfranchised, 
and rose to the rank of citizens. Another class of persons, commonly ranked 
among the Laconian slaves, were the Mothaces, whose origin, rauk and con- 
dition it is difficult to determine. Athenasus observes, that, although not 
Lacedaemonians, they were free. Miiller, alluding to this passage, says they 
are called free in reference to their future, not their past, condition. The 
words of Philarchos are : " The Mothaces were the brother-like companions 
of the Lacedaemonians. For every youthful citizen, according to his means, 
chose one, two, or more of these to be brought up with him ; and notwithstand- 
ing that they enjoyed not the rank of citizens, they were free, and participated 
in all the advantages of the national education. Lysander, who defeated the 

* Muller — Dorians, ii, 43. 



CRETAN SLAVES. 45 

Athenians at sea, was one of this class, and was raised for his valor to the 
rank of citizen." Lycurgus laid much less stress oil birth and blood, than on 
that steadiness and patience of toil, which are the first qualities of a soldier. 
Whoever from childhood upward gave proof of these, by submitting without 
a murmur to the rigorous trial he enjoined on the youth of Sparta, wa3 
elevated in the end to the rank of a citizen ; while they who shrunk from 
the severity of his discipline, even though they had descended from royal blood, 
sunk into a state of degradation, or were even confounded with the Helots. 

The Thessalians denominated Penestaa, not those who were born in servi- 
tude, but persons who were made captives in war. In Crete, the servile caste 
was divided into many classes : first, those of the cities, who were " bought 
with gold," as their name implied, and were doubtless barbarians; second, 
those of the country, who were bound to the estates of the landed gentry ; 
these were the aboriginal tribes reduced to servitude by their foreign conquer- 
ors. In condition they resembled the Helots. Thirdly, there existed in every 
state in Crete, a class of public bondsmen, who cultivated the public lands, 
upon what conditions is not exactly known. They were sufficiently numerous 
and powerful to inspire their masters with dread, as is evident by the regula- 
tion which excluded them from the gymnasia, and prohibited the use of arms. 

In the city of Cydonia during certain festivals of Hermes, the slaves were 
left masters of the place, into which no free citizen had permission to enter ; 
and if he infringed this regulation, they had the power to chastise him with 
whips. In other parts of Crete, customs similar to those of the Roman 
Saturnalia prevailed; for, while the slaves in the Herrnsean festival were 
carousing and taking their ease, their lords, in the guise of domestics, waited 
upon them at table, and performed in their stead all other menial offices. Some- 
thing of the same kind took place during the month Gercestion, at Trcezen, 
where the citizens feasted their slaves on one particular day of the great annual 
festival, and played at dice with them. Among the Babylonians we find a similar 
custom ; for, during the Sacasan festival, which lasted five days, the masters waited 
on their slaves, one of whom, habited in a royal robe, enacted the part of king. 

It is stated that the condition and treatment of the Cretan serfs, were better 
than in any other Doric state ; and that the Perioeci of Crete never revolted 
against their masters. 

The serfs of the Syracusans were so exceedingly numerous that their num- 
oers became a proverb. They would seem to have dwelt chiefly in the country. 
[n process of time their multitude inspired them with courage ; they assaulted 
and drove out their masters, and retained possession of Syracuse. 

Respecting the servile classes in other Grecian states, our information is 
scanty. The corresponding class among the Arcadians is said to have amounted 
to three hundred thousand in number. Their treatment was probably more 
lenient than in some other parts of Greece, as at public festivals we find them 
sitting at the same table, eating the same food, and drinking from the same 
cup with their masters. 



46 SLAVERY IN ROME. 

CHAPTER IV. 
Slavery in Rome. 

Slavery under the kings and in the early ages of the Republic. — Its spread, and effect on 
the poorer class of Freemen. — The Licinian law. — Prevalence of the two extremes, im- 
mense wealth and abject poverty. — Immense number of Slaves in Sicily. — They revolt. 
— Eunus, their leader. — Their arms. — llorrible atrocities committed by them. — The in- 
surrection crushed. — Fate of Eunus. — Increase of Slaves in Rome. — Their employment 
in the arts. — Numbers trained for the Amphitheatre. — The Gladiators rebel. — Sparta- 
cus, his history. — Laws passed to restrain the cruelty of masters. — Effects of Christi- 
anity on their condition. — Their numbers increased by the invasion of northern hordes. 
— Sale of prisoners of war into slavery. — Slave-dealers follow the armies. — Foreign 
Slave trade. — Slave auctions. — The Slave markets. — Value of Slaves at different peri- 
ods. — Slaves owned by the State, and their condition and occupations. — Private Slaves, 
their grades and occupations. — Treatment of Slaves, public and private. — Punishment 
of offenses. — Fugitives and Criminals. — Festival of Saturnus, their privileges. — Their 
dress. — Their sepulchres. — The Gladiators, their combats. 



s 



LAVES existed at Rome in the earliest times of which we have any re- 
cord ; but they do not appear to have been numerous under the kings and in 
the earliest ages of the Republic. The different trades and the mechanic arts 
were chiefly carried on by the clients of the patricians ; and the small farms 
in the country were cultivated for the most part by the labors of the proprie- 
tor and of his family. But as the territories of the Roman state were extended, 
the patricians obtained possession of large estates out of the public domain ; 
since it was a practice of the Romans to deprive a conquered people of a part 
of their lands. These estates required a larger number of hands for their cul- 
tivation than could readily be obtained among the free population, and since 
the freemen were constantly liable to be called away from their work to serve 
in the armies, the lands began to be cultivated almost entirely by slave labor. 
Through war and commerce, slaves could be obtained easily, and at a cheap 
rate, and their numbers soon became so great, that the poorer class of freemen 
was thrown almost entirely out of employment. This state of things was one 
of the chief arguments used by Licinius and the Gracchi for limiting the quan- 
tity of public land which a person might possess. In the Licinian Rogations 
there was a provision that a certain number of freemen should be employed on 
every estate. This regulation, however, was of little avail, as the lands still 
continued to be cultivated almost exclusively by slaves. The elder Gracchus, 
in traveling through Italy, was led to observe the evils which slavery inflicted 
upon the provinces of his country. The great body of the people were im- 
poverished. Instead of little farms studding the country with their pleasant 
aspect, and nursing an independent race, he beheld nearly all the hinds of 
Italy monopolized by large proprietors ; and the plow was in the hands of 
slaves. This was one hundred and thirty-four years before the Christian era. 
The palaces of the wealthy towered in solitary grandeur : the freemen hid 
themselves in miserable hovels. Deprived of the dignity of proprietors, they 



SLAVERY m ROME. 47 

were compelled to labor in competition with slaves Excepting with the im- 
mensely rich, and the feeble and decreasing class of independent husbandmen, 
poverty was extreme. This state of things existed at a time when Rome was 
considered mistress of the world, and the rulers of Egypt had exalted the Ro- 
mans above the immortal gods. 

In the latest times of the republic, we find that Julius Csesar attempted a 
remedy, to some extent, by enacting that of those persons who attended to cat- 
tle, a third, at least, should be freemen. In Sicily, which supplied Rome with 
so great a quantity of corn, the number of agricultural slaves was immense. 
The oppressions to which they were exposed, drove them twice to rebellion, 
and their numbers enabled them to defy, for a time, the Roman power. The 
first of these servile wars began in B. C. 134, and lasted two years ; the second 
commenced thirty years later, and lasted four years. The Sicilians treated 
their slaves with extraordinary rigor, branding them like cattle, and compell- 
ing them to toil incessantly for their masters. The history of the revolt offers 
numerous points of resemblance to that of Chios, already related ; though Eu- 
nus, the leader of the Sicilian slaves, cannot be compared with Drimacos, 
either for character or abilities Eunus, by visions and pretended prophecies, 
excited the slaves to insurrection ; and his conduct, and that of his followers, 
when they took possession of the city of Euna, presented a striking contrast 
to the moderation of the Chian slaves. They pillaged the houses, and, with- 
out distinction of age or sex, slaughtered the inhabitants, plucking infants from 
their mother's breasts, and dashing them on the ground. The number of the 
insurgents at one time amounted to 60,000 men, who, armed with axes, slings, 
stakes, and cooking spits, defeated several armies. Pursuing them, however, 
ivithout relaxation, the state at length prevailed, utterly crushed the insurrec- 
tion, and carried Eunus a prisoner to Rome, where, according to Plutarch, he 
was devoured by vermin. 

Long after it had become the custom to employ large gangs of slaves in the 
cultivation of the laud, the number of those who served as personal attendants 
was very small. Persons in good circumstances seem usually to have had only 
on£ to wait upon them, who was generally called by the name of the master. 
But during the latter times of the republic and under the empire, the number 
of domestic slaves greatly increased, and in every family of importance there 
were separate slaves to attend to all the duties of domestic life. It was con- 
sidered a reproach to a man not to keep a considerable number of slaves. The 
first question asked respecting a person's fortune, was an inquiry as to the num- 
ber of his slaves. Horace seems to speak of ten slaves as the lowest number 
which a person in tolerable circumstances ought to keep. The immense num- 
ber of prisoners taken in the constant wars of the republic, and the increase of 
wealth and luxury, augmented the number of slaves to a prodigious extent. 
The statement of Athenaeus that very many Romans possessed 10,000 and 
20,000 slaves, and even more, is probably an exaggeration ; but a freedman 
under Augustus, who had lost much property in the civil wars, left at his death 



4fe SLAVERY IN ROME. 

as many as 4,116.* Two hundred was no uncommon number for a person to 
keep.f 

The mechanic arts, which were formerly in the hands of the clients, were 
now entirely exercised by slaves : J a natural growth of things, for where slaves 
perform certain labors, such labor will be thought degrading to freemen. The 
games of the amphitheatre required an immense number of slaves trained for 
the purpose. Like the slaves in Sicily, the Gladiators of Italy rose in rebel- 
lion against their oppressors, || and under the able generalship of Spartacus, 
defeated a Roman consular army, and were not subdued until after a struggle 
of two years, and when 60,000 of them had fallen in battle. 

Spartacus was a Thracian by birth, and had been compelled, like other bar- 
barians, to serve in the Roniau army, from which he had deserted, and, at the 
head of a body of chosen companions, had carried on a partisan war against 
the conquerors. Being made prisoner, Spartacus was sold as a slave ; and his 
strength and size caused him to be reserved as a gladiator. He was placed in 
a gladiatorial school at Capua, with two hundred other Thracian, German and 
Gaulish slaves, among whom a conspiracy was formed for effecting their escape. 
Their plot was discovered ; but a small body, under Spartacus, broke out, and, 
having procured arms, and gained some advantages over the Roman forces 
sent against them, they were soon joined by the slaves and peasantry of the 
neighborhood, and their numbers amounted to 10,000 men. By the courage and 
skill of Spartacus, several considerable battles were gained ; but his authority 
was insufficient to restrain the ferocity and licentiousness of his followers, and 
the cities of the south of Italy were pillaged with the most revolting atroci- 
ties. In a few months, Spartacus found himself at the head of 60,000 men ; 
and the consuls were now sent, with two legions, against the revolted slaves. 
Mutual jealousies divided the leaders of the latter, and the Gauls and Ger- 
mans formed a separate body under their own leaders, while the Thracians and 
Lucanians adhered to Spartacus. The former were defeated ; but Spartacus 
skillfully covered their retreat, and successively defeated the two consuls. 
Flushed with success, his followers demanded to be led against Rome; and 
the city trembled before the servile forces. In this crisis, Licinius Cfias- 
sus, who was afterwards a triumvir, was placed at the head of the army. His 
lieutenant, Mummius, whom he dispatched with two legions to watch the mo- 
tions of the enemy, was defeated by a superior force, and slain. Crassus, after 
having made an example of the defeated legions, by executing every tenth 
man, surrounded Spartacus, near Rhegium, with a ditch six miles in length. 
Spartacus broke through the enemy by night ; but Crassus, who did not doubt 
that he would march upon Rome, pursued him, and defeated a considerable 
part of his forces, who had abandoned their general from disaffection. Spar- 
tacus now retreated ; but his followers compelled him to lead them against the 



* Pliny, t Horace, t Cioero. || B. C. 73 years. 



SLAVERY Ln t ROME. 49 

Romans. His soldier? fought with a courage deserving- success ; but they were 
overcome, after an obstinate conflict, and Spartacus himself fell fighting on his 
knees, upon a heap of his slain enemies. According to the Roman statements, 
60,000 rebels fell in this battle, 6000 were made prisoners, and crucified on the 
Appian way. A considerable number escaped, and continued the war, but 
were finally destroyed by Pompey. 

Under the empire various enactments were made to restrain the cruelty of 
masters towards their slaves ; but the spread of Christianity tended most t. 
ameliorate their condition, though the possession of them was for a long time 
by no means condemned as contrary to Christian justice. The Christian writers, _ 
however, inculcate the duty of acting towards them as we would be acted by ; 
but down to the age of Theodosius, wealthy persons still continued to keep as 
many as two or three thousand.* Justinian did much to promote the ultimate 
extinction of slavery ; but the number of slaves was again increased by the 
invasion of the northern barbarians, who not only brought with them their 
own slaves, who were chiefly Sclavonians, but also reduced many of the inhab- 
itants of the conquered provinces to the condition of slaves. But all the 
various classes of slaves became merged in the course of time into the serfs 
of the Middle Ages. 

The sources from which the Romans obtained slaves, have already been 
noticed. Under the republic one of the chief supplies was prisoners taken in 
war, who were sold by the quajstorsf with a crown on their heads, and 
usually on the spot where they were taken, as the care of a large number of 
captives was inconvenient. Consequently, slave-dealers generally accompanied 
an army, and frequently after a great battle had been gained, many thousands 
were sold at once, when the slave-dealers obtained them for a mere trifle. In 
the camp of Lucullus on one occasion, slaves were sold for a sum equal to 
about eighty cents of our money. 

The slave trade was also carried on to a great extent, and after the fall of 
Corinth and Carthage, Delos was the chief mart for this traffic. When the 
Cilician pirates had possession of the Mediterranean, as many as 10,000 slaves 
are said to have been imported and sold there in one day. J A large number 
came from Thrace and the countries in the north of Europe, but the chief sup- 
ply was from Africa, and more especially Asia, whence we read of Phyrgians, 
Lycians, Cappadocians, &c, as slaves. 

The trade of slave-dealers was considered disreputable, and expressly dis- 
tinguished from that of merchants; but it was very lucrative, and great fortunes 
were made by it. The slave-dealer Thoranius, who lived in the time of Augus- 
tus, was a well-known character 

Slaves were usually sold by auction at Rome ; and, as we have observed of 
the Greek auctions, they were conducted very much like those of our southern 
cities. They were placed on a raised stone, or table, so that every one might 

♦Chrysost. vol. vii, 633. fKaut. JStrab. xiv, 668. 
4 



50 SLAVERY IK KOME. 

see and handle them, even if they did not wish to purchase them. Purchasers 
took care to have them stripped, for slave-dealers had recourse to as many 
tricks to conceal personal defects, as a horse-jockey of modern times. Some- 
times purchasers called in the advice of medical men. Slaves of great beauty 
and rarity were not exhibited to public gaze in the slave market, but were 
shown to purchasers in private. Newly imported slaves had their feet whitened 
with paint;* and those that came from the East had their ears bored, t 
which was a sign of slavery among many eastern nations. 

The slave market, like all other markets, was under the jurisdiction of the 
aediles, who made many regulations, by edicts, respecting the sale of slaves. 
The character of the slave to be sold, was set forth on a scroll, hanging around 
his neck, which was a warranty to the purchaser ; the vendor was bound to 
announce fairly all his defects, and if he gave a false account, had to take him 
back, any time within six months after he was sold, or make up to the pur- 
chaser what the latter had lost by obtaining an inferior article to what had 
been warranted. The vendor might, however, use general terms of commen- 
dation without being obliged to make them good. The chief points which he 
had to warrant was the health of the slave, especially freedom from epilepsy, 
and that he had not a tendency to thieving, running away, or committing sui- 
cide. The nation of a slave was considered important, and had to be set forth 
by the vendor. Slaves sold without any warranty, wore at the time a cap 
upon their head. Slaves newly imported were generally preferred for common 
work ; those who had served long were considered artful. 

The value of slaves depended of course upon their qualifications ; but under 
the empire, the increase of luxury, and the corruption of morals, led purchasers 
to pay immense sums for beautiful slaves, or such as ministered to the caprice 
or whim of the purchaser. Martial speaks of beautiful boys who sold for as 
much as 100,000 or 200,000 sesterces each; that is, from 4,000 to 8,000 dol- 
lars. A morio, or fool, sometimes sold for 20,000 sesterces. Slaves who 
possessed a knowledge of any art which might bring in profit to their owners, 
also sold for a large sum. Thus scribes and doctors frequently sold high, and 
also slaves fitted for the stage, as we see from Cicero's speech in behalf of 
Roscius. A class of female slaves, who brought in gain to their masters, were 
also dear. The price of a good ordinary slave, in the time of Horace, was 
about equal to ninety dollars of our money. In the fourth century, a slave, 
capable of bearing arms, was valued at 25 aurei, (equal in weight to $125 in 
gold.) In the time of Justinian, the legal valuation of slaves was as follows: 
common slaves, both male and female, were valued at 20 solidi, (about $100,) 
under ten years of age, half that sum ; if they were artificers, they were worth 
fifty per cent, more ; if notarii, (short hand writers), they were worth 50 solidi; 
if medical men or midwives, 60. Female slaves, unless possessed of personal 
attractions, were generally cheaper than males. Under the republic, and in 

* Pliny. t Juvenal. 



SLAVERY IX ROME. 01 

the early days of the empire, it was found cheaper to purchase than to breed 
slaves. 

Slaves were divided into many various classes : the first division was into 
pulilic and private. The former belonged to the state and public bodies, and 
their condition was preferable to that of the common slaves. They were less 
liable to be sold, and under less control than ordinary slaves. They also 
possessed the capacity to make a valid will, to the extent of one-half of their 
property, which shows they were regarded in a different light from other slavi 
Scipio, therefore, on the taking of Nova Carthage, promised 2000 artisans, 
who were taken prisoners, and were consequently liable to be sold as common 
slaves, that they should become public slaves of the Roman people, with the 
nope of speedy manumission, if they assisted him in the war.* Public slaves 
were employed to take care of the public buildings, and to attend upon magis- 
trates and priests. Thus the ffidiles and qusestors had great numbers of public 
slaves at their command, as had also the triumviri nocturni, who employed 
them to extinguish fires by night. They were also employed as lictors, jailors, 
executioners, watermen, &c. 

A body of slaves belonging to one person was called familia. Private 
slaves were divided into urban and rustic ; but the name of urban was given 
to those slaves who served in the villa, or country residence, as well as in the 
town house. When there was a large number of slaves in one house, they 
were arranged in certain classes, which held a higher or lower rank according 
to the nature of their occupation. 

The ordinarii seem to have been those slaves who had the superintendence 
of house-keeping. They were always chosen from those who had the confi- 
dence of their masters, and they generally had certain slaves under them. 
They were the stewards and butlers. The vulgares included the great body of 
slaves in a house who had to attend to any particular duty, and to minister to 
the domestic wants of their master. These were the bakers, cooks, confec- 
tioners, porters, bed-chamber slaves and litter bearers. The literati, or lite- 
rary slaves, were used for various purposes by their masters, either as readers, 
copyists or amanuenses. 

The treatment of slaves varied of course according to the dispositions of 
their masters ; but they appear upon the whole to have been treated with 
greater severity and cruelty than among the Athenians. Originally, the mas- 
ter could use the slave as he pleased : under the republic, the law does not 
seem to have protected the person or life of the slave at all ; but the cruelty 
of masters was to some extent restrained under the empire. The general 
treatment of slaves, however, was probably little affected by legislative enact- 
ments. In early times, when the number of slaves was small, they were 
treated with more indulgence, and more like members of the family. They 



*Livy, xxvi, 47. 



52 SLAVERY IN ROME. 

joined their masters in offering up thanksgivings and prayer to the gods,* 
and partook of their meals in common with their masters,! though not at the 
same table with them, but upon benches placed at the. foot of the couch. But 
with the increase of numbers, and of luxury among the masters, the ancient 
simplicity of manners was changed. A certain quantity of food was allowed 
them, which was granted either monthly or daily. Their chief food was the 
grain called far, of which the allowance was about one quart per day. They 
also had an allowance of salt and oil. Meat seems to have been hardly ever 
given them. 

Under the republic, they were not allowed to serve in the army ; though 
after the battle of Cans, when the state was in such imminent danger, 8000 
slaves were purchased by the state for the army, and subsequently manumitted 
on account of their bravery. J 

The offenses of slaves were punished with severity, and frequently with the 
utmost barbarity. One of the mildest punishments was that of degrading 
them in rank, and obliging them to work in fetters. They were frequently 
beaten with sticks or scourged with the whip; but these were such every-day 
punishments that many slaves ceased to care for them. 

Runaway slaves (fugitivi) and thieves were branded on the forehead with 
a mark. Slaves were also punished by being hung up by their hands, with 
weights attached to their feet, or by being sent to the ergastulum, or private 
prison, to work in chains. The toilet of the Roman ladies was a dreadful 
ordeal to the female slaves, who were often barbarously punished by their mis- 
tresses for the slightest mistake in the arrangement of the hair or a part of the 
dress. Masters might work their slaves as many hours in the day as they 
pleased, but they usually allowed them holidays on the public festivals. At 
the festival of Saturnus, in particular, special indulgences were granted to all 
slaves. This festival fell towards the end of December, at the season when 
the agricultural labors of the year were fully completed. It was celebrated 
in ancient times by the rustic population as a sort of joyous harvest home, and 
in every age was viewed by all classes of the community as a period of absolute 
relaxation and unrestrained merriment. During its continuance no public 
business could be transacted ; the law courts were closed ; the schools kept 
holiday ; to commence a war was impious ; to punish a malefactor involved 
pollution. Special indulgences were granted to the slaves of each domestic 
establishment ; they were relieved from all ordinary toils, were permitted to 
wear the badge of freedom, were granted full freedom of speech, partook of a 
banquet attired in the clothes of their masters, who waited upon them at 
table. || 

There was no distinctive dress for slaves. It was once proposed in the Sen- 
ate to give slaves a distinctive costume, but it was rejected, as it was considered 

* Horace. f Plutarch. t Livy, xxii, 57 ; xxiv 14, 16. 

H Macrob.: Dion Cass.: Horace: Martial. 



SLAVERY IN ROME. 53 

dangerous to show them their numbers. Male slaves were not allowed to wear 
the toga or bulla, nor females the stola, but otherwise they were dressed nearly 
in the same way as poor people, in clothes of a dark color and slippers. 

Gibbon estimates the population of the Roman empire in the time of Clau- 
dius at one hundred and twenty millions : sixty millions of freemen and sixty 
millions of slaves. The proportion of slaves was much larger in Italy than in 
the provinces, according to Milman. . Robertson states that there were twice 
as many slaves as free citizens, and Blair estimates three slaves to one freeman, 
between the conquest of Greece, B. C. 146, and the reign of Alexander Severus, 
A. D. 222, 235. Milman is inclined to " adopt the more cautious suggestions 
of Gibbon." 

As the Romans regarded slavery as an institution of society, death was con- 
sidered to put an end to the distinction between slaves and freemen. Slaves 
were sometimes even buried with their masters, and we find funeral inscriptions 
addressed to the Dii Manes of slaves. In 1T26 the burial vaults of the slaves 
belonging to Augustus and Livia were discovered near the Appian Way, where 
numerous inscriptions were found, which give us considerable information re- 
specting the different classes of slaves and their various occupations. Other 
sepulchres of the same time have been discovered in the neighborhood of 
Rome. 

We have already referred to the immense number of slaves trained for gladi- 
ators. A more particular description of this class will be interesting to the 
general reader, and will serve to elucidate the manners, customs and morals of 
their masters. The gladiators, however, were not all slaves. The term is 
applied to the combatants who fought in the amphitheatre and other places, 
for the amusement of the Roman people. They are said to have been first 
exhibited by the Etruscans, and to have had their origin in the custom of kill- 
ing slaves and captives at the funeral pyres of the deceased. A show of glad- 
iators was Called munus, and the person who exhibited it, editor, or munerator, 
who was honored during the day of exhibition, if a private person, with the 
insignia of a magistrate. 

Gladiators were first exhibited at Rome in B. C. 264, in the Forum Boariuni, 
by Marcus and Decimus Brutus, at the funeral of their father. They were at 
first confined to public funerals, but afterwards fought at the funerals of most 
persons of consecpience, and even at those of women. Private persons some- 
times left a sum of money in their will to pay the expenses of such an exhibition 
at their funerals. Combats of gladiators were also exhibited at entertainments, 
and especially at public festivals by the asdiles and other magistrates, who 
sometimes exhibited immense numbers with a view of pleasing the people. 
Under the empire the passions of the Romans for this amusement rose to its 
greatest height, and the number of gladiators who fought on some occasions 
appears almost incredible. After Trajan's triumph over the Dacians, there were 
more than 10,000 exhibited.'* 

* Dion Cass. lsviii,15. 



54 SLAVERY IN ROME. 

Gladiators consisted either of captives, slaves and condemned malefactors, 
or of free born citizens who fought voluntarily. Of those who were condemned, 
some were said to be condemned ad gladium, in which case they were obliged 
to be killed within a year , and others ad ludum, who might obtain their dis- 
charge at the end of three years. Freemen, who became gladiators for hire, 
were called auctorati. Even under the republic, free born citizens fought as 
gladiators, but they appear to have belonged only to the lower orders. Under 
the empire, however, both equites and senators fought in the arena ; and even 
women, which was at length forbidden in the time of Severus. Gladiators 
were kept in schools, where they were trained by persons called lanistce. . They 
sometimes were the property of the lanista?, who let them out to persons who 
wished to exhibit a show of gladiators ; but at other times belonged to citi- 
zens, who kept them for the purpose of exhibition, and engaged lanistae to 
instruct them. The superintendence of the schools which belonged to the 
emperors, was intrusted to a person of high rank, called curator or procurator. 
The gladiators fought in these schools with wooden swords. Great attention 
was paid to their diet, in order to increase the strength of their bodies. They 
were fed with nourishing food ; and a great number were trained at Ravenna 
on account of the salubrity of the place. 

The person who was to exhibit a show of gladiators, published bills contain- 
ing the numbers and sometimes the names of those who were to fight. When 
the day came, they were led along the arena in procession, and matched by 
pairs; and their swords were examined by the exhibitor to see if they were 
sufficiently sharp. At first there was a kind of sham battle, called prelusio, 
in which they fought with wooden swords ; and afterwards, at the sound of the 
trumpet, the real battle began. When a gladiator was wounded, the people 
called out habet, or hoc habet; and the one who was vanquished, lowered his 
arms in token of submission. His fate, however, depended upon the audience, 
who pressed down their thumbs if they wished him to be saved, and turned them 
up if they wished him to be killed, and ordered him to receive the fatal sword, 
which they usually did with the greatest firmness. If the life of a vanquished 
gladiator was spared, he obtained his discharge for that day. In some exhibi- 
tions, the lives of the conquered were never spared ; but this kind was forbid- 
den by Augustus. 

Palms were given to the victorious ; money was also sometimes given. Old 
gladiators, and sometimes those who had fought only for a short time, were dis- 
charged from the service by the editor at the request of the people, who pre- 
sented each of them with a wooden sword. If a person was free before he 
entered the school, he became free again on his discharge ; if he was a slave, 
he became a slave again. A man, however, who had voluntarily become a gla- 
diator, was always considered to have disgraced himself; aud consequently it 
appears he could not attain the equestrian ranks, if he afterwards acquired 
sufficient property to entitle him to it. 

Shows of gladiators were abolished by Constantine, but appear, notwith- 



SLAVERY IN ROME. 55 

standing, to Lave been generally exhibited until the time of Honorius, by whom 
they were finally suppressed. 

Gladiators were divided into different classes, according to their arms and 
different mode of fighting, and other circumstances. One class wore helmets 
without any aperture for the eyes, so that they were obliged to fight blindfold, 
and thus excited the mirth of the spectators ; another class fought with two 
swords ; another on horseback ; another from chariots, like the Gauls and Brit- 
ons. The laqueators used a noose to catch their adversaries. The uieridiani 
fought in the middle of the day, after # the combats with the wild beasts in 
the morning. The retiarii canned only a three-pointed lance, and a net, which 
they endeavored to throw over their adversaries, and then attack them with the 
trident while they were entangled. If he missed his aim in throwing the net, 
he fled and endeavored to prepare his net for another cast, while his adversary 
followed him round the arena in order to kill him before he could make a sec- 
ond attempt. The Thraces were armed with a round shield, and a short sword 
or dagger. When a gladiator was killed, the attendants, appointed for the 
purpose, dragged the body out of the arena with iron hooks. 



CHAPTER V. 

Slavery in Rome. — Continued. 



Abstract of the laws in regard to Slavery. — Power of Life and Death. — Cruelty of Mas- 
ters. — Laws to protect the Slave. — Constitution of Antoninus : of Claudius. — Husband 
and Wife could not be separated ; nor parents and children. — Slave could not contract 
marriage, nor own property. — His peculium, or private property, held only by usage. 
— Regulations in respect to it. — Master liable for damages for wrongful acts of his Slave. 
— The murderer of a slave, liable for a capital offense, or for damages. — Fugitive Slaves, 
not lawfully harbored ; to conceal them, theft. — Master entitled to pursue them. — Du- 
ties of the authorities. — Slave hunters. — Laws defining the condition of children born 
of Slaves. — Laws to reduce free persons to Slavery. — How the state of Slavery might 
be terminated; by manumission ; by special enactments; what Slaves entitled to free- 
dom. — Practice of giving liberty to Slaves ill times of civil tumult and revolution. — 
Effects of Slavery under the Republic, and under the Empire. 



w. 



E now proceed to give an abstract of the laws in regard to Slavery. Ac- 
cording to the strict principles of the Roman law, it was a consequence of the 
relation of master and slave, that the master could treat the slave as he pleased ; 
he could sell him, punish him, or put him to death. Positive morality, however, 
and the social intercourse that must always subsist between a master and the 
slaves who are immediately about him, ameliorated the condition of slavery. 
Still, we read of acts of great cruelty committed by masters in the later re- 
publican and earlier imperial periods, and the Lex Petrouia was enacted in 
order to protect the slave. The original power of life and death over a slave, 



56 SLAVERV IN ROME. 

was limited by a constitution of Antoninus, which enacted, that, if a man put 
his slave to death without sufficient reason, he was liable to the same penalty 
as if he had killed another man's slave. The same constitution also prohibited 
the cruel treatment of slaves by their masters, by enacting that, if the cruelty of 
the master was intolerable, he might be compelled to sell the slave ; and the 
slave was empowered to make his complaint to the proper authority. A con- 
stitution of Claudius enacted, that if a man exposed his slaves, who were 
infirm, they should become free ; and the constitution also declared, that if 
they were put to death, the act should be murder. It was also enacted, that 
in sales or division of property, slaves, such as husband and wife, parents and 
children, brothers and sisters, should not be separated.* 

A slave could not contract a marriage, and no legal relation between a 
father and his children was recognized. Still nearness of blood was considered 
an impediment to marriage after manumission : thus, a manumitted slave could 
not marry his manumitted sister. 

A slave could have no property. He was not incapable of acquiring pro- 
perty, but his acquisitions belonged to his master ; which Gaius considers to 
be a rule of the Jus Gentium, that is, " the law which natural reason' has es- 
tablished among all mankind." Slaves were not only employed in the usual 
domestic offices and in the labors of the field, but also as factors or agents for 
their masters in the management of. business, and as mechanics, artisans, and 
in every branch of industry. It may be easily conceived, that under these cir- 
cumstances, especially as they were often intrusted with property to a large 
amount, there must have arisen a practice of allowing the slave to consider 
a part of his gains as his own. This was his "peculium; " according to strict 
law, this was the property of the master, but according to usage, it was con- 
sidered the property of the slave. Sometimes it was agreed between master 
and slave, that the slave should purchase his freedom with his peculium, when 
it amounted to a certain sum. If a slave was manumitted by the owner in his 
life-time, the peculium was considered to be given with the liberty, unless it 
was expressly retained. Transactions of borrowing and lending could take 
place between the master and slave with respect to the peculium, though no 
right of action arose on either side out of such dealings. In case of the claim 
of creditors on the slave's peculium, the debt of the slave to the master was 
first taken into the account, and deducted from the peculium. The master was 
only bound by the acts and dealings of the slave, when the slave was employed 
as his agent or instrument. 

It is a consequence of the relation of slave and master, that the master 
acquired no rights against the slave in consequence of his wrongful acts. 
Other persons might obtain rights against a slave in consequence of his crimes, 
but their right could not be prosecuted by action until the slave was manumit- 



*Cod., 3, title 38, s. 11. 



SLAVERY IN ROME. 57 

ted. They had, however, a right of action against the slave's master for dam- 
ages, and if the master would not pay the damages, he must give up the slave. 
The slave was protected against injury from other persons. If the slave was 
killed, the master might either prosecute the killer for a capital offense, or sue 
for damages. The master had an action against those who corrupted his slave, 
and led him into bad practices, and could recover twice the amount of the es- 
timated damage. The female slaves were protected by the master's right of 
action. 

A fugitive slave could not lawfully be received or harbored ; to conceal him 
was theft. The master was entitled to pursue him wherever he pleased ; and 
it was the duty of all authorities to give him aid in recovering his slave. It 
was the object of various laws to check the running away of slaves in every 
way, and, accordingly, a runaway slave could not legally be an object of sale. 
A class of persons made it a business to capture fugitive slaves. The rights 
of the master over the slave were in no way affected by his running away. 

A person was born a slave whose mother was a slave at the time of his 
birth. At a later period the rule of law was established, that though a woman 
at the time of the birth might be a slave, still her child was free, if the mother 
had been free at any time within the nine months preceding the birth. In 
the cases of children whc*were the offspring of a free parent and a slave, 
positive law provided whether the children should be free or slaves. 

A person became a slave by capture in war, (also jure gentium.) Captives 
were sold, as belonging to the public treasury, or distributed among the sol- 
diers by lot. A free person might become a slave in various ways, in conse- 
quence of positive law, (jure civili). This was the case with those who 
refused or neglected to be registered in the census, and those who evaded 
military service. In certain cases a man became a slave, if he allowed himself 
to be sold as such in order to defraud the purchaser. 

Under the empire the rule was established, that persons condemned to 
death, to the mines, and to fight with wild beasts, lost their freedom, and their 
property was confiscated. But this was not the earlier law. A freedman who 
misconducted himself towards his patron, was reduced to his former state of 
slavery. 

The state of slavery was terminated by manumission. It was also termi- 
nated by various positive enactments, either by way of reward to the slave or 
punishment to the master. Freedom was given to slaves who discovered the 
perpetrators of certain crimes. After the establishment of Christianity, liberty 
might be acquired, subject to certain limitations, by becoming a monk or a 
spiritual person ; but if the person left his monastery for a secular life, or 
rambled about in the towns or the country, he might be reduced to his former 
servile condition. 

In times of revolution under the republic, it was not unusual to proclaim the 
liberty of slaves to induce them to join in revolt ; but these were irregular 
proceedings, and neither justifiable nor examples for imitation. Lord Dnn- 



58 SLAVERY IN ROME. 

more, the last British governor of Virginia, at the commencement of the 
American Revolution, followed this example. 

We have now exhibited to the reader the principal features of slavery in 
Rome. We have seen the origin, numbers and condition of the slaves, their 
treatment, and the laws that governed them. We have seen the general prev- 
alence of the institution, but not its effects upon the Romans themselves, and 
upon many of the prominent events of their history. To such as may feel in- 
terested in this branch of the subject, we present the views of an able writer 
upon the Influence of Slavery on the Revolutions in Rome. We have already 
referred to the condition of the poorer class of freemen in the time of the elder 
Gracchus. The writer proceeds : 

' Gracchus found the inhabitants of the Roman State divided into three classes. The 
few wealthy nobles ; the many indigent citizens ; the still more numerous class of slaves. 
Reasoning upon the subject, he perceived that it was slavery which crowded the poor 
freeman out of employment, and barred the way to his advancement. It was the aim 
of Gracchus, not so much to mend the condition of the slaves, as to lift the brood of idle 
persons into dignity ; to give them land, to put the plow into their hands, to make them 
industrious and useful, and so to repose on them the liberties of the State. He resolved 
to increase the number of landed proprietors ; to create a Roman yeomanry. This was 
the basis of his radical reform ; the means were at hand. The lands of Italy were of two 
classes ; private estates and the public domain. With private estates he refused to inter- 
fere. The public domains, even though they had been usurped by the patricians, were to 
be reclaimed as public property, and to be appropriated to the use of the people, under 
restrictions which should prevent their future concentration in the hands of the few. 
To effect this object required no new order ; the proper decree was already engraved 
among the tablets of the Roman laws. It was necessary only to revive the law of 
Licinius, which had slumbered for two centuries unrepealed. 

In a republic, he that will execute great designs, must act with an organized party. 
Gracchus took counsel with the purest men of Rome ; with Appius Claudius, his fatner 
in-law, a patrician of the purest blood ; with the great lawyer, Mutiv 3 Scsevola, a man 
of consular dignity, and with Crassus, the leader of the priesthood ; men ol the best 
learning and character, of unimpeachable patriotism, and friends to the new reform. 
But his supporters at the polls could be none other than the common people, composed 
of the impoverished citizens, and the very few husbandmen who had still saved some 
scanty acres from the grasp of the aristocracy. 

The people rallied to the support of their champion ; and Gracchus, being elected 
their tribune, was able to bring forward his Agrarian Law. This law, relating only to the 
public domain, was distinguished by mitigating clauses. To each of those who had 
occupied the land without a right, it generously left five hundred acres ; to each of 
their minor children, two hundred and fifty more ; and it also promised to make from 
the public treasury further remuneration for improvements. To every needy citizen it 
probably allotted not more than ten acres. Thus it was designed to create in Italy a 
yeomanry ; instead of planters and slaves, to substitute free laborers ; to plant liberty 
firmly in the laud ; to perpetuate the Roman Commonwealth, by identifying its princi- 
ples with the culture of the soil. No pursuit is more worthy of freemen than agricul- 
ture. Gracchus claimed it for the free. 

Philanthropy, when it contemplates a slave-holding country, may have its first sym- 
pathies excited for the slaves ; but it is narrow benevolence which stops there. The 



SLAVERY m ROME. 59 

indigent freeman is in a worse condition. The slave has his task, and also his ho<ie 
and his bread. He is the member of a wealthy family. The indigent freeman has 
neither labor, nor house, nor food ; and, divided by a broad gulf from the upper class, 
he has neither hope nor ambition. The poor freeman claims sympathy, he is so abject, 
that often even the slave despises him. The slave-holder is the competitor of the free 
laborer, and by the leaso of slaves, takes the bread from his mouth. The wealthy Cras- 
sus, the richest man in Rome, was the competitor of the poorest free carpenter. The 
Roman patricians took away the business of the sandal-maker. The existence of slavery 
made the opulent owners of bondmen the rivals of the poor; greedy after the profits 
of their labor, and monopolizing those profits through their slaves. 

The laws of Gracchus cut the patricians with a double edge. Their fortunes consisted 
in land and slaves ; it questioned their titles to the public land, and tended to force 
emancipation by making their slaves a burden. In taking away the soil, it took away 
the power that kept their live machinery in motion. 

The moment was a real crisis in the affairs of Rome ; such a crisis as hardly occurs to 
a nation in the progress of many centuries. Men are in the habit of proscribing Julius 
Ciesar as the destroyer of the Commonwealth. The civil wars, the revolutions of C»sar, 
the miserable vicissitudes of the Roman emperors, the avarice of the nobles and the 
rabble, the crimes of the forum and the palace,— all have their germ in the ill success 
of the reform of Gracchus. 

We pass over the proofs of moderation which the man of the people exhibited, by 
appearing in the Senate, where he had hoped to obtain from the justice of the patricians 
some reasonable compromise. The attempt of the aristocracy to check all procedures in 
the assembly of the people, by instigating another tribune to interpose his veto, was 
defeated by the prompt decision of the people to depose the faithless representative ; and 
the final success of Gracchus seemed established by the unanimous decision of the com- 
mons in favor of his decree. But such delays had been created by his opponents, that 
the year of his tribuueship was nearly passed ; his re-election was needed in order to 
carry his decree into effect. But the evil in Rome was already too deep to be removed. 
The election day for tribunes was in mid-summer ; the few husbandmen, the only 
shadow of a Roman yeomanry, were busy in the field, gathering their crops, and failed 
to come to the support of their champion. He was left to rest his defense on the rabble 
of the city; and though early in the morning great crowds of people gathered together ; 
and though, as Gracchus appeared in the forum, a shout of joy rent the skies, and was 
redoubled as he ascended the steps of the Capitol, yet when the aristocracy, determined 
at every hazard to prevent his election, came with the whole weight of their adherents 
in a mass, the timid flock, yielding to the sentiment of awe rather than of cowardice, 
fled like sheep before wolves, and left their defender, the incomparable Gracchus, to be 
beaten to death by the clubs of senators. Three hundred of his more faithful friends 
were left lifeless in the market-place. In the fury of triumphant passion, the corpse of 
the tribune was dragged through the streets, and thrown into the Tiber. 

The deluded aristocracy raised the full chorus of victory and joy. They believed that 
the Senate had routed the democracy , when it was but the avenging spirit of slavery, 
that struck the first deadly wound into the bosom of Rome. 

The murder of Gracchus proved the weakness of the senate ; they could defeat the 
people only by violence. But the blood of their victim, like the blood of other martyrs, 
cemented his party. It was impossible to carry the Agrarian Law into execution ; it 
was equally impossible to effect its repeal. 

Gracchus had interceded for the unhappy indigent freeman, whose independence was 
crushed by the institution of slavery. The slaves themselves were equally sensible of 
theii* wrongs ; and in the island of Sicily they resolved on an insurrection. Differing 



GO SLAVERY IN ROME. 

hjcomplexion, in language, in habits, the hope of liberty amalgamated the heterogene- 
ous mass. Eunus, their wise leader, in the spirit of the East, employed the power of 
superstition to rally the degraded serfs to his banner, and, like Mahomet, pretended a 
revelation from heaven. Sicily had been divided into a few great plantations ; and now 
the voice of a leader, joining the fanaticism of religion to the enthusiasm for freedom, 
with the hope of liberty awakened the slaves, not in Sicily only, but in Italy, to the use 
of arms. What need of dwelling on the horrors of a servile war? Cruel overseers were 
stabbed with pitchforks ; the defenseless were cut to pieces by scythes ; tribunals, hith- 
erto unheard of, were established, where each family of slaves might arraign its master, 
and, counting up his ferocities, adjudge punishment for every remembered wrong. Well 
may the Roman historian blush as he relates the disgraceful tale. Quis aequo animo 
ferat in principe gentium populo bella servorum? The Romans had fought their allies, 
yet had fought with freemen ; let the queen of nations blush, for she must now contend 
with victorious slaves. Thrice, nay, four times, were the Roman armies defeated ; the 
insurrection spread into Italy; four times were even the camps of Roman prffitors 
stormed and taken ; Roman soldiers became the captives of their bondmen. The army 
of the slaves increased to 200,000. It is said, that in this war a million of lives were 
lost ; the statement is exaggerated ; but Sicily suffered more from the devastations of 
the servile, than of the Carthaginian war. Twice were Roman consuls unsuccessful. 
At length, after years of defeat, the benefits of discipline gave success to the Roman 
forces. The last garrison of the last citadel of the slaves disdained to surrender, and 
could no longer resist ; they escaped the ignominy of captivity by one universal suicide. 
The conqueror of slaves, a new thing in Rome, returned to enjoy the honors of an 
ovation. 

The object of Tiberius Gracchus, continued by his eloquent and equally unhappy 
brother, who moreover was the enlightened and energetic advocate of a system of in- 
ternal improvement in Italy, aimed at ameliorating the condition of the indigent free- 
men. The great servile insurrection was designed to effect the emancipation of slaves ; 
and both were unsuccessful. But God is just and his laws are invincible. Slavery 
nest made its attack directly on the patricians, and following the order of Providence in 
the government of the moral world, began with silent but sure influence to corrupt the 
virtue of families, and even to destroy domestic life. It is a well ascertained fact, that 
slavery diminishes the frequency of marriages in the class of masters. In a state 
where emancipation is forbidden, the slave population will perpetually gain upon the 
numbers of the free. We will not stop to develop the three or four leading causes of 
this result, pride and the habits of luxury, the facilities of licentious indulgence, the 
circumscribed limits of productive industry ; some of which causes operate exclusively, 
and all of them principally, on the free. The position is certain and is universal ; no 
where was the principle more amply exemplified than in Rome. The rich slaveholders 
preferred luxury and indulgence to marriage ; and celibacy became so general, that the 
aristocracy was obliged by law to favor the institution, which, in a society where all are 
free, constitutes the solace of labor and the ornament of life. A Roman censor could, 
in a public address to the people, stigmatize matrimony as a troublesome companion- 
ship, and recommend it only as a patriotic sacrifice of private pleasure to public duty. 
The depopulation of the upper class was so considerable, that the waste required to be 
supplied by emancipation ; and repeatedly there have been periods, when the majority 
of the Romans had once been bondmen. Emancipation was essential to the preservation 
of a class of freemen, who might serve as a balance to the slave population. It was this 
extensive celibacy and the consequent want of succession, that gave a peculiar character 
to the Roman laws relating to adoption. 

The continued and increasing deleterious effects of slavery on Roman institutions, 



SLAVERY IN ROME. 61 

may be traced through the changes in the character of that majority of the citiz«ns, 
whom it left without the opportunity or the fruits of industry. Even in the time of the 
younger Gracchus, they retained dignity enough to hope for an amelioration of their 
condition by the action of laws, and the exercise of their own franchises. Failing in 
this end through the firmness of the nobles, the free middling olass was entirely de- 
stroyed ; society soou became divided into the very rich and the very poor; and slave-, 
who performed all the labor, occupied the intermediate position between the" two classes! 
The first step in the progress, of degradation constituted the citizens, by their own 
vote, a class of paupers. They called on the state to feed them from the public grana- 
ries. But mark the difference between the pauper system of England, or America, and 
that of Rome. We cheerfully sustain in decent competence the aged, the widow, the 
ciipple, the sick and the orphan ; Rome supplied the great body of her citizens. Eng- . 
1 hi 1, who also feeds a large proportion of her laboring class, entrusts to her paupers no 
elective franchises. Rome fed with eleemosynary corn the majority of her citizens, 
who retained, even in their condition of paupers, the privileges of electing the govern- 
ment, and the right of supreme, ultimate legislation. Thus besides the select wealthy 
idlers, here was a new class of idlers, a multitudinous aristocracy, having no estate but 
their citizenship, no inheritance but their right of suffrage. Both were a burden upon 
the industry of the slaves ; the senate directly from the revenues of their plantations, 
the commons indirectly, from the coffers of the Commonwealth. It was a burden greater 
than the fruits of slave industry could bear ; the deficiency was supplied by the plunder 
of foreign countries. The Romans, as a nation, became an accomplished horde of robbers. 
This first step was ominous enough ; the second was still more alarming. A dema- 
gogue appeared, and gaining oflice, and the conduct of a war, organized these pauper 
electors into a regular army. The demagogue was Marius ; the movement was a revo- 
lution. Hitherto the senate had exercised an exclusive control over the brute force of 
the Commonwealth ; the mob was now armed and enrolled, and led by an accomplished 
chieftain. Both parties being thus possessed of great physical force, the civil wars be- 
tween the wealthy slaveholders and the impoverished freemen, the select and the mul- 
titudinous aristocracy of Rome, could not but ensue. Marius and Sylla were the respective 
leaders ; the streets of Rome and the fields of Italy became the scenes of massacre ; and 
the oppressed bondmen had the satisfaction of beholding the jarring parties, in the na- 
tion which had enslaved them, shed each other's blood as freely as water. 

This was not aU. The slaves had their triumph. Sylla selected ten thousand from 
their number, and to gain influence for himself at the polls, conferred on them freedom, 
and the elective franchise. 

Of the two great leaders of the opposite factions, it has been asserted that Sylla had a 
distinct purpose, and that Marius never had. The remark is true, and the reason is 
obvious. Sylla was theorgan of the aristocracy ; to the party which already possessed 
all the wealth, he desire'd to secure all the political power. This was a definite object, 
and in one sense was attainable. Having effected a revolution, and having taken ven- 
geance on the enemies of the senate, he retired from oflice. He could not have retained 
perpetual authority ; the forms of the ancient republic were then too vigorous, and the 
party on which he rested for support, would not have tolerated the usurpation. He 
established the supremacy of the senate, and retired into private life. Marius as the 
leader of the people, was met by insuperable difficulties. The existence of a slave pop- 
ulation rendered it impossible to elevate the character of his indigent constituents • nor 
were they possessed of sufficient energy to grasp political power with tenacity. He could 
therefore only embody them among his soldiers, and leave the issue to Providence. His 
partisans suffered from evils, which it required centuries to ripen and to heal ; Marius 
could have no plan. 



62 SLAVERY IN ROME. 

Thus the institution of slavery had heen the ultimate cause of two political revolu- 
tions. The indigence to which it reduced the commons, had led the Gracchi to appear 
as the advocates of reform, and had encouraged Marius to hecome their military leader. 
In the murder of the former, the senate had displayed their success in exciting mobs ; 
and in resistance to the latter, they had roused up a defender of their usurpations. The 
slaves, also, who had found in Eunus an insurgent leader, were now near obtaining a 
liberator. The aristocracy was satisfied with its triumphs ; the impoverished majority, 
now accustomed to their abjectness, made only the additional demand of amusements 
at the public expense ; and were also ignobly satisfied. The slaves alone murmured, 
and in Spartacus, one of their number, they found a man of genius and courage, capa- 
ble of becoming their leader. Roman legislation had done nothing for them ; the legis- 
lation of their masters had not assuaged one pain, nor interposed the shield of the law 
against cruelty. The slaves determined upon a general insurrection, to be followed by 
emigration. The cry went forth from the plains of Lombardy, and reached the rich 
fields of Campania, and was echoed through every valley among the Appennines. The 
gladiators burst the prisons of their keepers ; the field-servant threw down his manure- 
basket ; Syrian and Scythian, the thrall from Macedonia and from Carthage, the wretches 
from South Gaul, the Spaniard, the African, awoke to resistance. The barbarian, who 
had been purchased to shed his blood in the arena, remembered his hut on the Danube ; 
the Greek, not yet indifferent to freedom, panted for release. It was an insurrec- 
tion, as solemn in its object, as it was fearful in its extent. Rome was on the brink of 
ruin. Spartacus pointed to the Alps ; beyond their heights were fields, where the 
fugitives might plant their colony ; there they might revive the practice of freedom ; 
there the oppressed might found a new state on the basis of benevolence, and in the 
spirit of justice. A common interest would unite the bondmen of the most remote 
lineage, the most various color, in a firm and happy republic. Already the armies of 
four Roman generals had been defeated ; already the immense emigration was on its 
way to the Alps. 

If the mass of slaves could, at any moment, on breaking their fetters, find themselves 
capable of establishing a liberal government, if they could at once, on being emancipa- 
ted or on emancipating themselves, appear possessed of civic virtue, slavery would be 
deprived- of more than half its horrors. But the circumstance which more than any 
other renders the institution execrable, is this : that while it binds the body, it corrupts 
the mind. The outrages which men commit, when they first regain their freedom, 
furnish the strongest argument against the system of bondage. The horrible inhumanity 
of civil war, and slave insurrection, are the topics of the loudest appeal against the con- 
dition, which can render human nature capable of committing such crimes. Idleness 
and treachery and theft, are the vices of slavery. The followers of Spartacus, when the 
pinnacles of the Alps were almost within their sight, turned aside to plunder ; and the 
Roman army, which could not conquer in open battle the defenders of their personal 
freedom, was able to gain the advantage, where the fugitive slave was changed from a 
defender of liberty into a plunderer. 

The struggle took place pricisely at a moment when the Romau State was most en- 
dangered by foreign enemies. But for the difficulties in the way of communication, 
which rendered a close coalition between remote armies impossible, the Roman State 
would have sunk beneath the storm ; and from the shattered planks of its noble ruins 
the slaves alone would have been able to build themselves a little bark of hope, to 
escape from the desolation. Slaves would have occupied by right of conquest the heri- 
tage of the Csesars. They finally became lords ; but it was in a surer, and to human 
nature and Roman pride, in a more humiliating manner. 

The suppression of the great insurrection of Spartacus brings us to the age of the 



SLAVERY IN ROME. 63 

triumvirs, and the approaching career of Julius Caesar. To form a proper judgment of 
his designs, and their character, we must endeavor to gain some distinct idea of the 
condition of the inhabitants of Italy during his time, as divided into the classes of the 
nobles, the poorer citizens, and the slaves. 

The vast capacity for reproduction, which the laws of society secure to capital in a 
greater degree than to personal exertion, displays itself no where so clearly as in slave- 
holding states, where the laboring class is but a portion of the capital of the opulent. 
As wealth consists chiefly in land and slaves, the rates of interest are, from universally 
operative causes, always comparatively high ; the difficulty of advancing with borrowed 
capital proportionably great. The small land-holder finds himself unable to compete 
with those who are possessed of whole cohorts of bondmen; his slaves, his lands, 
rapidly pass, in consequence of his debts, into the hands of the more opulent. The 
large plantations are constantly swallowing up the smaller ones ; and land and slaves 
soon come to be engrossed by a few. Before Csesar passed the Rubicon, this condition 
existed in its extreme in the Roman State. The aristocracy owned the soil and its 
cultivators. A free laborer was hardly known. The large proprietors of slaves not 
only tilled their immense plantations, but also indulged their avarice in training their 
slaves to every species of labor, and letting them out, as horses from a livery stable, for 
the performance of every conceivable species of work. Four or five hundred slaves 
were not an uncommon number in one family ; fifteen or twenty thousand sometimes 
belonged to one master. The wealth of Crassus wa3 immense, and consisted chiefly in 
lands and slaves ; on the number of his slaves we hardly dare hazard a conjecture. Of 
joiners and masons he had over five hundred. Nor was this the whole evil. The nobles, 
having impoverished their lands, became usurers, and had their agents dispersed over 
all the provinces. The censor Cato closed his career by recommending usury, as more 
productive than agriculture by slave labor ; and such was the prodigality of the Roman 
planters, that, to indulge their fondness for luxury, many of them also mortgaged their 
estates to the money-lenders. Thus the lands of Italy, at best in the hands of a few 
proprietors, became virtually vested in the hands of a still smaller number of usurers. 
No man's house, no man's person, was secure. Nullie est certa domus, nullum sine 
pignore corpus. Hence, corruption readily found its way into the senate ; the votes of 
that body, not less than the votes of the poorer citizens, were a merchantable com- 
modity. Venalis Curia patrurn. The wisdom and the decrees of the senate were for 
sale to the highest bidder. 

Thus there was in all Italy no yeomanry, no free labor, no free manufacturing class ; 
and thus the wealth of the great landed proprietors was wholly unbalanced. The large 
plantations, cultivated by slave labor, had already ruined Italy. Verum confitentibus, 
latifundia Italian! perdiderunt. 

The free citizens, who still elected tribunes and consuls, and were still sometimes 
convened in a sort of town-meeting, were poor and abject. But the right of suffrage in- 
sured them a maintenance. The petty offices in the Commonwealth were filled from 
their number, and such as retained some capacity for business found many a lucrative 
job, in return for their influence and their votes. The custom houses, the provinces, 
the internal police, offered inviting situations to moderate ambition. The rest clamored 
for bread from the public treasury, for tickets for the theatre at the national expense, 
for gladiatorial shows, where nien were butchered at the cost of the office-seeking aris- 
tocracy, for the amusement of the majority. But there existed no free manufacturing 
establishments, no free farmers, no free laborers, no free mechanics. The state possessed 
some of the forms of democracy ; but the life-giving principle of a democracy, prosper- 
ous free labor, was wanting. 

The third class was the class of slaves. It was three times as numerous as both the 






64 SLAVERY IN ROME. 

others ; though, as we have already observed, the whole body belonged almost exclusively 
to the few very wealthy. Their numbers excited constant apprehension ; but care was 
taken not to distinguish them by a peculiar dress. Their ranks were recruited in various 
ways. The captives in war were sold at auction. The good Cicero, in the little wars in 
which he was commander, sold men enough to produce, at half price, half a million 
dollars. When it was told in Rome that Caesar had invaded Britain, the people, in the 
true spirit of robbers, could not but ask one another what plunder he could hope to 
find there. ' There is not a scruple of silver, ' said they, ' in the whole island ; ' neque 
argenti scrupulum In ilia Insula. 'Yes, ' it was truly answered, ' but he will bring slaves.' 
The second mode of supplying the slave market was by commerce ; and this supply 
was so uniform and abundant, that the price of an ordinary laborer hardly varied very 
much for centuries. The reason is obvious. The slave merchant gets his cargoes from 
kidnappers, and the first cost, therefore, is inconsiderable. The great centres of this 
traffic were in the harbors bordering on the Euxine ; and Scythians were often stolen. 
Caravans penetrated the deserts of Africa, and made regular hunts for slaves. Blacks 
were in high value ; they were somewhat rare, and therefore both male and female 
negroes were favorite articles of .luxury among the opulent Romans. At one period, 
Delos was most remarkable as the emporium for slavers. It had its harbors, chains, 
prisons, every thing so amply arranged to favor a brisk traffic, that ten thousand slaves 
could change hands and be shipped in a single day. 

Such was the character of the Italian population over which a government was to be 
instituted, at the time when Caesar appeared with his army on the borders of the Rubi- 
con. In the contest which followed, it was the object of Pompey to plunder, to devas- 
tate, and to revenge. There did not exist any armed party in favor of a democratic re- 
public. The spirit of the democracy was gone ; and its shade only moved, with powerless 
steps, through the forum and the temples, which had once been the scenes of its glory. 
Julius Caesar was a great statesman, not less than a great soldier. His ambition was 
in every thing gratified ; the noise of his triumphs had filled the shores of England, the 
swamps of Belgium, and the forests of Germany. Any distinction in the Roman State 
was within his reach. He was childless ; and therefore his ambition hardly seemed to 
require a subversion of the Roman Commonwealth. And yet, with all this, he deliber- 
ately perceived that the continuance of popular liberty was impossible, in the actual 
condition of the Roman State ; that a wasting, corrupt, and most oppressive aristocracy 
was preparing to assume the dominion of the world ; that this aristocracy threatened 
ruin to the provinces, perpetual cruelty to the slaves, and hereditary, intolerant con- 
tempt for the people. Democracy had expired ; and the worst form of aristocracy, like 
that of the Venetian nobles of a later day, could be prevented only by a monarchy. 
Julius Caesar coolly resolved on the establishment of a monarchy. This was the third 
great revolution prepared by slavery. 

Slavery having impoverished, but not wholly corrupted the free citizens, Gracchus had 
endeavored to restore the democracy by creating an independent' yeomanry, and had 
failed from the opposition of the nobles. The nobles, perceiving the increase of the 
evil, the great degradation of the electors, and the multiplication of slaves, and being 
firmly resolved on maintaining the system of slave labor, endeavored to effect a revolu- 
tion, by substituting a strong aristocracy for the democracy. The plan failed, owing to 
he strength of the democratic forms, which had survived the democratic spirit. Csesar 
came, and finding the evil excessive, could devise no cure ; but he clearly saw that a 
monarchical form of government was the only one which would endure in Rome. Had 
Caesar possessed the virtues of Washington, the democracy of Jefferson, the legislative 
genius of Madison, he could not have changed the course of events. The condition of 
the Roman population demanded monarchy. 



SLAVERY IN ROME. 00 

There remained no mode of establishing a fixed government in Rome, but by vesting 
ill power in the hands of one man. In Italy, no opposition whatever was made to Caesar, 
on the part of the people or of the slaves. The only opposition proceeded from the aris- 
tocracy, and they could offer resistance only in the remoter subjected districts, witli the 
aid of hireling troops, sustained by the revenues of the provinces, which were still un- 
der the control of the senate. The people conferred on Caesar all the power which he 
could desire ; he was created dictator for a year, that he might subdue his enemies, and 
consul for five years, that he might confirm his authority. The inviolability of his per- 
son was secured by his election as tribune for life. 

What would have been the policy of Julius Caesar, had he remained in power, cannot 
be safely conjectured. To say that he had no plan is absurd ; every step in his progress 
was marked by consistency. The establishment of monarchy was already an alternative 
to slavery. Caesar did more. He issued an ordinance, not indeed of immediate abolition, 
but commanding that one-third part of the labor of Italy should be performed by free 
hands. The command was rendered inoperative by the assassination of Caesar, the 
greatest misfortune that could have happened to Rome. For who were his murderers? 
Not the people, not the insurgent bondmen ; but a portion of the aristocracy, to whom 
the greatest happiness of the greatest number was a matter of supreme indifference. 

The great majority of the conspirators have never found a eulogist. Every ancient 
writer speaks of them with reprobation and contempt. Cassius, one of the chief lead- 
ers, was notoriously selfish, violent, and disgracefully covetous, not to say dishonest. 
He is universally represented as envying injustice rather than abhorring it, and liis con- 
duct has ever been ascribed to personal malevolence, and not to patriotism. But Brutus ! 
History never manufactured him into a here, till he had made himself an assassin. 
Of a headstrong, unbridled disposition, he never displayed coolness of judgment in any 
part of his career. It was his misfortune to have been the son of an abandoned woman, 
and to have been bred in a home which adultery and wantonness had defiled. The 
vices of early indulgence may be palliated by his youth and the licentiousness of his 
time ; but Brutus, wlule yet young, was notorious as a merciless and exorbitant usurer^ 
at the rate of four per cent, a month, or forty-eight per cent, a year. When his debtors 
grew unable to pay, he obtained for his agent an appointment to a military post, and 
extorted his claims by martial law. The town of Salamis, in the isle of Cyprus, owed 
him money on the terms we have mentioned. He caused the members of its bankrupt 
municipal government to be confined in their town-hall, in the hope that hunger would 
quicken their financial skill ; and some of them were starved to death. Such was Bru- 
tus at that ingenuous period of life, when benevolence is usually most active. Brutus 
hated Pompey, yet after deliberating, he joined the party of that leader, and remained 
true to it, so long as it seemed to be the strongest ; but no sooner was the battle of 
Pharsalia won, than Brutus gave in his adhesion to Caesar, and to confer a value on his 
conversion, he betrayed the confidence of the fugitive, whose cause he had abandoned ! 
In the plot against Caesar, Brutus was the dupe of more sagacious men. The admirer 
transfers his own enthusiasm for liberty to those who claimed to be the champions of 
the republic ; and reverences the crime of inconsiderate passion, as the exercise of 
righteous vengeance. 

Caesar had received the senate sitting ; this insult required immediate vengeance. 
They murdered Caesar, not from public spirit, but from mortified vanity and angry dis- 
content. The people, who had been pleased with the humiliation of their oppressors 
were indignant at the assassination, and the assassins themselves had no ulterior plan. 

Slavery had poisoned the Roman State to the marrow ; and though the conspirators 
had no fixed line of policy, yet the condition of the population of Italy led immediately 
to monarchy. The young Octavian owed his elevation, not to his talents, but to the 
5 



60 SLAVERY IN ROME. 

state of the times. Nothing but monarchy was tolerable. The evils that followed ser- 
vitude made Augustus emperor. 

Thus slavery, by impoverishing the majority of the citizens, rendered the reform of 
Gracchus necessary to the preservation of the democracy, and at the same time rendered 
that reform impossible. In a word, slavery subverted the Roman democracy. The same 
cause, corrupting the citizens, occasioned the attempt of Sylla, which Poinpey would 
have renewed, to found an aristocratic government, where there already existed an aris- 
tocratic class ; a result which the combined interests of the slaves and the people 
defeated. Slavery was the moving cause of the third revolution ; and monarchy was 
established by the common consent of the people, and to the sure benefit of the slave. 
In the emperor the slave would have a friend. 

Slavery prepared one more revolution, before it expired. It introduced Oriental des- 
potism into Europe ; not by force of arms, but by the sure results of causes that were 
perpetually in action. 

Slavery impoverished the soil of Italy. The careless culture wore out even the rich 
fields of Campania. Large districts were left waste ; other large tracts were turned into 
pastures ; and grazing was substituted for tillage. The average crops of Italy hardly 
ever returned fourfold increase. Nam frumenta majore quidem parte Italiae, quando 
cum quarto responderint, vix meminisse possumus. It is the confession of the eulogist 
and the teacher of agriculture. Italy was naturally a very fertile country ; but slave 
labor could hardly wring from it a return one-half, or even one-third, so great as free 
labor gets from the hills and vales of New England. This impoverishment of the soil 
impoverished the spirit of its inhabitants. The owners of slaves, disdaining the use of 
the sickle and the plow, crept within thfe walls of Rome, abandoning the cares of agri- 
culture to the vilest of their bondmen. 

Slavery prepared the way for Oriental despotism by encouraging luxury. The genius 
of the Romans was inventive ; but it was only to devise new pleasures of the senses. 
The retinue of servants was unexampled ; and the caprices, to which men and women 
were subjected, were innumerable. The Roman writers are so full of it, that it is un- 
necessary to draw the picture, which would indeed represent humanity degraded by the 
subserviency of slaves, and by the artificial desires and vices of their masters. This 
detestable excess extended through the whole upper class. Women ceased to blush for 
vices which, in other times, render men infamous. JSeneficium sexus sui vitiis perdid- 
erunt, et quia foeminam exuerunt, damnatae sunt morbis virilibus. At Rome, the gout 
was a common disease in the circles of female dissoluteness and fashion. The rage of 
luxury extended also, in some sort, to the people. For them, tens of thousands of gla- 
diators were sacrificed without concern ; for them the enslaved Jews raised the gigantic 
walls of the Coliseum, the most splendid monument of human infamy ; for them actual 
navies engaged in actual contests ; and the sailors, as they prepared for battle, received 
only an avete, on their way to death. 

In like manner, the efl'ect of slavery became visible on public morals. Among the 
slaves there was no such thing as the sanctity of marriage ; dissoluteness was almost as 
general as the class. The slave was ready to assist in the corruption of his master's 
family. The virtues of self-denial were unknown. But the picture of Roman immo- 
rality is too gross to be exhibited. Its excess can be estimated from the extravagance of 
its remedy. When the Christian religion made its way through the oppressed classes 
of society, and gained strength by acquiring the affections of the miserable, whose woes 
it solaced, the abandoned manners of the cities could be forcibly reproved, only by the 
voice of fanaticism. When domestic life had almost ceased to exist, the universal lewd- 
ness could be checked only by the most exaggerated eulogies of absolute chastity. Con- 
vents and nunneries grew up, when more than half the world were excluded from the 



SLAVERY IN ROME. 67 

rites of marriage, and condemned by the laws of the empire to promiscuous indulgence. 
Vows of virginity were the testimony which religion bore against the enormities of the 
times. Spotless purity could alone put to blush the shamelessness of artificial exi a - 
As in raging diseases, the most violent and unnatural remedies need to be applied tor 
a season, so the transports of enthusiasm and the revolution of fanaticism sometime* 
appear necessary to stay the infection of a moral pestilence. Thus riot produced asceti- 
cism; and monks, and monkish eloquence, and monastic vows grew out of the general 
depravity of manners. Tin- remedy was demanded, since public vice was threatening 
the Southern world with depopulation. 

The gradual decay of the class of ingenuous freemen had ever been a conspicuous 
result of slavery. The corruptions of licentiousness spared neither sex of the Roman 
people ; and the consequence was so certain, that emancipation alone could supply the 
void. Nor was it long before the majority of the cohorts, of the priesthood, of the 
tribes, of the people, nay of the senate itself, came to consist of emancipated slaves. 
But the sons of slaves could have no capacity for defending freedom ; and despotism was 
at hand, when, besides the sovereign, there were few who were not bondmen or the chil- 
dren of bondmen. Freedom, to exist securely, must be locked fast in hereditary affec- 
tions, and confirmed as a mortmain inheritance from long generations. 

The government of Rome was sufficiently degraded, when the makers of an emperor, 
stumbling upon Claudius, the wisest fool of the times, proclaimed him the master of the 
Roman empire. Slavery now enjoyed its triumph, for a slave became prime minister 
Io Saturnalia, shouted the cohorts, as Narcissus attempted to address them. But the 
consummation of evil had not arrived. The husband of Messahua had, naturally enough, 
taken up a prejudice against matrimony; but the governors of the weak emperor, who 
managed him as absolutely as Buckingham managed James I., insisted upon his marry- 
ing Agrippina. He did so ; and Agrippina, assisted by'freedmen and slaves, disinherited his 
son, murdered her husband, and placed Nero on the throne. Slaves gave Nero the purple. 
The accession of Nero is the epoch of the virtual establishment of the fourth revolu- 
tion. The forms of ancient Rome still continued, but Nero was the incarnation of tyran- 
ny ; the triumph of human depravity ; the very name by which men are accustomed to 
express the fury of unrestrained malignity. Bad as he was, Nero was not worse than 
Rome. Rome had no right to complain ; Rome had but her due. Nay, when he died, 
the rabble and the slaves crowned his statues with garlands, and scattered flowers over 
his grave. And why should they not ? Nero never injured the rabble, never oppressed 
the slave. He murdered his mother, his brother, his wife. But Nero was only the tyrant 
of the wealthy ; the terror of the successful. He rendered poverty sweet, for poverty 
alone was secure ; he rendered slavery tolerable, for slaves alone, or slavish men, were 
promoted to power. In honoring his tomb, they honored their avenger. The reign of 
Nero was the golden reign of the populace, and the holiday of the bondman. The death 
of Gracchus was now avenged on the descendants of his murderers. The streams in 
Heaven, it is truly said, run up hill ; and slavery, in producing its perfect results, had 
brought the heaviest curse on the heads of its supporters. 

Despotism now became the government of the Roman empire. Yet, there was such 
a vitality in the forms of liberty, that they were still in some degree preserved. Two 
centuries passed away, before the last vestiges of republican simplicity disappeared ; two 
centuries elapsed, before the Eastern diadem could be introduced with the slavish cus- 
toms of the East. Up to the reign of Diocletian, a diadem had never been endured in 
Europe. Hardly had this emblem of servility become tolerated, when language also 
began to be corrupted ; and, within the course of another century, the austere purity 
of the Greek and Roman tongues, the languages of Demosthenes and of Gracchus, 
became for the first time familiarized to the 'onus of Oriental adulation. Your imperial 



68 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

Highness, your Grace, your Excellency, your Immensity, your Honor, your Majesty, 
then first became current in the European world ; men grew ashamed of a plain name ; 
and one person could not address another without following the custom of the Syrians, 
and calling him Rabbi, Master. 

It is a calumny to charge the devastation of Italy upon the barbarians. We say again, 
the large Roman plantations, tilled by slave labor, were the ruin of Italy. Verum con- 
fitentibus, latifundia Italian! perdidere. From the days of Gracchus, morals, courage, 
force of character, and agriculture had been declining. The productiveness of the 
country was constantly diminishing ; Italy, for centuries, had not produced corn enough 
to meet the wants of its inhabitants. Rome was chiefly supplied from Sicily and Africa, 
and the largest number of its inhabitants had, for centuries, been fed from the publio 
magazines. 

The barbarians did not ruin Italy. The Romans themselves ruined it. Slavery had 
made it a waste and depopulated land, before a Scythian or a Scandinavian had crossed 
the Alps. 

When Alaric led the Goths into Italy, even after the conquest of Rome, he saw that 
he could not sustain his army in the beautiful but desert territory, unless he could also 
conquer Sicily and Africa, whence alone daily bread could be obtained. His successor 
was, therefore, easily persuaded to abandon the unproductive region, and invade the 
happier France. 

Attilahad no other object than a roving pilgrimage after plunder; and as his cupidity 
was little excited, and the climate was ungenial, the wild, unlettered Calmuck was easily 
overawed by the Roman priesthood, and diverted from the indigent Italy to the more 
prosperous North. Rome still remained an object for plunderers, but none of the bar- 
barians were tempted to make Italy the seat of empire, or Rome a metropolis. Slavery 
had destroyed the democracy, had destroyed the aristocracy, had destroyed the empire ; 
and now at last it left the traces of its ruinous power deeply furrowed on the face of 
nature herself.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

Christian Slavery in Northern Africa. 

Barhary — the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals. — Northern Africa annexed to the 
Greek Empire. — Conquered by the Saracens. — The Spanish Moors pass over to Africa 
— Their expeditions to plunder the coasts of Spain, and carry off the Christian Span- 
iards into Slavery. — Cardinal Ximenes invades Barbary, 1509, to release the captives. — 
Barbarossa, the sea-rover, becomes king of Algiers. — The Christian Slaves build the 
mole. — Expeditious of Charles V. against the Moors. — Insurrection of the Slaves. — 
Charles releases 20,000 Christians from Slavery, and carries off 10,000 Mohammedans 
to be reduced to Slavery in Spain. — The Moors retaliate by seizing 6000 Minorcans for 
Slaves. — Second expedition of Charles — its disastrous termination — his army destroyed 
— prisoners sold into Slavery. — The Algerines extend their depredations into the Eng- 
lish Channel. — Condition of the Cliristian slaves in Barbary — treated with more human- 
ity than African slaves among Christians. — Ransom of the slaves by their countrymen. 
— British Parliament appropriates money for the purpose. — The French send bomb ves- 
sels in 16S8.— Lord Exmouth in 1816 releases 3000 captives, and puts an end to Chris- 
tian Slavery in Barbary. 



B 



ARBARY is the general and somewhat vague denomination adopted by 
Europeans to designate that part of the northern coast of Africa which, bound- 
ed on the south by the desert of Sahara, is comprised between the frontiers of 



m NORTHERN AFRICA. 



69 



Egypt on the Mediterranean, and Cape Nun, the western spur of the lofty At- 
las range, on the Atlantic. Imperfectly known even at the present day, in an- 
cient legend it was peculiarly the land of mystery and fable. It was there the 
Grecian poets, giving their airy nothings a local habitation and a name, placed 
the site of the delightful gardens of Hesperides, whose trees bore apples of the 
purest gold ; there dwelt the terrible Gorgon, whose snaky tresses turned all 
living things into stone ; there the invincible Hercules wrestled and overthrew 
the mighty Antaeus ; there the weary Atlas supported the ponderous arch of 
heaven on his stalwart shoulders. Almost as mythical and mysterious is the 
little we know of the Phoenicians, the greatest maritime people of antiquity, 
who planted their most powerful colony, the proud city of Carthage, on these 
fertile shores of Northern Africa. Of the Carthaginians, we can glean a lit- 
tle from the Greek and Roman historians. We know that in turn becoming 
the rulers of the seas, they explored and founded colonies and trading-depots 
in what were at that time the most distant regions ; extending their commer- 
cial relations from the tropical banks of the Niger to the frost-bound beach of 
the Baltic. A powerful people ere Rome was built, they long enjoyed their 
supremacy ; at last, the thirst of territorial conquest brought the two great na- 
tions into rivalry, and the rich temples of Carthage fell a prey to the legions 
of Scipio. For a short period after the destruction of Carthage, the energetic 
subtlety of Jugurtha prevented the conquerors from extending their dominion ; 
but in a few years, the whole coast, as far as the waves of the Atlantic, became 
a Roman province. It remained so till about the year 428 of the Christian 
era, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius, when Genseric, king of the Van- 
dals, crossed over to Africa, conquered the Roman territory, and founded a 
dynasty which reigned for about 100 years. The Greek emperor Justinian 
then sent Belisarius to reconquer the country ; he defeated the Vandals, made 
their king prisoner, and added Northern Africa to the Greek Empire. 

History presents us with a series of conquering races, following each other 
as the waves upon the sea-beach, each washing away the impression made up- 
on the sand by its forerunner, and each leaving a fresh impression to be washed 
out by its successor. The irruption of the Saracens followed hard upon the 
conquering footsteps of Belisarius. Swarm after swarm of the Arabs came 
up out of Egypt, till Northern Africa was under the rule of the caliphs, ex- 
cepting a small part of the sea-coast held by the Spanish Goths. They at last 
were driven out by Musa, about the year 710 ; and then Tarik, Musa's lieuten- 
ant, crossing the narrow straits, carried the war into Europe, defeated Rod- 
erick, the last Gothic king, and laid the foundation of Arab dominion in Spain. 
The ruthless spirit of religious fanaticism which inspired the followers of Mo- 
hammed, destroyed everything it could not change. Romans,Vandals, Greeks, 
Goths, their laws, literature, and religions, all have disappeared in Northern 
Africa ; the recollection of the most powerful of them is only preserved in the 
word Romi — a term of reproach to the Christians of all nations. Of their 
more material works, the learned antiquary still finds some traces of Roman 



70 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

edifices, and the remains of a sewer are supposed to indicate the site of Car- 
thage. The warlike enthusiasm of the Saracens was better adapted for making 
conquests than for preserving them. The great distance from the seat of em- 
pire, the revolutions caused by rival houses contending for the caliphate, the 
ambitious projects of the viceroys inclining them to league with native chiefs, 
led to a dissolution of the Arabian power in Northern Africa. Consequently, 
when the dawn of modern history begins to throw a clearer light upon the 
scene, we find the territory divided into a number of petty sovereignties. 

The Saracens in Africa intermixing with the barbarous native tribes, never 
reached the high position in the arts of peace and civilization attained by their 
brethren, the conquerors of Spain. The devastating instinct of Islamisin seems 
to have yielded to a more benign influence, as soon as it entered Europe. 
When Spain was thoroughly subdued, the natives were permitted, with but few 
restrictions, the full enjoyment of their own laws and religion ; and the Arabs, 
enjoying almost peaceable possession for nearly three centuries after the con- 
quest, devoted their fiery energies to the acquisition of knowledge. Enriched 
by a fertile soil and prosperous commerce, they blended the acquirements and 
refinements of intellectual culture with Arabian luxury and magnificence ; the 
palaces of their princes were radiant with splendor, their colleges famous for 
learning, their libraries overflowing with books, their agricultural and manufac- 
turing processes conducted with scientific accuracy, when all the rest of Europe 
was buried in midnight barbarism. To those halcyon days of comparative 
peace succeeded four centuries of bitter conflict between the invaders and the 
invaded, exhibiting one of the grandest romances of military history on record. 
It was long doubtful on which side the hoi'ors of victory would descend. At 
last, the ardor and audacity of theMussulraau succumbed to the patriotic cour- 
age of the Christian, and the reluctant Moor was compelled to abandon the 
lovely region he had rendered classical by the •exercise of his peculiar taste and 
genius. 

Immediately after the fall of Granada in 1*9?, about 100,000 Spanish Moors 
passed over into Africa with their unfortunate king, Boabdil. Some ruined and 
deserted cities on the sea-coast, the remains of Carthaginian and Roman power 
and enterprise, were allotted to the exiles ; for though of the same religion, and 
almost of the same race and language as the people they sought refuge amongst, 
yet they were strangers in a strange land ; the African Moors termed them 
Tigarins (Andalucians) ; they dwelt and intermarried together, and were long 
known to Europeans, in the lingua franca of the Mediterranean, by the ap- 
pellation of Moriscos. At the period of this forced migration, the Barbary 
Moors knew nothing of navigation; what little comu»erce they had was carried 
mi by the ships of Cadiz, Genoa, and Ragu'sa. But the Moriscos, confined to 
the sea-coast, and debarred from agriculture, had no pooner rendered the an- 
cient ruins habitable, than they turned their, attention to naval affairs. Build- 
ing row-boats, carrying from fourteen to twenty-six oars, they boldly put to sea, 
and incited by feelings of the deadliest enmity, revenge" 5 themselves on the 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 71 

hated Spaniard, at the same time that they plundered for a livelihood. Cross- 
ing the narrow channel which separates the two continents, and lying off out 
of sight of the Spanish coast during the day, they landed at night — not as 
strangers, but on the shores of their native land, where every bay and creek, 
every path and pass, every village and homestead, were as well known to them 
as to the Christian Spaniard. In the morning, mangled bodies and burning 
houses testified that the Moriscos had been there ; while all portable plunder, 
every captured Christian not too old or too young to be a slave, was in the 
row-boat, speeding swiftly to the African coast. The harassed Spaniards kept 
watch and ward, winter and summer, from sunrise to sunset, and sometimes 
succeeded in cutting off small parties of the piratical invaders ; yet such was 
the audacity of the Moriscos, and so well were their incursions planned, that 
frequently they plundered villages miles in the interior. Then ensued the hasty 
flight and hot pursuit ; the freebooters retreating to the boats, driving before 
them, at the lance's point, unfortunate captives, laden with the plunder of their 
own dwellings ; the pursuers, horse and foot, following into the very water, and 
firing on the retiring row-boats till their long oars swept them out of gunshot. 
The Barbary Moors soon joined the Moriscos in those exciting and profitable 
adventures; and thus originated the atrocious practice, which being subse- 
quently recognized in treaties made by various European powers, became, ac- 
cording to the laws of nations, a legally organized system of Christian slavery. 

In 1509, Ferdinand the Catholic, anxious to stop the Morisco depredations 
on the Spanish coast, sent a considerable force, under the celebrated Cardinal 
Ximenes, to invade Barbary. During this expedition, the Spaniards released 
300 captives, and took possession of Oran and a few other unimportant places 
on the coast. One of those was a small island, about a mile from the main, 
lying exactly opposite the town since known as Algiers, but previously so little 
recognized by history, that it is not certain when it received the name. In all 
probability, it acquired the high-sounding appellation of Al Ghezire (The In- 
vincible) at a subsequent period. Carefully fortifying this insulated rock, the 
Spaniards, by the superiority of their artillery, held possession of it for several 
years, as a sort of outpost, and a curb upon the piratical tendencies of the na- 
tive powers. 

One of those extraordinary adventurers, who, rising from nothing, carve out 
kingdoms for themselves with the edge of their sabres, and gleaming at inter- 
vals on an astonished world, vanish into utter darkness, like comets in their 
erratic orbits, appeared at this time, and changed the destinies of the greater 
part of Northern Africa. The son of a poor Greek potter in the island of 
Mitylene worked with his father till a younger brother was able to take his 
place in assisting to support the family ; then going on board a Turkish war 
vessel, he signified his desire to become a Mussulman, and enter the service. 

His offer was accepted, he received the Turkish name of Aroudje his previous 

appellation is unknown — and in a short time, his fierce intrepidity and nautical 
skill raised him to the command of a vessel belonging to the sultan. Intrusted 



72 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

with a considerable sum of money, to pay the Turkish garrisons in the Morea, 
he sailed from Constantinople, and having passed the Dardanelles, he mustered 
his crew, and declared his intentions of renouncing allegiance to the Porte. He 
told them that, if they would stand by him, he would lead them to the western 
waters of the Mediterranean, where prizes of all nations might be captured in 
abundance, where there were no knights of Rhodes to contend against, and 
where they would be completely out of the power of the sultan. A project so 
much in unison with the predilections of the rude crew, was received with en- 
thusiastic acclamations of assent. Aroudje then steered for his native island 
of Mitylene, where he landed, and gave a large sum of money to his mother 
and sisters ; and being joined by his brother, who, becoming a Mohammedan, 
assumed the name of Hayraddin, he weighed anchor, and turned his prow to 
the westward. Arriving oif the island of Elba, he fell in with two portly ar- 
gosies under papal colors. Piracy in these western seas having previously been 
carried on in the Morisco row-boats only, the Christians were not alarmed, but 
believing Aroudje to be an honest trader, permitted him to run alongside, as he 
seemed to wish to communicate some information. They were quickly unde- 
ceived. Boarding the nearest one, he immediately took possession of her, and 
then dressing his men in the clothes of the captured crew, he bore down upon 
her unsuspecting consort. She was captured also, with scarcely a blow ; and 
Aroudje found himself in possession of two ships, each much larger than his 
own, with cargoes of great value, and some hundreds of prisoners. The fame 
of this bold action resounded from the southern shores of Europe to the oppo- 
site coast of Africa. Such captives as were ransomed, when describing the ap- 
pearance of Aroudje, did not fail to recount the ferocious aspect of his huge 
red beard, so unusual an appendage to a native of the south, and thus he ob- 
tained the name of Barbarossa (Kedbeard), so long the terror of the Mediter- 
ranean. Taking his prizes to Tunis, one of the small states that had once been 
part of the great Saracen Empire in Barbary, Aroudje was well received by 
the king, who allowed him to use the island and fort of Goleta as a naval de- 
pot, on condition of paying a certain percentage on all prizes. Adding daily 
to his wealth and licet, the daring sea-rover had no lack of followers. Turk- 
ish and Moorish adventurers eagerly enrolled themselves under his fortunate 
banner. 

The precarious position of the petty Barbary states, threatened by the Ber- 
bers and Bedouins of the interior on the land-side, and menaced by the Span- 
ards on the sea-board, was highly favorable to the ambitious aspirations of the 
potter's sou. The district of Jijil being attacked by famine, he seized the corn- 
ships of Sicily, and distributed the grain freely and without price among the 
starving indabitants, who gratefully proclaimed him their king; and in a few 
years his army equaled in magnitude his still increasing fleet. The fort built 
by the Spaniards on the island off Algiers was a great annoyance to Eutemi, 
the Moorish king of that little state. Unwisely, he applied to Barbarossa for 
aid to evict the Spaniard, and eagerly was the request granted. With 5000 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 73 

men, the pirate chief marched to Algiers, where the people hailed him as a de- 
liverer; Eutemi was murdered, and Aroudje proclaimed king. The throne 
thus usurped by audacity, he established by policy ; profusely liberal to his 
friends, ferociously cruel to his enemies, he was loved and dreaded by all his 
subjects. His reign, however, was short, being defeated and killed in battle 
by the Spaniards, only two years after he ascended the throne. In such esti- 
mation was this victory held, that the head, shirt-of-mail, and gold-embroidered 
vest of the slain warrior were carried on a lance, in triumphant procession, 
through the principal cities of Spain, and then deposited as sacred trophies in 
the church of St. Jerome at Cordova. Hayraddin, who is styled by the old 
historians, Barbarossa II., succeeded his brother, but, feeling his position inse- 
cure, he tendered the sovereignty of Algiers to the Grand Seignior, on condi- 
tion of being appointed viceroy and receiving a contingent of troops. Sultan 
Selim, gladly accepting the offer, sent a firman creating Hayraddin pacha, and 
a force of 2000 janizaries. From that period, the Ottoman supremacy over 
the Moorish and Morisco inhabitants of Algiers was firmly established. 

Piracy upon all Christian nations was still vigorously carried on from Tunis 
and other ports of Barbary ; but the harbor of Algiers being commanded by 
the island fort in possession of the Spaniards, was deprived of that nefarious 
source of wealth. This island was long the ' Castle Dangerous ' of the Span- 
ish service ; nor was it till 1530, that, betrayed by a discontented soldier, it fell 
into the hands of Hayraddin. Don Martin, the Spanish governor, who had 
long and nobly defended the isolated rock, was brought a wounded captive be- 
fore the truculent pacha. " I respect you," said Hayraddin, " as a brave man 
and a good soldier. Whatever favor you may ask of me, I will grant, on con- 
dition that you will accede to whatever I may request." 

" Agreed," replied Don Martin. " Cut off the head of the base Spaniard 
who betrayed his countrymen. " 

The wretch was immediately brought in, and decapitated on the spot. 

"Now," rejoined Hayraddin, "my request is that you become a Mussul- 
man, and take command of my army. " 

"Never!" exclaimed the chivalrous Don Martin ; and immediately, at a sig- 
nal from the enraged pacha, a dozen yataghans leaped from their sheaths, and 
the faithful Christian was cut to pieces on the floor of the presence-chamber. 

The island, so long a source of danger and annoyance to the Algerines, was 
now made their safest defense, Hayraddin conceiving the bold idea of uniting 
it to the mainland by a mole and breakwater. This really great undertaking, 
which still evinces the engineering and mechanical skill of its promoters, was 
the work of thousands of wretched Christian slaves, who labored at it inces- 
santly for three years before it was completed. Thus the Algerines obtained a 
commodious harbor for their shipping, secure against all storms, and, at that 
time, impregnable to all enemies. 

In 1532, the people of Tunis rebelling, deposed their king, and invited the wil- 
ling Hayraddin to become their ruler. With this increase of power his bold- 



74 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

ness increased also. Out of his many daring exploits at this period, we need 
mention only one. Hearing that Julian Gonzago, the wife of Vespasian Co- 
lonna, Count of Fondi, was the most beautiful woman in Europe, Hayraddin 
made a descent in the night on the town of Fondi ; scaling the walls, the fierce 
Moslems plundered the town, and carried off numbers of the inhabitants into 
slavery. Fortunately, the countess escaped to the fields in her night-dress, 
and thus evaded the clutches of the pirate, who, to revenge his disappointment, 
ravaged the whole Neapolitan coast before he returned to Tunis. 

The eyes of all Europe were now turned imploringly to the only power con- 
sidered capable of contending with this 'monstrous scourge of Christendom.' 
The Emperor Charles V. eagerly responded to the appeal, and summoned forth 
the united strength of his vast dominions to equip the most powerful armada 
that had ever plowed the waves of the Mediterranean ; the Low Countries. 
Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Genoa, furnished their bravest veterans and best 
appointed ships ; the Knights of St. John supplied a few vessels, small, yet 
formidable from the well-known valor of the chevaliers who served in them ; 
the pope contributed his blessing ; and the immense armament, inspired with 
all the enthusiasm of the Crusades, but directed to a more rational and legiti- 
mate object, rendezvoused at Cagliari — a convenient harbor of Sardinia. 

Hayraddin, aware of the object and destination of this vast armament, en- 
ergetically prepared to give it a suitable reception. Night and day the mis- 
erable Christian slaves, rivetting their own fetters, were employed in erecting 
new, and strengthening old fortifications ; and as a last resource, in case of 
defeat, the shrewd pacha sent eighteen sail of his best ships to Bona. In July, 
1531, the emperor's fleet was descried from the towers of Tunis; and Hayrad- 
din made the last dispositions for defense by placing his treasure, seraglio, and 
slaves in the citadel, under a strong guard, with the intention of retreating 
thither if the city and port were taken. 

Charles, after landing his troops, commenced a simultaneous attack by land 
and sea. Hayraddin, with much inferior force, yet greater advantage of po- 
sition, conducted the defense with skill and determination. But in the heat of 
the conflict, the Christian slaves, distracted with suspense, and excited to frenzy 
by the thunder of the cannonade, burst their bonds, overpowered their guards, 
and turned the guns of the citadel upon their Moslem masters. Hayraddin, 
then seeing that the day was irrecoverably lost, fled with the remnant of his 
army to the ships at Bona. Charles reinstated the deposed king of Tunis as 
his vassal, and on condition, that for the future, all Christians brought as cap- 
tives t<i Tunis should be liberated without ransom. With 20,000 Christians 
released from slavery by the power of his arms — the noblest trophy conqueror 
ever bore — Charles returned in triumph to Europe. Not only did he restore 
these unfortunate captives to liberty, but he furnished all of them with suita- 
ble apparel, and the means of returning to their respective countries. Such 
munificence spread the fame of Charles over all the world ; for though it en- 
tailed on him immense expense, he had personally gained nothing by the con- 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 75 

quest of Tunis : disinterestedly he had fought for the honor of the Christian 
name, for Christian security and welfare. Yet we regret to have to add one 
fact, highly characteristic of the age : when Charles left Africa, he also carried 
off 10,000 Mohammedans to be slaves for life, chained to the oars in the gal- 
leys of Spain, Italy, and Malta. 

"We must now return to Hayraddin, the second Barbarossa, whom we left in 
full retreat to Bona, where he had sagaciously sent his ships to be out of harm's 
way at Tunis. As soon as he arrived at Bona, he embarked his men, and put 
to sea. 

" Let us go to the Levant," said his officers, " and beg assistance from the 
sultan." 

" To the Levant, did you say ?" exclaimed the incensed pirate. " Am I a 
man to shew my back ? Must I fly for refuge to Constantinople ? Depend 
upon it, I am far more likely to attack the emperor's dominions in Flanders. 
Cease your prating; follow me, and obey orders." Steering for Minorca, he 
soon appeared off the well-fortified harbor of Port Mahon. The incautious 
Minorcans believing the pirates utterly exterminated, and that the gallant fleet 
entering their harbor was returning from the conquest of Tunis, ran to the port 
to greet and welcome the supposed victors. Not a gun was loaded, not a bat- 
tery manned, when Hayraddin, swooping like an eagle on its prey, sacked the 
town, earned off an immense booty in money and military stores, and with 6000 
captive Minorcans, returned in triumph to Algiers. This was his last exploit 
that falls within our province to relate. Earnestly solicited by the sultan, he 
relinquished the pachalic to take supreme command of the Ottoman fleet. 
After a life spent in stratagem and war, he died at an advanced age ; and still 
along the Christian shores of the Mediterranean, mothers frighten their unruly 
children with the name of Barbarossa. 

Hassan Aga, a Sardinian renegade, was next appointed to the vice-royalty. 
A corsair from his youth, he was well fitted for the office, and during his rule 
the piratical depreciations increased in number and audacity. The continuous 
line of watch-towers that engirdle the southern coast of Spain, and have so 
picturesque an effect at the present day, were built as a defense against Has- 
san's cruisers. Once more all Europe turned to the emperor Charles for relief 
and protection Pope Paul III. wrote a letter imploring him "to reduce Al- 
giers, which, since the conquest of Tunis, has been the common receptacle of 
all the freebooters, and to exterminate that lawless race, the implacable ene- 
mies of the Christian faith." Moved by such entreaties, and thirsting for glory, 
Charles equipped a fleet equal in magnitude to that with which he had con- 
quered Tunis. A navy of 500 ships, an army of 2T.000 picked men, and 150 
Knights of Malta, with noblemen and gentlemen volunteers of all nations, 
many of them English, sailed on this great expedition. To oppose such a 
powerful force, Hassan had only S00 Turks and 5000 Moors and Moriscos. On 
arriving at Algiers, Charles summoned the pacha to surrender, but received a 
most contemptuous reply. The troops were immediately disembarked, though 



76 CHRISTIAN SLAVER 7 

with great difficulty, owing to stormy weather ; and the increasing gale cutting 
off communication with the fleet, before sufficient stores aud camp equipage 
could be landed, Charles and his army were left with scanty provision, and ex- 
posed to torrents of rain. A night passed in this miserable condition. The 
next day, the tempest increased. The next night, the troops, exhausted by 
want of food and exposure to the elements, were unable to lie dowu, the ground 
being knee-deep in mud. Hassan was too vigilant a warrior not to take ad- 
vantage of this state of affairs. Before daybreak, on the second morning, with 
a strong body of horse and foot, he sallied out upon the Christian camp. Weak 
from hunger and want of rest, benumbed by exposure to the cold aud rain, 
their powder wet, and their matches extinguished, the advanced division of 
Charles's army were easily defeated by Hassan's fresh aud vigorous troops. 
The main body advanced to the rescue, and after a sharp contest, Hassan's 
small detachment was repulsed, aud driven back into the city. The Knights 
of Malta, among whom a chivalrous emulation existed with respect to which 
of them would first stick his dagger in the gate of Algiers, rashly following 
the retreating Hassan, led the army up to the city, where they were mowed 
down in hundreds by the fire from the walls. Retreating in confusion from this 
false position, they were again charged by Hassau's impetuous cavalry, and the 
Knights of Malta, to save the whole army from destruction, drew up in a body 
to cover the rear. Conspicuous by their scarlet upper garments, embroidered 
with a white cross, they served for a short time as a rallying-point ; but it was 
not till Charles, armed with sword and buckler, joined his troops, and stimu- 
lated them to fresh exertions by fighting in their ranks, that the Algeriues were 
compelled to return to their strongholds. Iu this desperate conflict, the Knights 
of Malta were nearly all killed. Only one of them, Pouce de Salignae, the 
standard-bearer, had reached and stuck his dagger in the gate, but, pierced 
with innumerable wounds, he did not live to enjoy the honor of the foolhardy 
feat. Another night of tempest and privation followed this discouraging bat- 
tle ; hundreds of the debilitated troops were blown down by the violence of the 
wind, and smothered in the mud. When the day broke, Charles saw 200 of his 
war-ships and transports, containing 8000 men, driven on shore, and such of 
their crews as were not swallowed up by the waves, led off into captivity by 
the exulting enemy. The rest of the fleet sought shelter under a headland 
four miles off, and thither Charles followed them ; but his famished troops, con- 
tinually harassed by the enemy, were two days in retreating that short distance. 
With great difficulty, Charles, and a small remnant of his once powerful army, 
reached the ships, and made sail from the inhospitable coast. So many cap- 
tives were taken, and such was their enfeebled condition, that numbers were 
sold by the captors for an onion each. " Do you remember the day when your 
countryman was sold for an onion ?' was for years afterwards a favorite taunt 
of the Algerine to the Spaniard. Enriched with slaves, valuable military and 
naval stores, treasure, horses, costly trappings — all brought to their own doors — 
the pride of the Algerincs knew no bounds, and they sneeringly said that 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 77 

Charles brought them this immense plunder to save them the trouble of going 
to letch it. Hassan generously refused to take any part of the spoil, saying 
that the honor of defeating the most powerful of Christian princes was cpiite 
sufficient for his share. 

After this great victory, the Algerines, confident of the impregnability of 
their city, turned their attention to increasing their power on sea. The ves- 
sels hitherto used for warlike purposes in the Mediterranean were galleys, prin- 
cipally propelled by oars rowed by slaves ; and in quickness of manoeuvre and 
capability of being propelled during a calm, were somewhat analgous to the 
steam-boat of the present day, and had a decided advantage over the less easily 
managed sailing-vessels. Not constructed to mount heavy ordnance, the sys- 
tem of naval tactics adopted in the galleys was to close with the enemy, when- 
ever eligible, and then the battle was fought with small-arms — arrows, and even 
stones, being used as weapons of attack and defense. The Algerines, how- 
ever, laboring in their vocation, as Falstaff would have said, captured many 
large ships of Northern Europe, built for long voyages and to contend with 
stormy seas. Equipping these with cannon, they were enabled to destroy the 
galleys before the latter could close with them ; and thus introducing a new 
system of naval warfare, they gained a complete ascendancy in the waters of the 
Mediterranean. Nor did they long confine their depredations to that sea. In 
1574, an Algerine fleet surprised the tunny fishery of the Duke of Medina, near 
Cadiz, and captured 200 slaves ; but one of the piratical vessels running ashore, 
a large number were retaken by their countrymen. In 1585, Morat, a cele- 
brated corsair, landed at night on Lancelote, one of the Canary Islands, and 
carried off a large booty, with 300 prisoners ; among whom were the wife, 
mother, and daughter of the Spanish governor. Standing out to sea the next 
morning, until out of gun-range, the pirate hove-to, and showing a flag of 
truce, treated for the ransom of his captives ; and afterwards, eluding, by sea- 
manship and cunning, a Spanish fleet waiting to intercept him at the mouth of 
the straits, exultingly returned to Algiers. In the following century, pushing 
their piracies still further, the English Channel became one of their regular 
cruising-grounds. In 1G31, the town of Baltimore, in Ireland, was plundered 
by Morat Rais, a Flemish renegade, and 237 men, women, and children, " even 
to the babe in the cradle," carried off into captivity. Aware of the strong 
family affections of the Irish, we can well believe Pierre Dan, a Redemptionist 
monk, who saw those poor creatures in Algiers. He says : " It was one of 
the most pitiable of sights to see them exposed for sale. There was not a 
Christian in Algiers who did not shed tears at the lamentations of these cap- 
tives in the slave-market, when husband and wife, mother and child, were sep- 
arated.* Is it not," indignantly adds the worthy father, "making the Al- 
mighty a bankrupt, to sell His most precious property in this manner ?" About 
the same time, two corsairs, guided by a Danish renegade, proceeded as far as 

* At a later period, the Algerines did not separate slave-families. 



78 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

Iceland, where they captured no less than 800 persons, a few of whom were 
ransomed several years afterwards by Christian IT., king of Denmark. 

The existence of such an organized system of piracy may well excite our 
wonder at the present day ; but the truth is, that since the time of the Vikings, 
to the latter part of the last century, the high seas were never clear of pirates 
belonging to one nation or another. Besides, the commercial jealousies and 
almost continual wars of the European nations, prevented them from uniting 
to crush the Barbary rovers. The English and Dutch maintained an extensive 
commerce with the Algerines, supplying them with gunpowder, arms, and na- 
val stores ; and found it more profitable to pay their customers a heavy tribute 
for a sort of half-peace, than to be at open war with them. De Witt, the fa- 
mous Dutch admiral and statesman, in his Interest of Holland, thus views the 
question: " Although," he says, "our ships should be well guarded by con- 
voys against the Barbary pirates, yet it would by no means be proper to free 
the seas from those freebooters — because we should thereby be put on the same 
footing as the French, Spanish, and Italians ; wherefore it is best to leave that 
thorn in the sides of those nations." An English statesman, in an official pa- 
per written in 1671, amongst other objections to the surrender of Tangier, 
urges the advantage of making it an open port for the Barbary pirates to sell 
their prizes and refit at, in the same manner as they were permitted to do in 
the French ports. It is an actual fact that, in the seventeenth century, when 
England and France were at peace, Algerine cruisers frequently landed their 
English captives at Bordeaux, whence they were marched in handcuffs to .Mar- 
seille, and there reshipped in other vessels, and taken to Algiers. This pro- 
ceeding was to avoid the risk of recapture in the Straits of Gibraltar, and also 
to allow the pirates to remain out longer on their cruise, enencumbered with 
prisoners. Numerous instances of the complicity of European powers with 
this nefarious system might be adduced. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, in 1703, pro- 
tected a Barbary pirate from receiving a well-merited chastisement from a 
Dutch squadron ; but that need not surprise the reader, for at the same time 
the gallant admiral had power under the Great Seal to visit Algiers, Tunis, and 
Tripoli, make the usual presents, and 'if he could prevail with them to make 
war against France, and that some act of hostility was thereupon committed, 
he was to give such further presents as he should think proper.' 

The political system of the Algerines requires a few words. The authority 
of the Porte was soon shaken off, and then the janizaries, or soldiers, forming 
a kind of aristocratic democracy, chose a governor from their own number, un- 
der the familiar title of Dey (Uncle) ; and ruled the native Moors as an infe- 
rior and conquered race. Neither Moor nor Morisco was permitted to have 
any voice in the government, or to hold any office under it ; the wealthiest na- 
tive, if he met a janizary in the street, had to give way to let the proud soldier 
pass. The janizaries were all either Turks or renegades (slaves who had turned 
Mohammedans) : so strictly was this rule earned out, that the son of a jani- 
zary by a Moorish woman was not allowed the privileges of his father, though 






m NORTHERN AFRICA. 79 

the offspring of a janizary and a Christian slave was recognized as one of the 
dominant race. The janizaries were in number about 12,000 ; their ranks were 
annually recruited by renegades and adventurous Turks from the Levant ; they 
served by sea as well as by land, and were employed in controlling the tribu- 
tary native chiefs of the interior, and sailing in the piratical cruisers. Piracy 
being the basis of this system, the whole foreign policy of the Algerines con- 
sisted in claiming the right of maintaining constant war with all Christian na- 
tions that did not conciliate them by tribute and treaties. "When a European 
consul arrived at Algiers, he always carried a large present to the dey, and as 
the latter would, in a short time, quarrel with and send away the consul, in ex- 
pectation -of receiving the usual present with his successor, it was found more 
convenient to make an occasional present, than incur the trouble and risk of a 
continual change of consuls. In course of time, these occasional presents be- 
came a tribute of 17,000 dollars, regularly paid every two years. 

The miseries of Algerine bondage have long been proverbial over all the 
Christian world, yet they appear light when calmly examined and contrasted 
with other systems of slavery. Most travelers in Mohammedan countries have 
remarked the general kindness with which slaves are treated. General Eaton, 
consul of the United States at Tunis in 1799, writes thus : " Truth and justice 
demand from me the confession, that the Christian slaves among the barbarians 
of Africa are treated with more humanity than the African slaves among the 
Christians of civilized America." John Wesley, when addressing those con- 
nected with the negro slave-trade, said : " You have carried them into the 
vilest slavery, never to end but with life — such slavery as is not to be found 
with the Turks at Algiers." In fact, the creed of Islam, not recognizing per- 
petual and unconditional bondage, gave the slave a right of redemption by 
purchase, according to a precept of the Koran. This right of redemption was 
daily claimed and acknowledged in Barbary ; and though it was only the richer 
class that could immediately benefit by it, yet it was a great alleviation to the 
general hardship of the system ; and numbers of the poorer captives, by exer- 
cise of their various trades and professions, realized money, and were in a short 
time able to redeem themselves. Again, no prejudice of race existed in the 
mind of the master against his unhappy bondsman. The meanest Christian 
slave, on becoming a Mohammedan, was free, and enrolled as a janizary, hav- 
ing superior privileges even to the native Moor or Morisco, and he and his 
descendants were eligible to the highest offices in the state. Ladies, when 
captured, were invariably treated with respect, and, till ransomed, lodged in a 
building set apart for that purpose, under the charge of a high officer, similar 
to our mayor. The most perfect toleration was extended to the exercise of 
the Christian religion ; the four great festivals of the Roman Church Christ- 
mas, Easter, and the nativities of St. John and the Virgin — were recognized 
as holidays for the slaves. We read of a large slaveholder purchasing a priest 
expressly for the spiritual comfort of his bondsmen ; and of other masters who 
regularly, once a week, marched their slaves off to confession. The Alirerines 



SO CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

were shrewd enough to prefer a religious slave to his less conscientious fellows. 
"Christianity," they used to say, "was better for a man thau no religion at 
all." Nor were they zealous to make adult converts. "A bad Christian," 
they said, "can never make a good Mussulman." It was only slaves of known 
good character and conduct who were received into the Moslem community. 
Children, however, were brought up Mohammedans, adopted in families, and 
became the heirs of their adopters. Captured ecclesiastics were treated with 
respect, never set to work, but allowed to join the religious houses established 
in Algiers. 

One of the greatest alleviations to the miseries of the captives was the hos- 
pital founded for their benefit, by that noble order of monks, the Trinitarian 
Brothers of Redemption. This order was instituted in 1188, during the pon- 
tificate of Innocent III. Its founder, Jean Matha, was a native of Provence, 
and, according to the old chronicles, a saint from his birth ; for when a baby 
at the breast, he voluntarily abstained every fast-day 1 Having entered the 
priesthood, on performing his first mass, an extraordinary vision was witnessed 
by the congregation. An angelic being, clothed in white raiment, appeared 
above the altar, with an imploring expression of countenance, and arms cross- 
ed ; his hands were placed on the heads of two fettered slaves, as if he wished 
to redeem them. The fame of this miracle soon spread to Rome. Journey- 
ing thither, Matha said mass before the pope ; and the wonderful apparition 
being repeated, Innocent granted the requisite concessions for instituting the 
order of Redemptionists, whose sole object was to collect alms, and apply 
them to the relief and redemption of Christian slaves. With whatever degree 
of suspicion such conventual legends may be regarded, it is gratifying to find 
that the order was truly a blessed charity, and that Englishmen were 
among the earliest and most zealous of its members. Within a year from its 
institution, Brother John, of Scotland, a professor at Oxford, and Brother 
William, of England, a priest in London, departed on the first voyage of 
redemption, and after many dangers and hardships, returned from the East 
with 1286 ransomed slaves. It was not, however, till 1551, that the order 
was enabled to form a regular establishment in Algiers. In that year, Brother 
Sebastian purchased a large building, and converted it into an hospital for sick 
and disabled slaves. As neither work nor ransom could be got out of a dead 
slave, the masters soon perceived the benefit of the hospital, and they levied a 
tax on all Christian vessels frequenting the port to aid in sustaining it. Among 
so many captives, there were always plenty of experienced medical men to 
perform the requisite duties ; and no inconsiderable revenue to the funds of the 
institution was derived by dispensing medicines and advice to the Moslems. 
A Father Administrator and two brothers of the order constantly resided in 
Algiers to manage the affairs of the hospital, which from time to time was 
extended and improved, till it became one of the largest and finest buildings 
in the city. The owners of slaves who received the benefit of this charity, 
contributed nothing towards it, but on each slave being admitted, his proprie- 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 81 

tor paid one dollar to the Father Administrator, which, if the patient recover- 
ed, was returned to the master, but if he died, was kept to defray his funeral 
expenses. For a long period, there was no place of interment allotted to the 
captives ; their dead bodies were thrown outside the city walls, to be devoured 
by the hordes of street-dogs which infest the towns of Mohammedan countries. 
At length, by the noble self-denial of a private individual, whose name, we 
regret to say, we are unable to trace, a slave's burial ground was obtained. A 
Capuchin friar, the friend and confessor of Don John of Austria, natural so 
of the Emperor Charles V., was taken captive. Knowing the esteem in which 
he was held by the prince, an immense sum was demanded for his ransom. 
The money was immediately forwarded , but instead of purchasing his freedom, 
the disinterested philanthropist bought a piece of ground for a burial-place for 
Christian slaves, and, devoting himself to solace the spiritual and temporal 
wants of his unhappy co-religionists, uncomplainingly passed the rest of his 
life in exile and captivity. 

A few years after the founding of this House of the Spanish Hospital, as it 
was termed, another Christian religious establishment, the House of the French 
Mission, was planted in Algiers. A certain Duchess d'Eguillon, at the sug- 
gestion of the celebrated philanthropist Vincent de Paul, who had himself 
been an Algerine captive, commenced this good work by an endowment of 
4,000 livres per annum. These two religious houses were exempted from all 
duties or taxes, and mass was performed in them daily with all the pomp and 
splendor of the Romish Church. There was also a chapel in each of the six 
bagnes — the prisons where the slaves were confined at night — in which service 
was performed on Sundays and holidays. The Greek Church had also a chapel 
and small establishment in one of the bagnes. Brother Comeliu, of the order 
of redemption, tells us, in his Voyage, that they celebrated Christmas in the 
Spanish Hospital " with the same liberty and as solemnly as in Christendom. 
Midnight mass was chanted to the sound of trumpets, drums, flutes, and haut- 
boys ; so that in the stillness of night the infidels heard the worship of the 
true God over all their accursed city, from ten at night till two in the morning." 
Such was Mohammedan toleration in Algiers, at the period, too, we should 
recollect, of the high and palmy days of the Inquisition. "We may easily con- 
ceive what would have been the fate of the infidels if they, by any chance, had 
invaded the midnight silence of Rome or Madrid with the sounds of their 
worship. The only exceptions to the general good treatment and respect be- 
stowed upon Christian ecclesiastics in Algiers was, when inspired by a furious 
zeal for martyrdom, they openly insulted the Mohammedan religion ; or when 
the populace were excited by forced conversions and other intolerant cruelties 
practiced upon Mussulman slaves in Europe. We shall briefly mention two 
instances of such occurrences. 

One Pedro, a brother of Redemption, had traveled to Mexico and Peru, 
and collected in those rich countries a vast amount of treasure for the order. 
He then went to Algiers, where he employed half the money in ransoming 
6 



82 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

captives, and the other half in repairing and increasing the usefulness of the 
hospital, where he resided, constantly attending and consoling' the sick slaves. 
At last, thirsting for martyrdom, he one day rushed into a mosque, and, with 
crucifix in hand, cursed and reviled the false Prophet Mohammed. In all 
Mohammedan countries, the penalty of this offense is death. But so much 
were the piety and good works of Pedro respected by the Algerine govern- 
ment, that they anxiously endeavored to avoid inflicting the punishment of 
their law. Earnestly they solicited him, with promise of free pardon, to ac- 
knowledge that he was intoxicated or deranged when he committed the rash 
act, but in vain. Pedro was burned ; and one of his leg-bones was long care- 
fully preserved as a holy relic iu the Spanish Hospital. 

In 1612, a young Mohammedan lady, fifteen years of age, named Fatiraa, 
daughter of Mehemet Aga, a man of high rank in Algiers, when on her way 
to Constantinople to be married, was captured by a Christian cruiser, carried 
into Corsica, and a very large sum of money demanded for her ransom. The 
distressed father speedily sent the money by two relatives, who were furnished 
with safe-conduct passes by the brothers of Redemption. On their arrival in 
Corsica, they were informed that the young lady had become a Christian, was 
christened Maria Eugenia, and married to a Corsican gentleman ; aud that the 
money brought for her ransom must be appropriated as her dowry. The rela- 
tives were permitted to see Maria; she declared her name was still Fatinia; 
and that her baptism and marriage were forced upon her. The return of the 
relatives without either the lady or the money caused great excitement iu Al- 
giers. By way of retaliation, the brothers of Redemption were loaded svith 
chains, and thrown into prison, and compelled to pay Mehemet Aga a sum 
equal to that which he had sent for his daughter's ransom. In a short time, 
however, they were released, and permitted to resume their customary duties. 

When returning from a successful cruise, as soon as an Algerine corsair ar- 
rived within sight of the harbor, her crew commenced filing guns of rejoicing 
and triumph, and continued them at intervals until she came to anchor. Sum- 
moned by these signals of success, the inhabitants would flock in numbers to 
the port, there to learn the value of the prize, the circumstances of its capture, 
and to congratulate the pirates. Morgan, a quaint old writer, many years 
attached to the British consulate, says : "These are the times when Algiers 
very visibly puts on a quite new countenance, and it may well be compared to 
a great bee-hive. All is hurry, every one busy, and a cheerful aspect succeeds 
a strange gloom and discontent, like what is to be seen everywhere else, when 
the complaint of dullness of trade, scarcity of business, and stagnation of cash 
reigns universal ; and which is constantly to be seen in Algiers during every 
interval between the taking of good prizes." The dey received the eighth part 
of the value of all prizes, for the service of the government, and had the priv- 
ilege of selecting his share of the captives, who were brought from the vessel 

to the court-yard of his palace, where the European consuls attended t < 

any of their countrymen who might be considered free in accordance with the 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 83 

terms of previous treaties',. In many instances, however, little respect was paid 
by the strong-handed captors to such documents. The following reply of one 
of the deys to a remonstrance of the English consul, contains the general an- 
swer given on such occasions: "The Algerines being born pirates, and not 
able to subsist by any other means, it is the Christians' business to be always 
on their guard, even in time of peace ; for if we were to observe punctilios with 
all those nations who purchase peace and liberty from us, we might set fire to 
our shipping, and become degraded to be camel-drivers." When the newly 
made captives were mustered in the dey's court-yard, their names, ages, coun- 
tries, and professions, were minutely taken down by a hojia, or government ' 
secretary, appointed for the purpose ; and then the dey proceeded to make his 
selection of every eighth person, and of course took care to choose such as, 
from their appearance and description, were likely to pay a smart ransom, or 
those acquainted with the more useful professions and the mechanical arts. 
After the dey had taken his share, the remainder of the prisoners, being the 
property of their captors, were taken to the bestian, or slave-market, and ap- 
praised, a certain value being set upon each individual. From the slave-market 
the unfortunates were then led back to the court-yard, and there sold by public 
auction; and whatever price was obtained higher than the valuation of the 
slave-market, became the perquisite of the dey. 

The government, or, in other words, the dey, was the largest slaveholder in 
Algiers. All the slaves belonging to the government were termed deylie slaves, 
and distinguished by a small ring- of iron fastened round the wrist or ankle ; 
and excepting those who were employed in the palace, or hired out as domestic 
servants, were locked up every night in six large buildings called bagnes. 
Rude beds were provided in the bagnes, and each deylie slave received three 
small loaves of bread per day, and occasionally some coarse cloth for clothing; 
All the carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, ropemakers, and others among the 
deylie slaves who worked at trades connected with house and snip-building, 
received a third part of what they earned, when hired out to private persons, 
and even the same sum was paid to them when employed on government works. 
Besides, both at the laying down of the keel and launch of a new ship, a hand- 
some gratuity was given to all the slave-mechanics employed upon her. Indeed, 
all the work connected with ship-building was performed by Christian slaves. 

The janizaries never condescended to do any kind of work ; the native Moi irs 
were too lazy and too ignorant; and the Moriscos being forbidden, by the 
jealous policy of the dominant Turkish race, to practice the arts they brought 
with them from Spain, sank, after the first generation, to a level with the native 
Moor. Shipwrights were consequently well treated, many of them earning 
better wages than they could in their own countries. Numbers were thus en 
abled to purchase their freedom ; but many more, seduced by the sensual de- 
baucheries so prevalent wherever slavery is recognized, preferred remaining in 
Algiers as slaves or renegades, to returning as freemen to their native lands. 
Deylie slaves, when hired out as sailors, received -me third of their hire, and 



8-i CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

one-third of a freeman's share in the prize-money. Invariably at the hour of 
prayer termed Al Aasar, all work was stopped for the day, and the remaining 
three hours between that time and sunset were allowed to the slaves for their 
own use; on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, they were never set to work; 
and besides the Christian holidays already mentioned, they had a week's rest 
during the seasom of Ramadam. Such of the deylic slaves as were employed 
at the more laborious work of drawing and carrying timber, stone, and other 
heavy articles, were divided into gangs, and taken out to work only on alternate 
days. 

Many slaves never did an hour's work during their captivity ; for by the 
payment of a monthly sum, equivalent to about seventy cents of our money, 
any one might be exempted from labor ; and even those who could afford to 
fee then- overseers only with a smaller sum, were put to the lightest description 
of toil. Slaves when in treaty for ransom were never required to work ; and 
as no person was permitted to leave Algiers in debt, money was freely lent at 
moderate interest to those whose circumstances entitled them to hope for ran- 
som. Money, also, was readily obtained through the Jews, by drawing bills 
of exchange on the various mercantile cities of Europe. Many slaves, how- 
ever, by working at trades and other means, were enabled to pay the tax for 
immunity from public labor, and support themselves comfortably in the bagnes. 
Of this latter class were tailors, shoemakers, and, strange to say, a good many 
managed to live well by theft alone. In each bagne were five or six licensed 
wine-shops, kept by slaves. This was the most profitable business open to a 
captive — a wine-shop keeper frequently making the price of his ransom in 
one year ; but, preferring wealth to liberty, these persons generally remained 
slaves until they were able to retire with considerable fortunes. As there was 
constantly free ingress and egress to and from all the bagnes during the day, 
the wine-shops were always crowded with people of all nations; and though 
nominally for the use of the slaves, yet the renegades, who had not forgotten 
then- relish for wine, drank freely therein ; and even many of the " turbaned 
Turks," forgetting the law of then- Prophet, copiously indulged in the forbidden 
beverage. The Moslem, however, was, like Cassio, choleric in his drink, and 
frequently, brandishing his weapon, and threatening the lives of all about him, 
would refuse to pay his shot. As no Christian dare strike a Mussulman, an 
ingenious device was resorted to on such occasions. A stout slave, regularly 
employed for the purpose, would, at a signal from the landlord, adroitly drop 
a short ladder over the reeling brawler's head ; by this means, without striking 
a blow, he was speedily brought to the grouud, where he was secured till his 
senses were restored by sleep ; and then, if found to have no money, the land- 
lord was entitled to retain his arms until the reckoning was paid. 

The largest private slaveholder in Algiers was one Alii Pichellin, Capitan 
Pasha, or High- Admiral of the fleet, who flourished about the middle of the 
seventeenth century, and holds a conspicuous position in the Algerine history 
of the period. He generally possessed from 800 to 900 slaves, whom he kept 



IN NORTHERN" AFRICA. 85 

in a bagne of his own. Emanuel d'Aranda, a Flemisli gentleman, who was 
for some time Pichellin's slave, gives a curious account of bagne-life as he wit- 
nessed it. The bagne resembled a long narrow street, with high gates at each 
end, which were shut every evening after the slaves were mustered at sunset, and 
opened at sunrise every morning. Though the deylic slaves each received three 
loaves of bread per day for their sustenance, Pichellin never gave any food 
whatever to his slaves, unless they were employed at severe labor ; for he said 
that "a man was unworthy the name of slave, if he could not earn or steal 
between Al Aasar and Al Magrib," (the three hours before sunset allow sd to 
the slaves,) "sufficient to support him for the rest of the day." We may ob- 
serve here, that a Moor, Morisco, or Jew, if detected in a theft, was punished 
by the loss of his right hand, and by being opprobiously paraded through the 
streets mounted upon an ass. At the same time, neither Moor nor Jew dare 
even accuse a janizary of so disgraceful a crime. Slaves, however, might 
steal from Moor or Jew with open impunity ; for even if caught in the act, 
neither dare strike a slave ; and if complaint was made to the dey, he would 
merely order the restitution of the stolen goods, refusing to inflict punishment 
on the following grounds : " That as the Koran did not condemn a man who 
stole to satisfy his hunger, and as a slave was not a free agent, but compelled 
to depend upon his master for food, he could not legally be punished for theft," 
Under such circumstances, we may readily believe that the bagnes, and espe- 
cially that of Pichellin, were complete dens of thieves. Every evening, as 
soon as the gates were closed, the plunder of the day was brought forth and 
sold by auction; the sale being conducted, to the great amusement of the 
slaves, with all the Turkish gravity and formality of the slave-market. Articles 
not thus disposed of were left in the hands of one of the captives, who made 
it his business) for a small commission, 'to negotiate between the loser and the 
thief, and aecept ransom for the stolen property. An Italian in Pichellin* 
bagne, named Fontimana, was so expert and confident a thief, that without 
possessing the smallest fraction of money in the morning, he would invite a 
party of friends to sup with him in the evening, trusting to his success in 
thieving through the day to provide the materials for the feast, Of course no 
satisfaction was obtained when the sufferers complained to Pichellin. " The 
Christians," he would say, "are all pilfering rascals. I cannot help it. You 
must be more careful for the future. Have you yet to learn that all my slaves 
wear hooks at the ends of their fingers ? " Indeed, he seems to have 
nized the slaves' right of theft so fully, that he was not angry when he himself 
became the victim. On one occasion, Fontimana stole and sold the anchor of 
his master's galley. "How dare you sell my anchor, you Christian dog ? " 
said Pichellin. "I thought," replied the thief, "that the galley would sail 
better without the additional weight." The master laughed at the im 
reply, and said no more on the subject. Another characteristic anecdote is 
recorded of Pichellin and a Portuguese slave, his confidential steward and 
chamberlain. One day, when cruising off the coast of Portugal, the Capitan 



80 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

Pasha ran his vessel close in towards the land, and having ordered the small 
boat to be lowered, called the slave, and pointing to'the beach, said : " There 
is your native country. You have served m i faithfully for seventeen years. I 
now give you your freedom." The Portuguese, falling on his knees, kissed the 
hem of his late master's robe, and was profuse in his thanks ; but Pichellin 
stopped him, coolly saying: "Do not thank me, but God, who put it into my 
heart te restore you to liberty." While the boat was being prepared to land 
him, the Portuguese, apparently overpowered with feelings of joy, descended 
into the cabin, as if to conceal his emotions, but in reality to steal Pichellin's 
most valuable jewels and other portable property, which he quickly concealed 
round his person. As soon as the boat was ready, Pichellin ordered him to 
be set ashore, and not long after discovered his loss when the wily Portuguese 
was far out of his reach. Pichellin had some rough virtues : he prided him- 
self ou being a man of his word. A Genoese, who had made a fortune by 
trade at Cadiz, was returning to his native country with his only child, a girl 
nine years of age, when his vessel was taken ou the coast of Spain by Pichel- 
lin's cruiser. Not being far from land, the crew of the Christian vessel escaped 
to the shore, the terrified Genoese going with them, leaving his daughter in 
the hands of the pirates. Immediately, when he saw that his child was a cap- 
tive, he waded into the water, and waved his hat as a signal to the Algerines, 
who, thinking he might be a Moslem captive about to escape, sent a boat for 
him. On reaching the cruiser, Pichellin, seeing a Christian, exclaimed : " What 
madman are you that voluntarily surrenders himself a slave ? " " That girl is 
my daughter," said the Genoese : " I could not leave her. If you will set us 
to ransom, I will pay it ; if not, the satisfaction of having done my duty will 
enable me to support the hardships of slavery." Pichellin appeared struck, 
and after musing a moment, said : " I will take fifteen hundred dollars for the 
ransom of you and your daughter." '< I will pay it," replied the Genoese. 
" Hold, master 1 " exclaimed one of Pichellru's slaves ; " I know that man well: 
he was one of the richest merchants in Cadiz, and can afford to pay ten times 
that amount for ransom." "Silence, dog!" said the old pirate. "I have 
said it : my word is my word." Pichellin was further so accommodating as to 
take the merchant's bill for the money, and set him and his daughter ashore at 
once. 

Each slave who, from poverty, ignorance of a trade, or want of cunning, 
was compelled to work in the gangs, always carried a bag and a spoon — the 
bag, to hold anything he might chance to steal ; the spoon, in case any char- 
itable person, as was frequently the case, should present him with a mess of 
pottage. Only those, however, worked in the gangs who could not by any 
possibility avoid it ; and numberless were the schemes adopted by the slaves 
to raise money to support themselves and secure their exemption from that 
descriptiou of labor. Some, at the risk of the bastinado, smuggled brandy — 
a strictly forbidden article — into the bagnes, and sold it out iu small quantities 
to such as wanted it. Scholars were well employed by their less learned fel- 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 8/ 

low-captives, to correspond with friends in Europe. Latin was the language 
preferred for this correspondence, because it was unintelligible to the masters : 
and the letters frequently contained allusions to property, family affairs, and 
other circumstances, which, if known, would raise the price of ransom. The 
groat object of all the captives whose wealth entitled them to hopes of ransom, 
was I o simulate poverty, concealing their real circumstances or station in life 
as much as possible; and not (infrequently the Algerines, deceived by those 
professions, permitted persons of wealth and consequence to redeem themselves 
for a trifling sum. On the other hand, persons in much poorer circumstances 
were often detained a long time in slavery, ill treated, and held to a high ran- 
som, on the bare suspicion of their being wealthy. The Jews, though not 
permitted to possess slaves, had, through their commercial ramifications in 
Europe, means of obtaining correc) intelligence respecting the property and 
affairs of many captives, which they did not fail to profit by, receiving a per- 
centage on the increased ransom gained by their information. In a similar 
way, some artful old slaves, of various countries, lived well by making friends 
with new captives, treating them at the wine-shops, and, under the pretext of 
advising them how to act, inducing them to reveal their true circumstances, 
which the spy immediately communicated to his master. A grave Spanish 
cavalier made his living by settling quarrels among his countrymen, and decid- 
ing all disputes respecting rank, precedence, and the code of honor; a small 
fee being paid by each of the parties, and his decision invariably respected. 
A French gentleman contrived to live, and dress well, and give frequent dinner- 
parties, by a curious financial scheme he invented and practiced. Knowing 
many of the French renegades, he borrowed money from them for certain 
periods at moderate interest ; and as one sum fell due he met it by a loan from 
a new creditor. This system, at first sight, would not appear t» be profitable ; 
but the renegades being constantly employed in the cruisers, as in a state 
of continual warfare, some of the creditors were either killed or captured 
yearly, and having no heirs, the debts were thus canceled in the French cap- 
tive's favor. " In fine," says D'Aranda, to whom we are indebted for the pre- 
ceding peculiarities of bagne-life, " there can be no better university to teach 
men how to shift for their livelihood ; for all the nations made some shift to live 
save the English, who, it seems, are not so shiftful as others. During the win- 
ter I spent in the bagne, more than twenty of that nation died from pure want." 
It is clear that the unfortunate captives here alluded to must have been persons 
unfit for labor, and unable to procure ransom ; and thus, being of no service 
to their brutal master, were suffered to live or die as it might happen. There 
can be no doubt that the English and Dutch captives, of the reformed churches, 
suffered more privations than any others at that period, ere knowledge and 
intercourse had dulled the fiery edge of religious bigotry. All the public 
charities for slaves were founded by the Roman Church, and their bounties 
exclusively bestowed on its followers. No relief was ever given to a heretic 
unless he became a convert ; and it is an exceedingly curious illustration of 



88 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

this religious hatred, that it was as rife and virulent in the breasts of the ren- 
egades who had adopted Mohammedanism, as it was amongst those who 
remained Christians. Another great disadvantage which the English captives 
must have labored under, was their ignorance of the language. The lingua 
franca spoken in Algiers was a compound of French, Spanish, and Italian, 
with a few Arabic words; consequently, any native of those countries could 
acquire it in a few days, while the unfortunate Briton might be months before 
he could express his meaning or understand what was said to him. 

The hardships of slavery were, in all truth, insufficient to extinguish the 
religious and national animosities of the captives. Dreadful conflicts fre- 
quently occurred between the partisans of the eastern and western churches — 
Spaniards and Italians uniting to batter orthodoxy into the heads of schismatic 
Greeks and Russians. Nor were such disturbances quelled until a strong body 
of guards, armed with ponderous cudgels, vigorously attacking both parties, 
beat them into peaceful submission. Life was not unfrequently lost in these 
contests. A most serious one, in which several hundred slaves took pari on 
both sides, occurred during DAranda's captivity. At the feast of th As- 
sumption, the altar of one of the churches was decorated with the Portuguese 
arms, with the motto: "God will exalt the humble, and bring down the 
haughty." The Spaniards, conceiving this to be an insulting reflection on 
their national honor, tore dowu the obnoxious decoration, and trampled it 
under their feet. The Portuguese immediately retaliated, and a battle ensued 
between the captives of the two nations, which lasted a considerable time, and 
cost several lives. The ringleaders were severely bastinadoed by their mas- 
ters, who tauntingly told them to sell their lands and purchase their freedom, 
and then they might light for the honor of their respective countries as long 
and as much * they liked. It is pleasing, however, after reading of such 
scenes, to find that the slaves frequently got up theatrical performances. One 
of their favorite pieces was founded on the history of Belisarius. 

The negotiations for ransom were either carried on through the Fathers of 
Redemption, the European consuls, or by the slaves themselves. When a 
province of the order of Redemption had raised a sufficiently large sum, the 
resident Father Administrator in Algiers procured a pass from the d< ., per- 
mitting two fathers to come from Europe to make the redemption. The rule 
of the order was, that young women and children were to be released first ; 
then adults belonging to the same nation as the ransomers ; and after that, if 
the funds permitted, natives of other countries. But, in general, the fathers 
brought with them a list of the persons to be released, who had been recom- 
mended to their notice by political, ecclesiastical, or other interest. Slaves, 
who had earned and were willing to pay part of their ransom, found favor in 
the eyes of the fathers ; and slaves with very long beards, or of singular 
emaciated appearance, were purchased with a view to future effect, in the grand 
processional displays made by the Redemptionists on their return to Europe. 

From a published narrative of a voyage of Redemption made in 172o, we 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 89 

extract the following amusing account of an interview between two French 
Bedeinptionists and the dcy. The fathers had redeemed their contemplated 
number of captives with the exception of ten belonging to the dey, but he, 
piqued that his slaves had not been purchased first, demanded so high a price 
for each, that they were unwillingly compelled to ransom only three — a French 
gentleman, his son, and a surgeon. " These slaves being brought in, we offer- 
ed the price demanded (3,000 dollars) for them. The dey said he would give 
ns another into the bargain. This was a tall, well-made young Hollander, one 
of the dey's household, who was also present. We remonstrated with the dey, 
that this fourth would not do for us, he being a Lutheran, and also not of our 
country. The dey's officers laughed, and said, he is a good Catholic. The 
dey said he neither knew nor cared about that. The man was a Christian, and 
that he should go along with the other three for 5,000 dollars." 

After a good deal of fencing, and the dey having reduced his demand by 
500 dollars, the father continues: "We yet held firm to have only the three 
we had offered 3,000 dollars for. ' All this is to no purpose,' said the dey; ' I 
am going to send all four to you, and, willing or not willing, you shall have 
them at the price I specified, nor shall you leave Algiers until you have paid 
it.' But we still held out, spite of all his threats, telling him that he was 
master of his own dominions, but that our money falling short, we could not 
purchase slaves at such a price. We then took leave of him, and that very day 
he sent us the three slaves we had cheapened, and let us know we should have 
the other on the day of our departure." The reader will not be sorry to learn 
that the fathers were ultimately compelled to purchase and take away with 
them the "young Lutheran Hollander " 

The primary object of the B-edemptionists being to raise money for the ran- 
som of captives, every advantage was taken to appeal successfully to the sym- 
pathies of the Christian world, and no method was more remunerative than 
the grand processions which they made with the liberated slaves on their return 
to Europe. Father Comelin gives us full particulars of these proceedings. 
The ransomed captives, dressed in red Moorish caps and white bornouses, and 
wearing chains — they never wore them in Algiers — were met at the entrance 
of each town they passed through by all the clerical, civil, municipal, and mil- 
itary dignitaries of the place. Banners, wax-candles, music, and "angels 
covered with gold, silver, and precious stones," accompanied them in grand 
procession through the town ; the chief men of the district carrying silver 
salvers, on which they collected money from the populace, to be applied to 
future redemptions. 

The first general ransom of British captives was made by money apportion- 
ed by parliament for the purpose, during the exciting events of the civil war. 
The first vessel dispatched was unfortunately burned in the Bay of Gibraltar, 
and the treasure lost. A fresh sum of money was again granted ; and in 1646, 
Mr. Cason, the parliamentary agent, arrived at Algiers. In his official dis- 
patch to the " Committee of the Navy," the agent states that, counting 
renegades, there were then 750 English captives in Algiers ; and proceeds to 



90 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY 

say that " they come to much more a head than I expected ; the reason is, there 
be many women and children, which cost £50 per head, first penny, and might 
sell for £100. Besides, there are divers which were masters of ships, calkers, 
carpenters, sailmakers, coopers, and surgeons, and others who are highly es- 
teemed." The agent succeeded in redeeming 244 English, Scotch, and Irish 
captives at the average cost of £38 each. From the official record of their 
several names, places of birth, and prices, it appears that more was paid for 
the females than the males. The three highest sums on the list arc £75, paid 
for Mary Bruster, of Youghal; £65, for Alice Hayes, of Edinburgh; and 
£50, for Elizabeth Mancor, of Dundee. The names of several natives of 
Baltimore — in all probability some of those carried off when that town was 
sacked fifteen years before — are in this list of redeemed. It will scarcely be 
believed, that strong opposition was made by the mercantile interest against 
money being granted by parliament for the ransom of those poor captives — on 
the ground, as the opposers' petition expresses : " That if the slaves be re- 
deemed upon a public score, then seamen will render themselves to the mercy 
of the Algerines, and not fight in defense of the goods and ships of the mer- 
chants." A more curious instance of wisdom in relation to this subject, 
occurred during the profligate reign of the second Charles. A large sum 
of money appropriated for the redemption of captives having been lost, 
somehow, between the Navy Board and the Commissioners of Excise, it was 
gravely proposed : " That whatever loss or damage the English shall sustain 
from Algerines, shall be required and made good to the losers out of the 
estates of the Jews here in England. Because such a law may save a great 
expense of Christian treasure and blood 1 " 

The first attempt to release English captives by force from Algiers was made 
in 1621, after the project had been debated in the privy council for nearly four 
years. With the exception of rescuing about thirty slaves of various nations, 
who swam off to the English ships, this expedition turned out a perfect fail- 
ure. In 1662, another fleet was sent, a treaty was made with the dey, and 150 
captives ransomed with money raised by the English clergy in their several 
parishes. In 1664, 1672, 1682, and 1686, other treaties were made with the 
Algerines : the frequent recurrence of those treaties shows the little attention 
paid to them by the pirates. 

In 1682, Louis XIV. determined to stop the Algerine aggressions on France; 
and at the same time to try a new and terrible invention in the art of war. 
Renau d'Elicagarry had just laid before the French government a plan for 
building ships of sufficient strength to bear the recoil caused by firing bombs 
from mortars. Louis, accordingly, sent Admiral Duquesue with a fleet and 
some of the new bomb-vessels to destroy Algiers. The expedition was unsuc- 
cessful, the bombs proving nearly as destructive to the French as to their 
enemies. The next year, Duquesne returned, and, taught by experience, suc- 
ceeded in firing all his bombs into the pirate city. The terrified dey capitulated, 
and surrendered 600 slaves to the fleet ; but sixty-four of those unfortunate 
captives being discovered by the French officers to be Englishmen, were sent 



IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 91 

back to the dey ! While a treaty was in preparation, the janizaries, indignant 
at the loss of their slaves, murdered the dey, elected another, and manning 
their forts, commenced firing upon the French. Duquesne's bombs being all 
expended, he was obliged to sheer off and return to France. In 1GSS, Mar- 
shal d'Estrces, with a powerful fleet, arrived off Algiers. The bombs told 
with terrible effect, and the dey soon sued for peace ; but d'Estrees replied that 
he came not to treat, but to punish. On this occasion, 10,000 bombs were 
thrown into Algiers ; the city was reduced to ruins, and the humbled pirates 
compelled to sign a treaty dictated by the conqueror. In a few years, how- 
ever, the demolished fortifications were reerected stronger than ever, and the 
incorrigible Algeriues busy at their old trade of piracy. 

Algeriue slavery at last came to an end. At the close of the long Europeau 
war in 1814, the chivalrous Sir Sidney Smith proposed a union of all orders 
of knighthood for the abolition of white slavery. His plan was to form "an 
amphibious force, to be termed the Knights Liberators, which, without com- 
promising any flag, and without depending on the wars or political events of 
nations, should constantly guard the Mediterranean, and take upou itself the 
important office of watching, pursuing, and capturing all pirates by sea and 
land." Though Sir Sidney's project fell to the ground, yet it had the good 
effect of calling the attention of the British nation to the subject ; and in 1816, 
Lord Exmouth, with an English fleet, sailed to Algiers, destroyed the dey's 
shipping, leveled the fortifications, released altogether about 3,000 captives, 
and abolished forever the atrocious system of Christian slavery. The subse- 
quent history of Algiers is foreign to our subject ; we may merely add, that in 
1830 it became, by right of conquest, a French colony. 

Limited space compels us to say but little respecting the other piratical 
states of Barbary — Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco. They, however, ouly dab- 
bled in piratical slavery, not making it a systematized profession like the Al- 
geriues. When, about the middle of the seventeenth century, there were 
upwards of 30,000 Christian slaves in Algiers, there were not more than 7,000 
in Tunis, 5,000 in Tripoli, and 1,500 in Morocco. In the latter part of the 
sixteenth century, Tunis and Tripoli fell under the power of the Porte, and for 
some time were ruled by Turkish viceroys ; but in a few years the janizaries, 
as at Algiers, elected their own rulers ; and subsequently the native race, over- 
powering the janizaries, gained the ascendency over their Ottoman masters. 
Since Blake humbled the pride of the Tunisians in 1665, and Narbro burned 
the Tripolitan fleet in 1676, neither of those states has inflicted much injury 
on British shipping. The treatment of slaves at Tunis and Tripoli was con- 
sidered to be even milder than at Algiers : the Brothers of Redemption had 
establishments at both places. It was with Tripoli, in 1796, that the United 
States, through their envoy, Joel Barlow, made the treaty which caused so 
much animadversion. In that treaty, Mr. Barlow, to conciliate the Moham- 
medan powers, declared that "the government of the United States of America 
is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Notwithstanding so 
bold an assertion, the faithless Tripolitans declared war against the United 



92 CHRISTIAN SLAVERY. 

States in 1801 ; and after a contest highly creditable to the American navy, 
then in its infancy, peace was concluded between the two powers, and 201 

tives released from slavery. Both Tunis and Tripoli quietly renou 

practice of Christian slavery, when solicited to do so by Lord Exinouth, id 
1816 

All the territories which formed part of the Roman Empire in Africa, sub- 
sequently fell under the sway of Constantinople, except Morocco. Its fertile 
soil, almost within cannon-shot of Europe, " on the very verge and hem of 
civilization," has ever attracted European cupidity, and the patriotic energy 
of its people has ever repelled Christian domination. Almost all the semi- 
barbarous states of the world have fallen a prey to European ambition and 
enterprise; not only dynasties, but races have been extinguished; and yet Mo- 
rocco is still as free from foreign influence as the surf of the Atlantic that 
thunders on its sands. At one period, indeed, almost subjugated, it was little 
more than a Portuguese province, when the Cherifs, a family of mendicant 
fanatics, claiming to be the lineal descendants of Mohammed, expelled the in- 
vaders, and founded the present dynasty. Spain, it is true, still holds two fort- 
resses as penal settlements on the coast; but no Spaniard can ever look over 
an embrasure on the land-side without being saluted with a long Moorish rifle. 
It is an actual fact, that the governors of those prison forts receive intelligence 
of what passes in the interior of Morocco, from Madrid. 

As in other parts of Barbary, it was the Moriscos, after their expulsion 
from Spam, that founded the system of piratical slavery in Morocco. Who 
has not read of the Sallee rovers in Robinson Crusoe, and the old b&llads ? 
Yet, compared with the Algerine, theirs was, after all, a very pettj kind of 
piracy. The harbor of Sallee, the principal port of Morocco, being only 
suitable for vessels drawing little water, piracy was carried on h galleys and 
row-boats, and was formidable only to small unarmed vessek. In 163T, an 
English fleet, under Admiral Rainborongh, took Sallee, &;A released 290 
British captives — "as many as would have cost £10,000." Soon after, the 
emperor of Morocco sent an ambassador to London, who, on his presentation 
to Charles I., went to court in procession, taking with hi*j a number of liber- 
ated captives dressed in white, and many hawks and Bw'oary horses splendidly 
caparisoned. Christian slaves in Morocco were invariably the property of the 
emperor, and were mostly employed in constructing buildings of tapia— a 
composition somewhat resembling our concrete. In the latter part of the 
seventeenth century, during the reign of Muley ishmael, a cruel tyrant to his 
own subjects, and who had a mania for building, the captives in Morocco were 
ill-treated, and compelled to work hard. Yet even then, one Thomas Phelps, 
who made his escape from Mequinez, tells ns that the emperor came frequently 
amongst the slaves when at work, and would " bolt out encouraging words to 
them, such as : ' May God send you all safe home to your own countries ! ' " 
and any captive was exensed from work by the payment of a blanquil—a sum 
equivalent to four cents—per day. In 1685, the emperor had 800 Christian 
slaves, 260 of whom were English ; many of those, however, were subsequently 



AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE EARLY HISTORY. 93 

ransomed. After Muley Ishmael's death, the captives were much better 
treated. Captain Braithwaite, who accompanied Mr. Russell on a mission 
from the English government in 1727, thus describes the condition of the 
Christian captives in Morocco : "Most part of them," he says, "have expecta- 
tions of getting back to their native country at one time or another. The 
emperor keeps most of them at work upon his buildings, but not to such hard 
labor that our laborers go through. The Canute, where they are lodged, is 
infinitely better than our prisons. In short, the captives have a much greater 
property in what they get than the Moors ; several of them being rich, and 
many have carried considerable sums out of the country. Several keep their 
mules, and some their servants, to the truth of which we are all witnesses." 
Morocco was the first of the Barbary states that gave up the practice of Chris- 
tian slavery. In a treaty made with Spain in 1799, the emperor declared his 
desire that the name of slavery might be effaced from the memory of man- 
kind.* 



CHAPTER VII. 

African Slave Trade from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century. 

Negroland, or Nigritia, described. — Slavery among the Natives. — Mungo Park's estimate 
of the number of Slaves. — The Portuguese navigators explore the African coast. — Na- 
tives first carried off in 1434. — Portuguese establish the Slave Trade on the Western 
Coast — followed by the Spaniards. — America discovered — colonized by the Spaniards, 
who reduce the Natives to Slavery — they die by thousands in consequence. — The Do- 
minican priests intercede for them. — Negroes from Africa substituted as Slaves, 1510. 
— Cardinal Ximenes remonstrates. — Charles V. encourages the trade. — Insurrection of 
the Slaves at Segovia. — Other nations colonize America. — First recognition of the Slave 
Trade by the English government in 1562, reign of Elizabeth. — First Negroes imported 
into Virginia in a Dutch vessel in 1(320. — The French and other commercial nations en- 
gage in the traffic. — The great demand for Slaves on the African coast. — Negroes fight- 
ing and kidnapping each other. — Slave factories established by the English, French, 
Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese. — Slave factory described. — How Slaves were procured 
in the interior. 



N. 



I EGROLAND, or Nigritia, is that part of the interior of Africa stretching 
from the great desert on the north to the unascertained commencement of Caf- 
freland on the south, and from the Atlantic on the west to Abyssinia on the 
east. In fact, the entire interior of this great continent may be called the land 
of the negroes. The ancients distinguished it from the comparatively civilized 
countries lying along the coast of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea by call- 
ing the latter Libya, and the former Ethiopia. It is upon Ethiopia in an es- 
pecial manuer that the curse of slavery has fallen. At first, it bore but a share 
of the burden ; Britons and Scythians were the fellow-slaves of the Ethiopian : 
but at last all the other nations of the earth seemed to conspire against the ne- 

* Chambers' Miscellany. 



94 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

gro race, agreeing never to enslave each other, but to make the blacks the slaves 
of all alike. Thus, this race of human beings has been singled out, whether 
owing to the accident of color, or to their peculiar fitness for certain kinds of 
labor, for infamy and misfortune ; and the abolition of the practice of promis- 
cuous slavery in the modern world, was purchased by the introduction of a slav- 
ery confined entirely to negroes. 

The nations and tribes of negroes in Africa, who thus ultimately became the 
universal prey of Europeans, were themselves equally guilty in subjecting men 
to perpetual bondage. In the most remote times, every Ethiopian man of 
consequence had his slaves, just as a Greek or Roman master had. Savage as 
he was, he at least resembled the citizen of a civilized state in this. He pos- 
sessed his domestic slaves, or bondmen, hereditary on his property ; and be- 
sides these, he was always acquiring slaves by whatever means he could, whether 
by purchase from slave-dealers, or by war with neighboring tribes. The slaves 
of a negro master in this case would be his own countrymen, or at least men 
of his own race and color ; some of them born on the same spot with himself, 
some of them captives who had been brought from a distance of a thousand 
miles. Of course, the farther a captive was taken from his home, the more 
valuable he would be, as having less chance of escape ; and therefore it would 
be a more common practice to sell a slave taken in war with a neighboring 
tribe, than to retain him as a laborer so near his home. And just as in the 
cities of the civilized countries, we find the slave population often outnumber- 
ing the free, so in the villages of the interior of Africa the negro slaves were 
often more numerous than the negro masters. Park, in his travels among the 
negroes, found that in many villages the slaves were three times as numerous 
as the free persons; and it is likely that the proportion was not very different 
in more ancient times. In ancient times, the Garamantes used to sell negroes 
to the Libyans; and so a great proportion of the slaves of the Carthaginians 
and the Egyptians must have been blacks brought northwards across the des- 
ert. From Carthage and Egypt, again, these negroes would be exported into 
different countries of southern Europe ; and a stray negro might even find his 
way into the more northern regions. They seem always to have been valued 
for their patience, their mild temper, and their extraordinary power of endur- 
ance ; and for many purposes negro slaves would be preferred by their Roman 
masters to all others, even to the shaggy, scowling Picts. But though it is 
quite certain that negroes were used as slaves in ancient Europe, still the negro 
never came to enjoy that miserable preeminence which latertimes have ass igned 
to him, treating him as the born drudge of the human family. White-skinned 
men were slaves as well as he ; and if, among the Carthaginians and Egyptians, 
negro slaves were more common than any other, it was only because they were 
more easily procurable. 

The Portuguese were the first to set the example of stealing negroes: they 
were the first to become acquainted with Africa. Till the fifteenth century, 
no part of Africa was known except the chain of countries on the coast of the 
Mediterranean and the Red Sea, beginning with Morocco, and ending with 



EARLY HISTORY. 95 

Abyssinia and the adjoining desert. The Arabs and Moors, indeed, traversing 
the latter, knew something about Ethiopia, or the land of the negroes, but 
what kuowledge they had was confined to themselves ; and to the Europeans the 
whole of the continent to the south of the desert was an unknown and unex- 
plored land. There were traditions of two ancient circumnavigations of the 
continent by the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians, one down the Red Sea, 
and round the Cape of Good Hope from the east, the other through the Straits 
of Gibraltar, and round the same cape from the west ; but these traditions were 
vague and questionable. They were sufficient, however, to set the brains of 
modern navigators a- working ; and now that they were possessed of the mari- 
ner's compass, they might hope to repeat the Carthaginian feat of circumnavi- 
gating Africa; if, indeed, Africa were circumnavigable. In the year 1412, 
therefore, a series of attempts was begun by the Portuguese, at the instigation 
of Prince Henry, to sail southward along the western coast. In every suc- 
ceeding attempt, the bold navigators got farther and farther south, past the 
Canaries, past the. Cape Yerds, along the coast of Guinea, through the Bight 
of Biafra, down that long unnamed extent of coast south of the equator, until 
at last the perseverance of three generations succeeded, and the brave Vasco 
de Gama, in 1497, rounded the great cape itself, turned his prow northward, 
sailed through the Mozambique Channel, and then, as if protesting that he had 
done with Africa all that navigator could, steered through the open ocean right 
for the shores of India. The third or fourth of these attempts brought the 
Portuguese into contact with the negroes. Before the year 14T0, the whole 
of the Guinea coast had been explored. As early as 1434, Antonio Gonzales, 
a Portuguese captain, landed on this coast, and carried away with him some 
negro boys, whom he sold to one or two Moorish families in the south of Spain. 
The act seems to have provoked some criticism at the time. But from that 
day, it became customary for the captains of vessels landing on the Gold Coast, 
or other parts of the coast of Guinea, to carry away a few young negroes of 
both sexes. The labor of these negroes, whether on board the ships which 
carried them away, or in the ports to which the ships belonged, being found 
valuable, the practice soon grew into a traffic ; and negroes, instead of being 
carried away in twos and threes as curiosities, came to form a part of the 
cargo, as well as gold, ivory, and gum. The ships no longer went on voyages 
of discovery, they went for profitable cargoes ; and the inhabitants of the 
negro villages along the coast, delighted with the beads, and knives, and bright 
cloths which they got in exchange for gold, ivory, and slaves, took care to 
have these articles ready for any ship that might land. Thus the slave-trade, 
properly so called, began. The Spaniards were the first nation to become 
parties with the Portuguese in this infamous traffic. 

At first, the deportation of slaves from Africa was conducted on a limited 
scale ; but about seventy years after Gonzales had carried away the first negro 
boys from the Guinea coast, an opening was all at once made for negro labor, 
which made it necessary to carry away blacks, not by occasional ship-loads, but 
by thousands annually. 



9 b AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

America was discovered in 1492. The part of this new world which was 
first colonized by the Spaniards, consisted of those islands scattered th 
the great gap of ocean between North and South America ; which, as they 
were thought to be the outermost individuals of the great Eastern Indies, to 
which it was the main object of Columbus to effect a western passage, were 
called the West -Indies. When the Spaniards took possession of these islands, 
they employed the natives, or Indians, as they were called, to do all the heavy 
kinds of labor for them, such as carrying burdens, digging for gold, <tc. In 
fact, these Indians became slaves of their Spanish conquerors ; and it was cus- 
tomary, in assigning lands to a person, to give him, at the same time, all the 
Indians upon them. Thus, when Bernal Diaz paid his respects to Yelasquez, 
the governor of Cuba, the governor promised him the first Indians he had at 
his disposal. According to all accounts, never was there a race of men more 
averse to labor, or constitutionally more unfit for it, than these native Ameri- 
cans. They are described as the most listless, improvident people on the face 
of the earth, and though capable of much passive endurance, drooped and lost 
all heart whenever they were put to active labor. Labor, ill-usage, and the 
small-pox together, carried them off in thousands, and wherever a Spaniard 
trod, he cleared a space before him, as if he carried a blasting influence in his 
person. When Albuquerque entered on his office as governor of St. Domingo 
in 1515, he found that, whereas in 1508 the natives numbered 60,000, they did 
not then number 14,000. The condition of these poor aborigines under the 
Spanish colonists became so heart-breaking, that the Dominican priests stepped 
out in their behalf, asserting them to be free men, and denying the right of the 
Spaniards to make them slaves. This led to a vehement controversy, which 
lasted several years, and in which Bartholomew de Las Casas, a benevolent 
priest, figured most conspicuously as the friend of the Indians. So energetic 
and persevering was he, that he produced a great impression in their favor 
upon the Spanish government at honfe. 

Unfortunately, the relaxation in favor of one race of men was procured at 
the expense of the slavery of another. Whether La Casas himself was led, 
by his extreme interest in the Indians, to be so inconsistent as to propose the 
employment of negroes in their stead, or whether the suggestion came from 
some other person, does not distinctly appear; but it is certain, that what the 
Spaniards spared the Indians, they inflicted with double rigor upon the negroes. 
Laborers must be had, and the negroes were the kind of laborers that would 
suit. As early as 1503, a few negroes had been carried across the Atlantic ; 
and it was found that not only could each of these negroes do as much work 
as four Indians, but that, while the Indians were fast becoming extinct, the 
egroes were thriving and propagating wonderfully. The plain inference was, 
that they should import negroes as fast as possible ; and this was accordingly 
done. "In the year 1510," says the old Spanish historian Herrera, "the king 
of Spain ordered fifty slaves to be sent to Hispaniola to work in tin 
mines, the natives being looked upon as a weak people, and unfit for labor " 
And this was but a beginning ; for, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Car- 



EARLY HISTORY. 97 

diual Xiinenes, ship-load after ship-load of negroes was earned to the Wdst 
Indies. We find Charles V. giving one of his Flemish favorites an exclusive 
right of shipping 4000 negroes to the new world — a monoply which that 
favorite sold to some Genoese merchants for 25,000 ducats. These merchants 
organized the traffic ; many more than 4000 negroes were required to do the 
work ; and though at first the negroes were exorbitantly dear, they multiplied 
so fast, and were imported in such quantities, that at last there was a negro 
for every Spaniard in the colonies ; and in whatever new direction the Span 
iards advanced in their career of conquest, negroes went along with them. 

The following extract from the Spanish historian already quoted will show 
not only that the negroes were very numerous, but that sometimes also they 
proved refractory, and endeavored to get the upper hand of their masters : 
" There was so great a number of blacks in the governments of Santa Marta 
and Venezuela, and so little precaution was used in the management of them, 
or rather the liberty they had was so great, being allowed the use of arms, 
which they much delight in, that, prompted by their natural fierceness and 
arrogance, a small number of the most polished, who valued themselves for 
their valor and gayety, resolved to rescue themselves from servitude, aud be- 
come their own masters, believing that they might live at their own will among 
the Indians. Those few summoning others, who, like a thoughtless brutish 
people, were not capable of making any reflection, but were always ready at 
the beck of those of their own color for whom they had any respect or es- 
teem, they readily complied. Assembling to the number of about 250, and 
repairing to the settlement of New Segovia, they divided themselves into com- 
panies, and appointed captains, and saluted one king, who had the most bold- 
ness and resolution to assume that title ; and he, intimating that they should 
all be rich, and lords of the country, by destroying the Spaniards, assigned 
every one the Spanish woman that should fall to his lot, with other such inso- 
lent projects aud machinations. The fame of this commotion was soon spread 
abroad throughout all the cities of those two governments, where preparations 
were speedily made for marching against the blacks, as well to prevent their 
being joined by the rest of their countrymen that were not yet gone to them, 
as to obviate the many mischiefs which those barbarians might occasion to the 
country. In the meantime, the inhabitants of Tucuyo sent succors to the city 
of Segovia, which was but newly founded ; and the very night that relief ar- 
rived there, the blacks, who had got intelligence of it, resolved to be before- 
hand with the Spaniards ; and in order that, greater forces thus coming in, 
they might not grow too strong for them, they fell upon those Spaniards, kill- 
ing five or six of them, and a clergyman. However, the success did not 
answer their expectation, for the Spaniards being on their guard, readily took 
the alarm, fought the blacks courageously, and killed a considerable number. 
The rest, perceiving that their contrivance had miscarried, retired. The next 
morning Captain James de Lassado arrived there with forty men from the gov- 
ernment of Venezuela, and, judging that no time ought to be lost in that 
affair, marched against the blacks with the men he had brought, and those 
1 



98 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

who were before at New Segovia. Perceiving that they had quitted the post 
they had first taken, and were retired to a strong place on the mountain, he 
pursued, overtook, and attacked them ; and though they drew up and stood on 
their defense, he soon routed and put them all to the sword, sparing none but 
their women and some female Indians they had with them, after which he re- 
turned to Segovia, and those provinces were delivered from much uneasiness." 

The Spaniards did not long remain alone in the guilt of this new traffic. 
At first the Spaniards had all America to themselves ; and as it was in 
America that negro labor was in demand, the Spaniards alone possessed large 
numbers of negroes. But other nations come to have colonies in America, 
and as negroes were found invaluable in the foundation of a new colony, other 
nations came also to patronize the slave trade. The first recognition of the 
trade by the English government was in 1562, in the reign of Elizabeth, whin 
an act was passed legalizing the purchase of negroes ; yet, as the earlier 
attempts made by the English to plant colonies in North America were unsuc- 
cessful, there did not, for some time after the passing of this act, exist any 
demand for negroes sufficient to induce the owners of English trading vessels 
visiting the coast of Africa to make negroes a part of their cargo. It was in 
the year 1620 that the first negroes were imported into Virginia; and even 
then it was not an English slave-ship which supplied them, but a Dutch one, 
which chanced to touch on the coast with some negroes on board bound for the 
Spanish colonies. These negroes the Virginian planters purchased on trial ; 
and the bargain was found to be so good, that in a short time negroes came to 
be in great demand in Virginia. Nor were the planters any longer indebted 
to the chance visits of Dutch ships for a supply of negro-laborers ; for the 
English merchants, vigilant and calculating then as they are now, immediately 
embarked in the traffic, and instructed the captains of their vessels visiting (lie 
African coast to barter for negroes as well as wax and elephants' teeth. In a 
similar way the French, the Dutch, and all other nations of any commercial 
importance, came to be involved in the traffic ; those who had colonies, to 
supply the demand there ; those who had no colonies, to make money by 
assisting to supply the demand of the colonies of other countries. Before the 
middle of the seventeenth century, the African slave-trade was in full vigor ; 
and all Europe was implicated in the buying and selling of negroes. 

So universal is the instinct for barter, that the immediate effect of the new 
and great demand for slaves was to create its own supply. Slavery, as we 
have said, existed in Negroland from time immemorial, but on a comparatively 
limited scale. The effect of the demand by the European ships gave an 
unhappy stimulus to the natural animosities of the various negro tribes skirt- 
ing the west coast ; and, tempted by the clasp-knives, and looking-glasses, and 
wonderful red cloth, which the white men always brought with them to ex- 
change for slaves, the whole negro population for many miles inland began 
fighting and kidnapping each other. Not only so, but the interior of the con- 
tinent itself, the district of Lake Tchad, and the mystic source of the fatal Ni- 
ger, hitherto untrodden by the foot of a white invader, began to feel the tremor 



EAELY HISTORY. <J9 

saused by the traffic on the coast ; and ere long, the very negroes who seemed 
safest in their central obscurities, were drained away to meet the increasing de- 
mand ; either led captive by warlike visitants from the west, or handed from 
tribe to tribe till they reached the sea. In this way, eventually, Central Africa, 
with its teeming myriads of negroes, came to be the great mother of slaves for 
exportation, and the negro villages on the coast the warehouses, as it were, 
where the slaves were stowed away till the ships of the white men arrived to 
carry them off. 

European skill and foresight assisted in giving constancy and regularity to 
the supply of negroes from the interior. At first the slave vessels only visited 
the Guinea coast, and bargained with the negroes of the villages there for what 
quantity of wax, or gold, or negroes they had to give. But this was a clumsy 
way of conducting business. The ships had to sail along a large tract of coast, 
picking up a few negroes at one place, and a little ivory or gold at another ; 
sometimes even the natives of a village might have no elephants' teeth and no 
negroes to give ; and even under the most favorable circumstances, it took a 
considerable time to procure a decent cargo. No coast is so pestilential as that 
of Africa, and hence the service was very repulsive and very dangerous. As 
an improvement on this method of trading, the plan was adopted very early of 
planting small settlements of Europeans at intervals along the slave-coast, 
whose business it should be to negotiate with the negroes, stimulate them to 
activity in their slave-hunting expeditions, purchase the slaves brought in, and 
warehouse them until the arrival of the ships. These settlements were called 
slave factories. Factories of this kind were planted all along the western coast 
from Cape Verd to the equator, by English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese 
traders. Their appearance, the character of the men employed in them, their 
internal arrangements, and their mode of carrying on the traffic, are well de- 
scribed in the following extract from Mr. Howison's book on "..European 
Colonies" : 

"As soon as the parties concerned had fixed upon the site of their proposed 
commercial establishment, they began to erect a fort of greater or less magni- 
tude, having previously obtained permission to that effect from the natives. 
The most convenient situation for a building of the kind was considered to be 
at the confluence of a river with the sea, or upon an island lying within a ^ew 
miles of the coast. In the first case, there was the advantage of inland navi- 
gation ; and in the second, that of the security and defensibleness of an insular 
position, besides its being more cool and healthy than any other. 

The walls of the fort enclosed a considerable space of ground, upon which 
were built the necessary magazines for the reception of merchandise, and also 
barracks for the soldiers and artificers, and a depot for slaves ; so that, in the 
event of external hostilities, the gates might be shut, and the persons and the 
property belonging to the establishment placed in security. The quarters foi 
the officers and agents employed at the factory were in general erected upon 
the ramparts, or at least adjoining them ; while the negroes in their service, 
and any others that might be attracted to the spot, placed their huts outside ot 
the walls of the fort, but under the protection of its guns. 



100 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

The command of the establishment was vested in the hands of one individ. 
ual, who had various subordinates, according to the extent of the trade carried 
on at the place ; and if the troops who garrisoned the fort exceeded' twenty or 
thirty, a commissioned officer usually had charge of them. The most remark- 
able forts were St. George del Mina, erected by the Portuguese, though it sub- 
sequently fell into the hands of the Dutch ; Cape Coast Castle, the principal 
establishment of the English ; Fort Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal, gea- 
crally occupied by the French ; and Goree, situated upon an island of the same 
name, near Cape Verd. Most of these forts mounted from fifty to sixty pieces 
of cannon, and contained large reservoirs for water, and were not only impreg- 
nable to the negroes, but capable of standing a regular siege by a European 
force. 

The individuals next in importance to the director or governor were the fac- 
tors, who ranked according to their standing in the company's service. The 
seniors generally remained at headquarters, and had the immediate manage- 
ment of the trade there, and the care of the supplies of European merchan- 
dise which were always kept in store. The junior factors were employed in 
'carrying on the traffic in the interior of the country, which they did sometimes 
by ascending the rivers in armed vessels, and exchanging various articles for 
slaves, gold-dust, and ivory, with the negroes inhabiting the neighborhood ; 
and sometimes by establishing themselves for several months in a large town or 
populous district, and, as it were, keeping a shop to which the natives might 
resort for traffic. 

The European subordinates of the establishment consisted of clerks, book- 
keepers, warehousemen, artificers, mechanics, gunners, and private soldiers, all 
of whom had particular quarters assigned for their abode, and lived under mil- 
itary discipline. • The soldiers employed in the service of the different African 
companies were mostly invalids, and persons who had been dismissed from the 
army on account of bad conduct. Destitute of the means of subsistence at 
home, such men willingly engaged to go to the coast of Africa, where they 
knew they would be permitted to lead a life of ease, indolence, and licentious- 
ness, and be exposed to no danger except that of a deadly climate, which was 
in reality the most certain and inevitable one that they could anywhere encoun- 
ter. Few of the troops in any of the forts were fit for active duty, which was 
of the less consequence, because they were seldom or never required to fight 
except upon the ramparts of the place in which they might be quartered, and 
not often even there. Hence they spent their time in smoking, in drinking palm 
wine, and in gaming, and were generally carried off by fever or dissipation 
within two years after their arrival in the country. A stranger, on first visit- 
ing any of the African forts, felt that there was something both horrible and 
ludicrous in the appearance of its garrison ; for the individuals composing it 
appeared ghastly, debilitated, and diseased, to a degree that is unknown in 
other climates ; and their tattered and soiled uniforms, resembling each other 
only in meanness, and not in color, suggested the idea of the wearers being a 
band of drunken deserters, or of starved and maltreated prisoners of war. 



EARLY HISTORY. 101 

Each company was in the practice of annually sending a certain number of 
ships to its respective establishments, freighted with European goods suitable 
for traffic ; while its factors in Africa had in the meantime been collecting slaves, 
ivory, gumarabic, and other productions of the country ; so that the vessels on 
their arrival suffered no detention, but always found a return cargo ready for 
them. 

Though the forts were principally employed as places of safe deposit for 
merchandise received from Europe or collected at outposts, they were also gen- 
erally the scene of a considerable trade, being resorted to for that purpose not 
only by the coast negroes, but often also by dealers from the interior of the 
country, who would bring slaves, ivory, and gold-dust for traffic. Persons of 
this description were always honorably, and even ceremoniously received by the 
governor or by the factors, and conciliated in every possible way, lest they 
might carry their goods to another market. They were invited to enter the 
fort, and were treated with liquors, sweetmeats, and presents, and urged to 
drink freely ; and no sooner did they show symptoms of confusion of ideas, 
than the factors proposed to trade with them, and displayed the articles which 
they were disposed to give in exchange for their slaves, &c. The unsuspicious 
negro-merchant, dazzled by the variety of tempting objects placed before him, 
and exhilarated by wine or brandy, was easily led to conclude a bargain little 
advantageous to himself; and before he had fully recovered his senses, his slaves, 
ivory, and gold-dust were transferred to the stores of the factory, and he was 
obliged to be contented with what he had in his moments of inebriety agreed 
to accept in exchange for them." 

From this extract, it appears that not only did the managers of these facto- 
ries receive all the negroes who might be brought down to the coast, but that 
emissaries, "junior factors," as they were called, peuetrated into the interior, 
as if thoroughly to infect the central tribes with the spirit of commerce. The 
result of this was the creation of large slave-markets in the interior, where the 
negro slaves were collected for sale, and where slave-merchants, whether negro, 
Arabic, or European, met to conclude their wholesale bargains. One of these 
great slave-markets was at Timbuctoo ; but for the most part the slaves were 
brought down in droves by Slatees, or negro slave-merchants, to the European 
factories on the coast. At the time that Park traveled in Africa, so completely 
had the negroes of the interior become possessed with the trading spirit, so 
much had the capture and abduction of negroes grown into a profession, that 
these native slave-merchants were observed to treat the slaves they were dri- 
ving to the coast with considerable kindness. The negroes were, indeed, 
chained together to prevent their escape. Those who were refractory had a 
thick billet of wood fastened to their ankle ; and as the poor wretches quitting 
their native spots became sullen and moody, their limbs at the same time 
swelling and breaking out in sores with the fatigue of traveling, it was often 
necessary to apply the whip. Still, the Slatees were not wantonly cruel ; and 
there was nothing they liked better than to see their slaves merry. Occasion- 
ally they would halt in their march, and encourage the negroes to sing their 



102 NUBIAN SLAVES. 

snatches of song, or play their games of hazard, or dance under the shade of 
the tamarind tree. This, however, was only the case with the professional 
slave-driver, who was commissioned to convey the negroes to the coast ; and 
if we wish to form a conception of the extent and intricate working of the 
curse inflicted upon the negroes by their contact with white men, we must set 
ourselves to imagine all the previous kidnapping and fighting which must have 
been necessary to procure every one of these droves which the Slatees carried 
down. What a number of processes must have conspired to bring a sufficient 
number of slaves together to form a drove I In one case, it would be a negro 
master selling a number of his spare slaves ; and what an amount of suffering 
even in this case must there have been arising from the separation of relatives ! 
In another case, it would be a father selling his son, or a son selling his old 
father, or a creditor selling his insolvent debtor. In a third, it would be a 
starving family voluntarily surrendering itself to slavery. When a scarcity 
occurred, instances used to be frequent of famishing negroes coming to the 
British stations in Africa and begging "to be put upon the slave-chain." In 
a fourth case it would be a savage selling the boy or girl he had kidnapped a 
week ago on purpose. In a fifth, it would be a petty negro chief disposing 
of twenty or thirty negroes taken alive in a recent attack upon a village at a 
little distance from his own. Sometimes these forays in quest of negroes to 
sell are on a very large scale, and then they are called slave-hunts. The king 
of one negro country collects a large army, and makes an expedition into the 
territories of another negro king, ravaging and making prisoners as he goes. 
If the inhabitants make a stand against him, a battle ensues, in which the 
invading army is generally victorious. As many are killed as may be necessary 
to decide that such is the case ; and the captives are driven away in thousands, 
to be kept on the property of the victor till he finds opportunities of selling 
them. In 1794, the king of the southern Foulahs, a powerful tribe in Nigri- 
tia, was known to have an army of 16,000 men constantly employed in these 
slave-hunting expeditions into his neighbors' territories. The slaves they pro- 
cured made the largest item in his revenue. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Slave Traffic of the Levant. — Nubian Slaves. 

The Mohammedan slave-trade. — Nubian slaves captured for the slave markets of the 
Levant. — Mohammed Ali. — Grand expeditions for hunting. — Annual tribute of slaves. 
— The encampment. — Attack upon the villages. — Courage of the natives. — Their heroio 
resistance.— Cruelty of the victors. — Destruction of villages. The captives sold into 
slavery. 



Vi 



HILE Central and Eastern Africa were ravaged for slaves to supply the 
American market, Nubia and other districts were equally laid under contribu- 



NUBIAN SLAVES. 103 

tion to supply the slave markets of the Levant, of Egypt, Turkey and the 
East. The one may be called the Christian, the other the Mohammedan Slave 
Trade. The main difference -between the two trades was, that while the 
Europeans generally bought slaves after they had been captured, the less fas- 
tidious Turks captured slaves for themselves. "We have been accustomed to 
interest ourselves so much in the western or Christian slave-trade, that we have 
paid but little attention to the other. While the one trade has been legally 
abolished, the other is carried on as vigorously as ever. A traffic in negroes 
is at present going on between Negroland and the whole of the East. While 
it has been declared illegal to carry away a negro from the coast of Guinea, 
negroes are bought and sold daily iu the public slave markets of Cairo and 
Constantinople. 

When Dr. Madden, of England, went to Egypt in 1840, as the bearer of a 
letter from the Anti-Slavery Convention to Mohammed Ali, the ruler of Egypt, 
congratulating him upon his having issued an order abolishing the slave hunts, 
to his great surprise, he found that the order, though issued, had never been 
enforced, and probably never would be. The truth is, that Mohammed himself 
had brought the system of hunting slaves to a high degree of perfection. 
Nubia was his principal hunting ground, into which he permitted no intruder. 
His own expeditions were conducted on a grand scale ; and generally took 
place after the rainy season. From Dr. Madden's work, we extract a descrip- 
tion of these slave hunts : "The capturing expedition consists of from 1000 
to 2000 regular foot soldiers ; from 400 to 800 mounted Bedouins, armed with 
guns and pistols ; from 300 to 500 militia, half-naked savages on dromedaries, 
armed with spears, and 1000 more on foot, armed with small lances. As soon 
as everything is ready, the march begins. They usually take from two to four 
field-pieces, and only sufficient bread for the first eight days. They take 
by force on the route such oxen, sheep, and other cattle as they may need, 
making no reparation and listening to no complaints, as the governor himself 
is present. 

As soon as they arrive at the nearest mountains in Nubia, the inhabitants 
are asked to give the appointed number of slaves as their customary tribute. 
This is usually done with readiness, as they are well aware that by an obstinate 
refusal, they expose themselves to far greater sufferings. If the slaves are 
given without resistance, the inhabitants of that mountain are preserved from 
the horrors of an open attack ; but as the food of the soldiers begins to fail 
about that time, the poor people are obliged to procure the necessary provis- 
ions as well as the specified number of slaves, and the Turks do not consider 
whether the harvest has been good or bad. All that is not freely given, the 
soldiers take by force. Like so many bloodhounds, they know how to discover 
the hidden stores, and frequently leave these unfortunate people scarcely a loaf 
for the next day. They then proceed on to the more distant mountains : here 
they consider themselves to be in the land of an enemy ; they encamp near the 
mountain which they intend to take by storm the following day, or immediately, 
if it is practicable. But before the attack commences, they endeavor to settle 



104 NUBIAN SLAVES. 

the affair amicably : a messenger is sent to the sheik, in order to invite him to 
come to the camp, and to bring with him the requisite number of slaves. If 
the chief agrees with his subjects to the proposal, in order to prevent all fur- 
ther bloodshed, or if he finds his means inadequate to attempt resistance, he 
readily gives the appointed number of slaves. The sheik then proceeds to 
procure the number he has promised ; and this is not difficult, for many volun- 
teers offer themselves for their brethren, and are ready to subject themselves 
to all the horrors of slavery, in order to free those they love. Sometimes they 
are obliged to be torn by force from the embraces of their friends and relations. 
The sheik generally receives a dress as a present for his ready services. 

But there are very few mountains that submit to such a demand. Most 
villages which are advantageously situated, and lie near steep precipices or in- 
accessible heights, that can be ascended only with difficulty, defend themselves 
most valiantly, and fight for the rights of liberty with a courage, perseverance, 
and sacrifice, of which history furnishes us with few examples. Very few flee 
at the approach of their enemies, although they might take refuge in the high 
mountains with all their goods, especially as they receive timely information of 
the arrival of the soldiers ; but they consider such flights cowardly and shame- 
ful, and prefer to die fighting for their liberty. 

If the sheik does not yield to the demand, an attack is made upon the vil- 
lage. The cavalry and bearers of lances surround the whole mountain, and 
the infantry endeavor to climb the heights. Formerly, they fired with cannon 
upon the villages and those places where the negroes were assembled, but, on 
.account of the want of skill of the artillerymen, few shots, if any, took effect ; 
the negroes became indifferent to this prelude, and were only stimulated to a 
more obstinate resistance. The thundering of the cannon at first caused more 
consternation than their effects, but the fears of the negroes ceased as soon as 
they became accustomed to it. Before the attack commences, all avenues to 
the village are blocked up with largo stones or other impediments, the village 
is provided with water for several days, the cattle and other property taken up 
to the mountains ; in short, nothing necessary for a proper defense is neglected. 
The men, armed only with lances, occupy every spot which may be defended ; 
and even the women do not remain inactive ; they either take part in the bat- 
tle personally, or encourage their husbands by their cries and lamentations, and 
provide them with arms ; in. short, all are active, except the sick and aged. 
The points of their wooden lances are first dipped into a poison which is stand- 
ng by them in an earthen vessel, and which is prepared from the juice of a 
certain plant. The poison is of a whitish color, and»looks like milk which has 
been standing ; the nature of the plant, and the manner in which the pciscn is 
prepared, is still a secret, and generally known only to one family in the vil- 
lage, who will not on any account make it known to others. 

The signal for attack being given, the infantry sound the alarm, and an as- 
sault is made upon the mountain. Hundreds of lances, large stones, and pieces 
of wood, are then thrown at the assailants; behind every lai-ge stone a negro 
is concealed, who either throws his poisoned lance at the enemy, or wpits for 



NUBIAN SLAVES. 105 

the moment when his opponent approaches the spot of his concealment, when 
he pierces him with his lance. The soldiers, who are only able to climb up the 
steep heights with great difficulty, are obliged to sling their guns over their 
backs, in order to have the use of their hands when climbing, and, conse- 
quently, are often in the power of the negroes before they are able to discover 
them. But nothing deters these robbers. Animated, with avarice and revenge, 
they mind no impediment, not even death itself. One after another treads 
upon the corpse of his comrade, and thinks only of robbery and murder ; and 
the village is at last taken, in spite of the most desperate resistance. And 
then the revenge is horrible. Neither the aged nor the sick are spared ; 
women, and even children in the womb, fall a sacrifice to their fury ; the huts 
are plundered, the little possessions of the unfortunate inhabitants carried 
away or destroyed, and all that fall alive into the hands of the robbers are led 
as slaves into the camp. When the negroes see that their resistance is no 
longer of any avail, they frequently prefer death to slavery ; and if they are 
not prevented, you may see the father rip up first the stomach of his wife, 
then of his children, and then his own, that they may not fall alive into the 
hands of the enemy. Others endeavor to save themselves by creeping into 
holes, and remain there for several days without nourishment, where there is 
frequently only room sufficient to allow them to lie on their backs, and in that 
situation they sometimes remain for eight days. They have assured me, that 
if they can overcome the first three days, they may, with a little effort, con- 
tinue full eight days without food. But even from these hiding-places the 
unfeeling barbarians know how to draw them, or they make use of means to 
destroy them : provided with combustibles, such as pitch, brimstone, &c, the 
soldiers try to kindle a fire before the entrance of the holes, and, by forcing 
the stinking smoke into them, the poor creatures are obliged to creep out and 
surrender themselves to their enemies, or they are suffocated with the smoke. 

After the Turks have done all in their power to capture the living, they lead 
these unfortunate people into the camp ; they then plunder the huts and the 
cattle ; and several hundred soldiers are engaged in searching the mountain in 
every direction, in order to steal the hidden harvest, that the rest of the ne- 
groes, who were fortunate enough to escape, and have hid themselves in inac- 
cessible caves, should not find anything on their return to nourish and continue 
their life. 

"When slaves to the number of 500 or 600 are obtained, they are sent to 
Lobeid, with an escort of country people, and about fifty soldiers, under the 
command of an officer. In order to prevent escape, a sheba is hung round 
the necks of the adults. A sheba is a young tree, about eight feet long, and 
two inches thick, and which has a fork at the top ; it is so tied to tne neck of 
the poor creature, that the trunk of the tree hangs down in the front, and the 
fork is closed behind the neck with a cross-piece of timber, or tied together 
with strips cut out of a fresh skin ; and in this situation the slave, in order to 
walk at all, is obliged to take the tree into his hands, and to carry it before 
him. But none can endure this very long ; and to render it easier, the one in 



106 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

advance takes the tree of the man behind him on his shoulder." In this way, 
the men carrying the sheba, the boys tied together by the wrists, the women 
and children walking at their liberty, and the old and feeble tottering along 
leaning on their relations, the whole of the captives are driven into Egypt, 
there to be exposed for sale in the slave-market. Thus negroes and Nubians 
are distributed over the East, through Persia, Arabia, India, &c.* 



CHAPTER IX. 
African Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century. 

England first engages in the Slave Trade in 1562— Sir John Hawkins' voyages.— British 
first established a regular trade in 1618. — Second charter granted in 1631.— Third 
charter in 1662.— Capture of the Dutch Forts.— Retaken by De Ruyter.— Fourth 
charter in 1672 ; the King and Duke of York shareholders. — Monopoly abolished, and 
free trade in Slaves declared. — Flourishing condition of the Trade. — Numbers annual- 
ly exported. — Public sentiment aroused against the Slave Trade in England. — Parlia- 
ment resolve to hear Evidence upon the subject. — Abstract of the Evidence taken 
before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1790 and 1791 — Revealing the 
Enormities committed by the Natives on the persons of one another to procure Slaves 
for the Europeans. — War and Kidnapping — imputed Crimes. — Villages attacked and 
burned, and inhabitants seized and sold. — African chiefs excited by intoxication to 
sell their subjects. 



s 



IR John Hawkins was the first Englishman who transported slaves from 
Africa to America. This was in 1562. His adventures are recorded by 
Hakluyt, a cotemporary historian. He sailed from England in October, 1562, 
for Sierra Leone, and in a short time obtained possession of 300 negroes, 
" partly by the sword and partly by other means." He proceeded directly to 
Hispaniola, and exchanged his cargo for hides, ginger, sugar, &c, and arrived 
in England, after an absence of eleven months. The voyage was "very pros- 
perous, and brought great profit to the adventurers." 

This success excited the avarice of his countrymen ; and the next year, 
Hawkins sailed for Guinea with three ships. The history of this voyage is 
related at large in Hakluyt's collections, by a person who sailed with Hawkins. 
They landed at a small island on the coast to see if they could take any of the 
inhabitants. Eighty men, with arms and ammunition, started on the hunt ; 
but the natives flying into the woods, they returned without success. A short 
time after, they proceeded to another island, called Sambula. "In this 
island," says the narrator, " we staid certain days, going every day on shore to 
take the inhabitants, with burning and spoiling their towns." Hawkins made 
a third voyage in 1568, with six ships, which, it seems, "terminated most 
miserably," and put a stop for some years to the traffic. 



* Dr. Madden's Egypt and Mohammed Ali. 



ENGLISH COMPANIES. 107 

The first attempt by the British to establish a regular trade on the African 
coast, was made in the year 1G18, when James I. granted an exclusive charter 
to Sir Robert Rich, and some other merchants of London, for raising a joint 
stock company to trade to Guinea. The profits not being found to answer 
their expectations, the charter was suffered to expire. 

In 1631, Charles I. granted a second charter to Richard Young, Sir Ken- 
elm Digby, and sundry merchants, to enjoy the exclusive trade to the coast 
of Guinea, between Cape Blanco and the Cape of Good Hope, for a period 
of thirty-one years. As the English had by this time began the settlement 
of plantations in the West Indies, negroes were in general demand ; and the 
company erected on the African coast, forts and warehouses, to protect their 
commerce. Private adventurers and interlopers of all nations broke in upon 
them, and forced the trade open, and so it continued until after the restora- 
tion of Charles II. 

In 1662, a third exclusive company was incorporated, consisting of many 
persons of high rank and distinction, at the head of whom was the king's 
brother, the Duke of York. This company undertook to supply the English 
plantations with 3000 negroes, annually. In 1664, all the Dutch forts on the 
African coast but two were captured by the English ; but in the following 
year they were retaken by the Dutch Admiral, De Ruyter, who also seized 
one of the forts belonging to the English company. In 1672, the company 
surrendered their charter. 

The same year, 1672, the fourth and last exclusive company was established. 
It was dignified by the title of the Royal African Company, and had among 
the stockholders, the king, the duke of York, and many other persons of high 
rank. The capital was £111,000, and was raised in nine months. They paid 
£35,000 for the forts of the old company. Besides the traffic in slaves, they 
imported into England great quantities of gold. In 1673, 50,000 guineas, 
(named from the country), were coined. They also imported redwood, ivory, 
wax, &c, and exported to the value of £70,000, annually, in English goods. 

The revolution of 1688 upset the exclusive privileges of this company. By 
the 1st "William and Mary, the African, and all other exclusive companies not 
authorized by parliament were abolished. The company, however, continued 
its operations. 

The trade to Africa, by the statute, was virtually free, but it was expressly 
made so in 1698, under certain conditions. A duty of ten per cent, ad valo- 
rem, was laid upon the goods exported from England to carry on the trade, to 
be paid to the collector at the time of clearance. This duty went to the com- 
pany. A further duty of ten per cent, ad valorem, was laid upon all goods 
and merchandise imported into England and the colonies, from Africa. This 
duty was applied to the maintenance of the forts and castles. No duty was 
to be laid upon negroes, nor upon gold or silver. 

Against the provisions of this law, both the company and private traders 
remonstrated, but without effect. In the course of a few years, the affairs of 
the company were found in bad condition ; and Parliament in 1739, granted 



108 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

them £10,000, and the like sum annually until 1744, when the grant was 
doubled for that year. In 1747, no grant was made. 

In 1750, the "act for extending and improving the African trade" was 
passed, and continued in force until the close of the century. 

In 1790, the whole number of forts and factories established on the coast,, 
was- about forty ; fourteen belonged to the English, fifteen to the Dutch, three 
to the French, four to the Portuguese, and four to the Danes. The value of 
English goods annually exported to Africa about that time, was estimated at 
£800,000 sterling. 

It is impossible to arrive at any exact conclusion as to the number of negroes 
annually carried off by the traders of various nations about this time, but there 
is reason to believe that it did not fall far short of 100,000. It has been 
estimated, that up to the close of the last century, Africa must have been de- 
frauded of a population of 30,000,000. The principal slave importing places 
were the West India Islands, the British Colonies of North America, Brazil, 
and other settlements in South America. 

Very early after the commencement of the slave trade, the Africans began to 
be considered as an inferior race, and even their very color as a mark of it. 
Under this notion they continued to be transported for centuries, until various 
persons, taking an interest in their sufferings, produced such a union of public 
sentiment in their favor in England, that parliament was induced to consider 
their case by hearing evidence upon it. It is this evidence which we now 
propose to lay before the reader, in all its sickening and horrible details. It 
was heard before a select committee of the House of Commons, in the years 
1790 and 1791, and we quote it as most reliable proof of the enormities of the 
African Slave Trade. It was given by persons, some of whom had been en- 
gaged in the traffic, and had visited all the principal parts of Africa from the 
river Senegal to Angola, had been up and down the rivers, and had resided 
on shore. This testimony covers the period from 1750 to 1790. 

ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE BEFORE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 

The trade for slaves, (says Mr. Kiernan), in the river Senegal, was chiefly 
with the Moors, on the northern banks, who got them very often by war, and 
not seldom by kidnapping ; that is, lying in wait near a village, where there 
was no open war, and siezing whom they could. He has often heard of vil- 
lages, and seen the remains of such, broken up by making the people slaves. 
That the Moors used to cross the Senegal to catch the negroes was spoken of 
at Fort Louis as notorious ; and he has seen instances of it where the persons 
so taken were ransomed. 

General Rooke says, that kidnapping took place in the neighborhood of 
Goree. It was spoken of as a common practice. It was reckoned disgrace- 
ful there, but he cannot speak of the opinion about it on the Continent. He 
remembers two or three instances of negroes being brought to Goree, who 
had been kidnapped, but could not discover by whom. At their own request 
he immediately sent them back. 



PROCURING SLAVES. 109 

Mr. Dalrymple found that the great droves (Caffellas or Caravans) of slaves 
brought from inland, by way of Galam, to Senegal and Gambia, were prison- 
ers of war. Those sold to vessels at Goree, and near it, were procured either 
by the grand pillage, the lesser pillage, or by robbery of individuals, or in cou- 
sequence of crimes. The grand pillage is executed by the king's soldiers, from 
three hundred to three thousand at a time, who attack and set fire to a village, 
and seize the inhabitants as they can. The smaller parties generally lie in 
wait about the villages, and take off all they can surprise ; which is also done 
by individuals, who do not belong to the king, but are private robbers. 
These sell their prey on the coast, where it is well known no questions as to 
the means of obtaining it are asked. 

As to kidnapping, it is so notorious about Goree, that he never heard any 
person deny it there. Two men while he was there offered a person, a 
messenger from Senegal to Rufisco, for sale, to the garrison, who even boasted 
how they had obtained him. Many also were brought to Goree while he was 
there, procured in the same manner. These depredations are also practiced 
by the Moors : he saw many slaves in Africa who told him they were taken 
by them ; particularly three, one of whom was a woman, who cried very much, 
ami seemed to be in great distress ; the two others were more reconciled to 
their fate. 

Captain "Wilson says, that slaves are either procured by intestine wars, or 
by kings breaking up villages, or crimes real or imputed, or kidnapping. Vil- 
lages are broken up by the king's troops surrounding them in the night, and 
seizing such of the inhabitants as suit their purpose. This practice is most 
common when there is no war with another state. It is universally acknowl- 
edged that free persons are sold for real or imputed crimes, for the benefit of 
their judges. Soon after his arrival at Goree, king Darnel sent a free man to 
him for sale, and was to have the price himself. One of the king's guards 
being asked whether the man was guilty of the crime imputed to him, answered, 
that was of no consequence, or ever inquired into. Captain Wilson returned 
the man. 

Kidnapping was acknowledged by all he conversed with, to be generally 
prevalent. It is the first principle of the natives, the principle of self-preser- 
vation, never to go unarmed, while a slave-vessel is on the coast, for fear of 
being stolen. When he has met them thus armed, and inquired of them, 
through his interpreter, the reason of it, they have pointed to a French slave- 
vessel then lying at Portudal, and said their fears arose from that quarter. 
As a positive instance, he says, a courier of Captain Lacy's, his predecessor, 
though a Moor, a free man, and one who spoke the French language fluently, 
was kidnapped as he was traveling on the continent with dispatches on his 
Britannic Majesty's account, and sold to a French vessel, from which he, Cap- 
tain Wilson, after much trouble, actually got him back. 

When he presided in a court at Goree, a Maraboo swore, with an energy 
which evinced the truth of his evidence, that his brother, another Maraboo, 
had been kidnapped in the act of drinking, a moment known to be sacred by 



110 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

their religion, at the instigation of a former governor, who had taken a dislike 
to him. This was a matter notorious at Goree. 

Mr. "Wadstrom knows slaves to be procured between Senegal and Gambia, 
either by the general pillage or by robbery by individuals, or by stratagem and 
deceit. The general pillage is executed by the king's troops on horseback, 
armed, who seize the unprepared. Mr. Wadstrom, during the week he was at 
Joal, accompanying one of those embassies which the French governor sends 
yearly with presents to the black kings, to keep up the slave trade, saw parties 
sent out for this purpose, by king Barbesin, almost every day. These parties 
went out generally in the evening, and were armed with bows and arrows, guns, 
pistols, sabres, and long lances. The king of Sallum practices the pillage also. 
Mr. Wadstrom saw twenty-seven slaves from Sallum, twenty-three of whom 
were women and children, thus taken. He was told also by merchants at Go- 
ree, that king Darnel practices the pillage in like manner. 

Robbery was a general way of taking single slaves. He once saw a woman 
and a boy in the slave-hold, at Goree ; the latter had been taken by stealth from 
his parents in the interior parts above Cape Rouge, and he declared that such 
robberies were very frequent in his country ; the former, at Rufisco, from her 
husband and children. He could state several instances of such robberies. He 
very often saw negroes thus taken brought to Goree. Ganna of Dacard was a 
noted man-stealer, and employed as such by the slave-merchants there. As in- 
stances of stratagem employed to obtain slaves, he relates that a French merchant 
taking a fancy to a negro, who was on a visit to Dacard, persuaded the village, 
for a certain price, to seize him. He was accordingly taken from his wife, who 
wished to accompany him, but the Frenchman had not merchandise enough to 
buy both. Mr. Wadstrom saw this negro at Goree, the day he arrived from 
Dacard, chained, and lying on the ground, exceedingly distressed in his mind. 
The king of Sallum also prevailed on a woman to come into his kingdom, aad 
sell him some millet. On her arrival, he seized and sold her to a French of- 
ficer, with whom Mr. Wadstrom saw this woman every day while at Goree. 
Mr. Wadstrom was on the island of St. Louis, up the Senegal also, and on the 
continent near the river, and says that all the slaves sold at Senegal, are brought 
down the river, except those taken by the robbery of the Moors in the neigh- 
borhood, which is sometimes conducted by large parties, in what are called petty 
wars. 

Captain Hills saw, while lying between Goree and the continent, the natives, 
in an evening, often go out in war dresses, as he found, to obtain slaves for king 
Darnel, to be sold. The reason was, that the king was then poor, not having 
received his usual dues from us. He never saw the parties that went out re- 
turn with slaves, but has often seen slaves in their huts tied back to back. He 
remembers also that some robbers once brought him a man, bound, on board the 
Zephyr, to sell, but he, Captain Hills, would not buy him, but suffered him to 
escape. The natives on the continent opposite to Goree all go armed, he im- 
agines for fear of being taken. 

When in the river Gambia, wanting servants on board his ship, he expressed 



PROCURING SLAVES. Ill 

a wish for some volunteers. A black pilot in the boat called two boys who 
were on shore, carrying baskets of shallots, and asked Captain Hills if they 
would do, in which case he would take them off, and bring them to him. This 
he declined. From the ease with which the pilot did it, he concludes this was 
customary. The black pilot said the merchantmen would not refuse such an 
offer. He apprehends these two boys were free people, from the pilot's mode 
of speaking, and from his winking, implying that it was an illicit thing. A 
boy, whom he bought from the merchants in the same river, had been carried 
in the night from his father's house, where a skirmish had happened, in which 
he believes he saw both his parents, but he well remembers that one was killed. 
The boy said many were killed, and some taken. 

Mr. Ellison spoke the Mandingo language, in consequence of which he has 
often conversed with slaves from the Gambia, to which river he made three 
voyages, and they universally informed him that they had been stolen and sold. 

The natives up the river Scaffus informed Mr. Bowman that they had got 
two women and a girl, whom they then brought him, in a small town which 
they had surprised in the night ; that others had got off, but they expected the 
rest of the party would bring them in, in two or three days. When these ar- 
rived, they brought with them two men whom Mr. Bowman knew, and had 
traded with formerly ; upon questioning them, he discovered the women he 
had bought to be their wives. Both men and women informed him that the 
war-men had taken them while asleep. The war-men used to go out, Mr. Bow- 
man says, once or twice in eight or ten days, while he was at Scaffus. It was 
their constant way of getting slaves, he believed, because they always came to 
the factory before setting out, and demanded powder, ball, gun-flints, and small 
shot ; also, rum, tobacco, and a few other articles. When supplied, they blew 
the horn, made the war-cry, and set off. If they met with no slaves, they would 
bring him some ivory and camwood. Sometimes he accompanied them a mile 
or so, and once joined the party, anxious to know by what means they ob- 
tained the slaves. Having traveled all day, they came to a small river, when 
he was told they had but a little way farther to go. Having crossed the river, 
they stopped till dark. Here Mr. Bowman (it was about the middle of the 
night) was afraid to go farther, and prevailed on the king's son to leave him a 
guard of four men. In half an hour he heard the war cry, by which he under- 
stood they had reached a town. In about half an hour more they returned, 
bringing from twenty-five to thirty men, women and children, some of the Latter 
at the breast. At this time he saw the town in flames. When they had re- 
crossed the river, it was just daylight, and they reached Scaffus about mid-day. 
The prisoners were carried to different parts of the town. They are usually 
brought in with strings around their necks, and some have their hands tied 
across. He never saw any slaves there who had been convicted of crimes. 
He has been called up in the night to see fires, and told by the town's people 
that it was war carrying on. 

Whatever rivers he traded in, such as Sierra Leone, Junk, and little Cape 
Mount, he has usually passed burnt and deserted villages, and learned from the 



112 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

natives in the boat with him, that war had been there, and the natives had been 
taken in the manner as before described, and carried to the ships. 

He has also seen such upon the Coast : while trading at Grand Bassa, he went 
on shore with four black traders to the town a mile off. On the way, there was 
a town deserted, (with only two or three houses standing), which seemed to 
have been a large one, as there were two fine plantations of rice ready for cut- 
ting down. A little further on they came to another village in much the same 
state. He was told that the first town had been taken by war, there being 
many ships then lying at Bassa : the people of the other had moved higher up 
in the country for fear of the white men. In passing along to the trader's 
town, he saw several villages deserted; these, the natives said, had been de- 
stroyed by war, and the people taken out and sold. 

Sir George Young found slaves to be procured by war, by crimes, real or 
imputed, by kidnapping, which is called panyaring, and a fourth mode was the 
inhabitants of one village seizing those of another weaker village, and selling 
them to the ships, He believes, from two instances, that kidnapping was fre- 
quently practiced up Sierra Leone river. One was that of a beautiful infant 
boy, which the natives, after trying to sell to all the different trading ships, 
came alongside his, (the Phosnix) and threatened to toss overboard, if no one 
would buy it ;. saying they had panyared it with many other people, but could 
not sell it, though they had sold the others. He purchased it for some wine. 
The second was, a captain of a Liverpool ship had got, as a temporary mis- 
tress, a girl from the king of Sierra Leone, and instead of returning her on 
shore on leaving the coast, as is usually done, he took her away with him. Of 
this the king complained to Sir George Young very heavily, calling this action 
panyaring by the whites. 

The term panyaring seemed to be a word generally used all along the coast 
where he was, not only among the English, but the Portuguese and Dutch. 

Captain Thompson also says, that at Sierra Leone he has often heard the 
word panyaring ; he has heard also that this word, which is used on other 
parts of the coast, means kidnapping, or seizing of men. 

Slaves, says Mr. Town, are brought from the country very distant from the 
coast. The king of Barra informed Mr. Town, that on the arrival of a ship, 
he has gone three hundred miles up the country with his guards, and driven 
down captives to the sea-side. From Marraba, king of the Mandingoes, he 
has heard that they had marched slaves out of the country some hundred miles ; 
that they had gone wood-ranging, to pick up every one they met with, whom 
they stripped naked, and, if men, bound ; bai if women, brought down loose ; 
this he had from themselves, and also, that they often went to war with the 
Bullam nation, on purpose to get slaves. They boasted that they should soon 
have a fine parcel for the shallops, and the success often answered. Mr. Town 
has seen the prisoners (the men bound, the women and children loose) driven 
for sale to the water-side. He has also known the natives to go in gangs, ma- 
rauding and catching all they could. In the Galenas river he knew four blacks 
seize a man who had been to the sea-side to sell one or more slaves. This man 



PROCURING SLAVES. 113 

was returning home with the goods received in exchange for these, and they 
plundered him, stripped him naked, and brought him to the trading shallop, 
which Mr. Town commanded, and sold him there. 

He believes the natives also sometimes become slaves, in consequence of 
crimes, as well as, that it is no uncommon thing on the coast, to impute crimes 
falsely for the sake of selling the persons so accused. Several respectable per- 
sons at Bance Island, and to windward of it, all told Mr. Town that it w;>.< 
common to bring on palavers * to make slaves, and he believes it from the in- 
formation of the slaves afterwards, when brought down the country and put on 
board the ships. 

Off Piccaninni Sestos, farther down on the "Windward Coast, Mr. Dove ob- 
served an instance of a girl being kidnapped and brought on board by one Ben 
Johnson, a black trader, who had scarcely left the ship in his canoe, with the 
price of her, when another canoe with two black men came in a hurry to the 
ship, and inquired concerning this girl. Having been allowed to see her, they 
hurried down to their canoe, and hastily paddled off. Overtaking Ben John- 
son', they brought him back to the ship, got him on the quarter-deck, and call- 
ing him teefee (which implies thief) to the captain, offered him for sale. Ben 
Johnson remonstrated, asking the captain, " if he would buy him whom he 
knew to be a grand trading man;" to which the captain answered, "if they 
would sell him, he would certainly buy him, be he what he would," which he 
accordingly did, and put him into irons immediately with another man. He 
was led to think, from this instance, that kidnapping was the mode of obtain- 
ing slaves upon this part of the coast. 

Lieutenant Story says that slaves are generally obtained on the Windward 
coast by marauding parties, from one village to another in the night. He has 
known canoes come from a distance, and carry off numbers in the night. He 
has gone into the interior country, between Bassa and the River Sestos ; and 
all the nations there go armed, from the fear of marauding parties, whose pil- 
lages in these countries are termed war. At one time in particular, while Mr. 
Story was on the coast, a marauding party from Grand Sestos came in canoes, 
and attacked Grand Cora in the night, and took off twelve or fourteen of the 
inhabitants. The canoes of Grand Sestos carry twelve or fourteen men, and 
with these go a marauding among their neighbors. Mr. Story has often seen 
them at sea out of sight of land in the day, and taking the opportunity of 
night to land where they pleased. 

Mr. Falconbridge supposes the slave trade, on these parts, to be chiefly sup- 
plied by kidnapping. On his second voyage, at Cape Mount and the Wind- 
ward Coast, a man was brought on board, well known to the captain and his 
officers, and was purchased. This man said he had been invited one evening 
to drink with his neighbors. When about to depart, two of them got up to 
seize him ; and he would have escaped, but he was stopped by a large dog. 



* An Afrisan word, which signifies conferences of the natives on any public subject, 
or as in this place, accusations and trials. 



114 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

He said this mode of kidnapping was common in his country. In the same 
voyage, two black traders came in a canoe, and stated that there was trade a 
little lower down. The captain went there, and finding no trade, said he would 
not be made a fool, and therefore detained one of the canoe-men. In about 
two hours afterwards a very fine man was brought on board, and sold, and the 
canoe-man was released. He was informed by the black pilot, that this man 
had been surrounded and seized on the beach, from whence he had been brought 
to the ship and sold. 

Lieutenant Simpson says, from what he saw, he believes the slave trade is 
the occasion of wars among the natives. From the natives of the Windward 
Coast he understood that the villages were always at war ; and the black 
traders and others gave as a reason fjjr it, that the kings wanted slaves. If a 
trading canoe, alongside Mr. Simpson's ship, saw a larger canoe coming from 
a village they were at war with, they instantly fled ; and sometimes without 
receiving the value of their goods. On inquiry, he learned their reasons to 
be, that if taken, they would have been made slaves. 

Mr. How states, that when at Secundee, some order came from Cape Co'ast 
Castle. The same afternoon several parties went out armed, and returned the 
same night with a number of slaves, which were put into the repository of the 
factory. Next morning he saw people, who came to see the captives, and to 
request Mr. Marsh, the resident, to release some of their children and relations. 
Some were released and part sent off to Cape Coast Castle. He had every 
reason to believe they had been obtained unfairly, as they came at an unsea- 
sonable time of the night, and from their parents and friends crying and beg- 
ging their release. He was told as much from Mr. Marsh himself, who said, 
he did not mind how they got them, for he purchased them fairly. He cannot 
tell whether this practice subsisted before ; but when he has gone into the 
woods he has met thirty or forty natives, who fled always at his appearance, 
although they were armed. Mr. Marsh said, they were afraid of his taking 
them prisoners. 

The same Mr. Marsh made no scruple also of shewing him the stores of the 
factory. They consisted of different kinds of chains made of iron, as likewise 
an instrument made of wood, about five inches long, of an inch in diameter, or 
less, which he was told by Mr. Marsh was thrust into a man's mouth horizon- 
tally, and tied behind to prevent him from crying out, when transported at 
night along the country. 

Dr. Trotter says, that the natives of these parts are sometimes slaves from 
crimes, but the greater part of the slaves are what are called prisoners of war. 
Of his whole cargo he recollects only three criminals : two sold for adultery, 
and one for witchcraft, whose whole family shared his fate. One of the first 
said he had been decoyed by a woman who had told her husband, and he was 
sentenced to pay a slave ; but being poor, was sold himself. Such stratagems 
are frequent : the fourth mate of Dr. Trotter's ship was so decoyed, and obliged 
to pay a slave, under the threat of stopping trade. The last said he had had 



PROCURING SLAVES. 115 

a quarrel with a Cabosheer (or great man) who in revenge accused him of 
witchcraft, and sold him and his family for slaves. 

Dr. Trotter having often asked Accra, a principal traderat Le Hou, what 
he meant by prisoners of war, found they were such as were carried off by a 
set of marauders, who ravage the country for that purpose. The bush- men 
making war to make trade (that is to make slaves) was a common way of 
speaking among the traders. The practice was also confirmed by the slaves 
on board, who showed by gestures how the robbers had come upon them ; aid 
during their passage from Africa to the West Indies, some of the boy-slaves 
played a game, which they called slave-taking, or bush-fighting ; showing the 
different manoeuvres thereof in leaping, sallying, and retreating. Inquiries 
of this nature put to women, were answered only by violent bursts of sorrow. 
He once saw a black trader send his canoe to take three fishermen employed 
in the offing, who were immediately brought on board, and put in irons, and 
about a week afterwards he was paid for them. He remembers another nuiii 
taken in the same way from on board a canoe alongside. The same trader 
very frequently sent slaves on board in the night, which, from their own infor- 
mation, he found were every one of them taken in the neighborhood of An- 
namaboe. He remarked, that slaves sent off in the night, were not paid for 
till they had been some time on board, lest, he thinks, they should be claimed ; 
for some were really restored, one in particular, a boy, was carried on shore 
by some near relations, which boy told him he had lived in the neighborhood 
of Annamaboe, and was kidnapped. There were many boys and girls on 
board Dr. Trotter's ship, who had no relations on board. Many of them told 
him they had been kidnapped in the neighborhood of Annamaboe, particularly 
a girl of about eight years old, who said she had been carried off from her 
mother by the man who sold her to the ship. 

Mr. Falconbridge was assured by the Rev. Philip Quakoo, chaplain at Capo 
Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast, that the greatest number of slaves were made 
by kidnapping. He has heard that the men on this part of the coast, dress 
up and employ women, to entice young men, that they may be convicted of 
adultery and sold. 

Lieutenant Simpson heard at Cape Coast Castle, and other parts of the 
Gold Coast, repeatedly from the black traders, that the slave trade made wars 
and palavers. Mr. Quakoo, chaplain at Cape Coast Castle, informed him 
that wars were made in the interior parts, for the sole purpose of getting 
slaves. There are two crimes on the Gold Coast, which seem made on purpose 
to procure slaves : adultery and the removal of fetiches.* As to adultery, he 
was warned against any woman not pointed out to him, for that the kings kept 
several who were sent out to allure the unwary. As to fetiches, consisting of 
pieces of wood, old pitchers, kettles, and the like, laid in the path-ways, he 
was warned to avoid displacing them, for if he should, the natives who were 



* Certain things of various sorts, to which the superstition of the country has ordered, 
for various reasons, an attention to be paid. 



116 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

on the watch would seize him, and, as before, exact the price of a man slave. 
These baits are laid equally for natives and Europeans ; but the former are 
better acquainted with the law, and consequently more upon their guard. 

Mr. Ellison says, that while one of the ships he belonged to, viz : the 
Briton, was lying in Benin river, Capt. Lemma Lemma, a Benin trader, came 
on board to receive his customs. This man being on the deck, and happening 
to see a canoe with three people in it crossing the river, dispatched one of his 
own canoes to seize and take it. Upon overtaking it, they brought it to the 
ship. It contained three persons, an old man and a young man and woman. 
The chief mate bought the two latter, but the former being too old, was re- 
fused. Upon this, Lemma ordered the old man into the canoe, where his head 
was chopped off, and he was thrown overboard. Lemma had many war 
canoes, some of which had six or eight swivels ; he seemed to be feared by the 
rest of the natives. Mr. Ellison did not see a canoe out on the river while 
Lemma was there, except this, and if they had known he had been out, they 
would not have come. He discovered by signs, that the old man killed was 
the father of the two other negroes, and that they were brought there by force. 
They were not the subjects of Lemma. 

At Bonny, says Mr. Falconbridge, the greatest number of slaves come from 
inland. Large canoes, some having a three or four pounder lashed on their 
bows, go to the up country, and in eight or ten days return with great num- 
bers of slaves : he heard once, to the amount of 1200 at one time. The peo- 
ple in these canoes have generally cutlasses, and a quantity of muskets, but he 
cannot tell for what use. Mr. Falconbridge does not believe that many of 
these slaves are prisoners of war, as we understand the word war. In Africa, 
a piratical expedition for making slaves is termed war. A considerable trader 
at Bonny explained to him the meaning of this word, and said that they went 
in the night, set fire to towns, and caught the people as they fled from the 
flames. The same trader said that this practice was very common. In the 
same voyage an elderly man brought on board said (through the interpreter) 
that he and his son were seized as they were planting yams, by professed kid- 
nappers, by which he means persons who make kidnapping their constant prac- 
tice. On his last voyage, which was also to Bonny, a canoe came alongside 
his vessel, belonging to a noted trader in slaves, from which a fine stout fellow 
was handed on board, and sold. Mr. Falconbridge seeing the man amazed 
and confounded when he discovered himself to be a slave, inquired of him, by 
means of an interpreter, why he was sold. He replied, that he had had occa- 
sion to come to Bonny to this trader's house, who asked if he had ever seen a 
ship. Replying no, the trader said he would treat him with the sight of one. 
The man consented, said he was thereupon brought on board, and thus treach- 
erously sold. All the slaves Mr. Falconbridge ever talked to by means of in- 
terpreters, said they had been stolen. 

Mr. Douglas, when ashore at Bonny Point, saw a young woman come out 
of the wood to the water-side to bathe. Soon afterwards two men came from 
the wood, seized, bound, and beat her for making resistance, and bringing her 



PROCURING SLAVES. 117 

to him, Mr. Douglas, desired him to put her on board, which he did ; the cap- 
tain's orders were, when any body brought down slaves, instantly to put them 
off to the ship. When a ship arrives at Bonny, the king sends his war canoes 
up the rivers, where they surprise all they can lay hold of. They had a young 
man on board, who was thus captured, with his father, mother, and three sis- 
ters. The young man afterwards in Jamaica having learned English, told Mr. 
Douglas the story, and said it was a common practice. These war canoes are 
always armed. The king's canoes came with slaves openly in the day ; others 
in the evening, with one or two slaves bound, lying in the boat's bottom, cov- 
ered with mats. 

Mr. Morley states, that in Old Calabar persons are sold as slaves for adul- 
tery and theft. On pretence of adultery, he remembers a woman sold. He 
has been told also by the natives at Calabar, that they took slaves in what they 
call war, which he found was putting the villages in confusion, and catching 
them as they could. A man on board the ship he was in, showed how he 
was taken at night by surprise, and said his wife and children were taken with 
him, but they were not in the same ship. Mr. Morley had reason to think, 
from the man's words, that they took nearly the whole village, that is, all those 
that could not get away. 

Captain Hall says, when a ship arrives at Old Calabar, or the river Del- 
Rey, the traders always go up into the country for slaves. They go in their 
war canoes, and take with them some goods, which they get previously from 
the ships. He has seen from three to ten canoes in a fleet, each with from 
forty to sixty paddlers, and twenty to thirty traders and other people with mus- 
kets, suppose one to each man, with a three or four pounder lashed on the bow 
of the canoe. They are generally absent from ten days to three weeks, when 
they return with a number of slaves pinioned, or chained together. Captain 
Hall has often asked the mode of procuring slaves inland, and has been told 
by the traders, that they have been got in war, and sold by the persons taking 
them. 

Mr. J. Parker says, he left the ship to which he belonged at Old Calabar, 
where being kindly received by the king's son, he staid with him on the conti- 
nent for five months. During this time he was prevailed upon by the king's 
son, to accompany him to war.* Accordingly, having fitted out and armed 
the canoes, they went up the river Calabar. In the day time they lay under 
the bushes when they approached a village, but at night flew up to it, and took 
hold of every one they could see ; these they handcuffed, brought down to the 
canoes, and so proceeded up the river till they got to the amount of forty-five, 
with whom they returned to Newtown, where, sending to the captains of the 
shipping, they divided them among the ships. About a fortnight after this ex- 
pedition, they went again, and were out eight or nine days, plundering other 



* The reader is requested to take notice, that the word war, as adopted in the African 
language, means in general robbery, or a marauding expedition, for the purpose of get 
ting slaves. 



118 AFKICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

villages higher up the river. They seized on much the same number as before, 
brought them to Newtown, gave the same notice, and disposed of them as 
before among the ships. They took man, woman and child, as they could 
catch them in the houses, and except sucking children, who went with their 
mothers, there was no care taken to prevent the separation of the children 
from the parents when sold. When sold to the English merchant they lumen- 
ted, and cried that they were taken away by force. The king at Old Calabar 
was certainly not at war with the people up this river, nor had they made any 
attack upon him. It happened that slaves were very slack in the back country 
at that time, and were wanted when he went on these expeditions. 

Mr. Falconbridge thinks crimes are falsely imputed, for the sake of selling 
the accused. On the second voyage at the river Ambris, among the slaves 
brought on board was one who had the craw craw, a kind of itch. He was 
told by one of the sailors, that this man was fishing in the river, when a king's 
officer, called Mambooka, wanted brandy and other goods in the boat, but 
having no slave to buy them with, accused this man of extortion in the sale of 
his fish, and after some kind of trial on the beach, condemned him to be sold. 
He was told by the boat's crew who were ashore, when it happened, who told 
it as of their own knowledge. 

Beside the accounts just given, from what the above witnesses saw and heard 
on the coast of Africa, as to the different methods of making slaves, there are 
others contained in the evidence, which were learned from the mouths of the 
slaves themselves, after their arrival in the West Indies. 

The Moors, says Mr. Keirnan, have always a strong inducement to go to 
war with the negroes, most of the European goods they obtain, being got in 
exchange for slaves. Hence, desolation and waste. Mr. Town observes, that 
the intercourse of the Africans with the Europeans, has improved them in 
roguery, to plunder and steal, and pick up one another to sell. Dr. Trotter 
asking a black trader, what they made of their slaves when the French and 
English were at war, was answered, that when ships ceased to come, slaves 
ceased to be taken. Mr. Isaac Parker says, that the king of Old Calabar 
was certainly not at war with the people up that river, nor had they made any 
attack on him. It happened that slaves were very slack in the back country 
at this time, and were wanted when he went on the expeditions, described in a 
former page. 

Mr. Wadstrom says, the king Barbesin, while he, Mr. Wadstrom, was at 
Joal, was unwilling to pillage his subjects, but he was excited to it by means of 
a constant intoxication, kept up by the French and mulattoes of the embassy, 
who generally agreed every morning on taking this method to effect their 
purpose. When sober, he always expressed a reluctance to harrass his people. 
Mr. Wadstrom also heard the king hold the same language on different days, 
and yet he afterwards ordered the pillage to be executed. Mr. Wadstrom 
has no doubt, but that he also pillages in other parts of his dominions, since 
it is the custom of the mulatto merchants (as both they and the French officers 
declare) when they want slaves, to go to the kings, and excite them to pillages 



PROCTKIXG SLAVES. 119 

which are usually practiced on all that part of the coast. The French Sene- 
gal company, also, in order to obtain their complement of slaves, had recourse 
to their usual method on similar occasions, namely, of bribing the Moors, and 
supplying them with arms and ammunition, to seize king Dalmammy's subjects. 
By January 12th, 1T88, when Mr. Wadstrom arrived at Senegal, fifty bad 
been taken, whom the king desired to ransom, but they had all been dispatched 
to Cayenne. Some were brought in every day afterwards, and put in the com- 
pany's slave-hold, in a miserable state, the greater part being badly wounded 
by sabres and musket balls. The director of the company conducted Mr. 
Wadstrom there, with Dr. Spaarman, whom he consulted as a medical man in 
their behalf. Mr. Wadstrom particularly remembers one lying in his blood, 
which flowed from a wound made by a ball in his shoulder. 

Mr. Dalrymple understood it common for European traders to advance goods 
to chiefs, to induce them to seize their subjects or neighbors. Not one of the 
mulatto traders at Goree ever thought of denying it. 

Mr. Bowman having settled at the head of Scassus river, informed the king, 
and others, that he was come to reside as a trader, and that his orders were, 
to supply them with powder and ball, and encourage them to go to war. They 
answered, they would go to war in two or three days. By this time they cam i 
to the factory, said they were going to war, and wanted powder, ball, rum and 
tobacco. When these were given them, they went off to the number of from 
twenty-five to thirty, and in six or seven days, a part of them returned with 
three slaves. 

In 1769, (says Lieut. Storey,) Captain Paterson, of a Liverpool ship, lying 
off Bristol town, set two villages at variance, and bought prisoners, near a 
dozen, from both sides. 

Mr. Morley owns, with shame, that he has made the natives drunk, in order 
to buy a good man or woman slave, to whom he found them attached. He 
has seen this done by others. Captain Hildebrand, commanding a sloop of 
Mr. Brue's, bought one of the wives of a man, whom he had previously made 
drunk, and who wished to redeem her, when sober next day, as did the parson 
he (Mr. Morley) bought the man of, but neither of them was given up. He 
supposes they would have given a third more than the price paid, to have re- 
deemed them. 

Sir George Young says, that when at Annamaboe, at Mr. Brue's, (a very 
great merchant there,) Mr. Brue had two hostages, kings' sons, for payment 
for arms, and all kinds of military stores, which he had supplied to tin- two 
kings, who were at war with each other, to procure slaves for at least six or 
seven ships, then lying in the road. The prisoners on both sides were brought 
down to Mr. Brue, and sent to the ships. 

Mr. J. Parker has known presents made by the captains, to the black traders, 
to induce them to bring slaves. Captain Colley in particular gave them some 
pieces of cannon, which he himself saw landed. 

On the subject of Europeans attempting to carry off the natives, General 
Rooke says that it was proposed to him by three captains of English slave 



120 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

ships, lying under the fort of Goree, to kidnap a hundred, or a hundred and 
fifty, men, women and children, king Darnel's subjects, who had come to Goree 
in consequence of the friendly intercourse between him and Darnel. He re- 
fused, and was much shocked by the proposition. They said such things had 
been done by a former governor, but the chief Maraboo at Rufisk did not re- 
collect any such event. 

Mr. Wadstrom was informed at Goree, by Captain Wignie, from Rochelle, 
who was just arrived from the river Gambia, that a little before his departure 
from that river, three English vessels were cut off by the natives, owing to the 
captain of one of them, who had his cargo, being tempted by a fair wind to 
sail away with several of the free negroes, then drinking with the crew. Soon 
afterwards the wind changed aud he was driven back, seized, and killed, with 
all his crew, and those of the two other vessels. Mr. Wadstrom has, by acci- 
dent, met with the insurer of two of these vessels in Loudon, who confirmed 
the above facts. 

Captain Hills says a man at Gambia, who called himself a prince's brother, 
had been carried off to the West Indies, by an English ship, but making his 
case known to the governor, was sent by him to Europe. Captain Hills was 
advised not to go on shore at Gambia, by the merchants there, for fear of be- 
ing taken by the natives, who owed the English a grudge for some injuries 
received. 

Mr. John Bowman says, that when a mate under Captain Strangeways, the 
ship then lying in the river Sierra Leone, at White Man's Bay, ready to sail, he 
was sent on shore to invite two traders on board. They came and were shown 
into the cabin. Meantime people were employed in setting the sails, it being 
almost night, and the land breeze making down the river. When they had 
weighed anchor, and got out to sea, Mr. Bowman was called down by the cap- 
tain, who, pointing to the sail-case, desired him to look into it and see what a 
fine prize he had got. To his surprise, he saw lying fast asleep the two men 
who had come on board with him, the captain having made them drunk, and 
concealed them there. When they awoke they were sent upon deck, ironed, 
and put forward with the other slaves. On arriving at Antigua they were 
sold. 

The Rev. Mr. Newton has known ships and boats cut off at Sherbro, usually 
in retaliation. Once, when he was on shore, the traders suddenly put him into 
his long-boat, telling him that a ship just passed had carried off two people. 
Had it been known in the town, he would have been detained. He has known 
many other such instances, but after thirty-six years, he cannot specify them. 
It was a general opinion, founded on repeated and indisputable facts, that 
depredations of this sort were frequently committed by Europeans. Mr. New- 
ton has sometimes found all trade stopped, and the depredations of European 
traders have been assigned by the natives as the cause, and he has more than 
once made up breaches of this kind between the ships and the natives. He 
believes several captains of slave ships were honest, humane men ; but he has 
good reason to thiuk they were not all so. The taking off slaves by force liar 



PROCURING SLAVES. 121 

been thought most frequent in the last voyage of captains He has often heard 
masters and officers express this opinion. Depredations and reprisals made to 
get them were so frequent that the Europeans and Africans were in a spirit of 
mutual distrust : he does not mean that there were no depredations except in 
their last voyages. He has known Liverpool and Bristol ships materially in- 
jured from the conduct of some ships, from the same ports, that had left the 
coast. It is a fact that some captains have committed depredations in their 
last voyages who have not been known to have done it before. 

Mr. Towne was once present with part of the crew of his ship, the Sally, at 
an expedition undertaken by the whites for seizing negroes, and joined by other 
boats to receive those they could catch. To prevent all alarm, they bound the 
mouths of the captives with oakum and handkerchiefs. One woman shrieked 
and the natives turned out in defense. He had then five of them tied in the 
boat, and the other boats were in readiness to take in what more they could 
get. All his party were armed, and the men of the town pursued them with 
first a scattering, and at length a general fire, and several of the men belong- 
ing to the boats, he has reason to believe, were killed, wounded, or taken, as 
he never heard of them afterwards. He was wounded himself. The slaves he 
had taken were sold at Charleston, South Carolina. The natives had not pre- 
viously committed any hostilities against any of the ships, whose boats were 
concerned in this transaction. They owed goods to the captain, for which he 
resolved to obtain slaves at any rate. He has had several ship-mates, who 
have themselves told him they have been concerned in similar transactions, 
and who have made a boast of it, and who have been wounded also. 

Mr. Storey believes the natives of the "Windward Coast are often fraudulently 
carried off by the Europeans. He has been told by them that they had lost 
their friends at different times, and supposed them taken by European ships 
going along the coast. He has himself taken up canoes at sea, which were 
challenged by the natives, who supposed the men in them had been taken off 
the day before by a Dutchman. When once at an anchor, in his boat, between 
the river Sestos and Settra Crue, he prevented the crew of a long-boat, be- 
longing to a Dutchman then lying off shore, from being cut off by the natives, 
who gave as a reason for their intentions, that a ship of that country some 
days before had taken off four men belonging to the place. Afterwards, in 
1768, being in a boat, with two other white persons, the natives attacked them. 
Both the former were killed, and he himself, covered with blood and wounds, 
was only suffered to escape, by consenting to give up boat and cargo, and to 
go to Gaboon. The reason the natives gave for this procedure was, that a 
ship from Liverpool (one Captain Lambert) had, some time before, taken a 
canoe full of their townsmen, and carried her away. He heard the same thing 
confirmed afterwards at Gaboon. 

Mr. Douglas states that near Cape Coast the natives make smoke as a sig- 
nal for trade. On board his ship (the Warwick Castle) they saw the smoke 
and stood in shore, which brought off many canoes. Pipes, tobacco, and 
brandy were got on deck, to entice the people in them on board. The grat- 



122 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

ings were unlaid, the slave-room cleared, and every preparation made to seize 
them ; two only could be prevailed on to come up the ship's side, who stood 
in the main chains, but on the seamen approaching them they jumped off, and 
the canoes all made for the shore. The Gregson's people, while at Bonny, in- 
formed Mr. Douglas, that in running down the coast, they had kidnapped 
thirty-two of the natives. He saw slaves on board that ship when she came 
in, and it is not customary for ships bound to Bonny to stop and trade by the 
way. 

Mr. How says that abreast of Cape La Hou, several canoes came alongside 
of his Majesty's ship Grampus, and on coming on board informed the captain 
that an English Guinea-trader, a fortnight before, had taken off six cauoes 
with men, who had gone off to them with provisions for trade. On coming to 
Appolonia he was also told by Mr. Buchanan, the resident there, that a Guinea- 
man, belonging to one Griffith, an Englishman, and a notorious trader and 
kidnapper, between Cape La Hou and Appolonia, was then in that latitude. 

Captain Hall was told by Captain Jeremiah Smith, that in 1771, a Captain 
Fox had taken off some people from the Windward Coast. He says also that 
the boat's crew of the Venus, Captain Smith, which had been sent to Fernando 
Po for yams from Calabar, enticed a canoe to come alongside that had about 
ten men in her. As soon as she got near, the boat's crew fired into her, on 
which they jumped overboard : some were wounded, and one was taken out of 
the water, and died in less than an hour in the boat : two others were taken up 
unhurt, and carried to Old Calabar to the ship. Captain Smith was angry at 
the officer for this procedure, and sent back the two men to the bay from 
whence they had been taken. Immediately after the boat had committed this 
depredation, Captain Hall happened to go into the same bay in his own ship's 
long-boat, and sending on shore two men to fill water, they were surrounded 
by the natives, who drove three spears into one of the men, and wounded the 
other with a large stick, in consequence of taking away the two men just men- 
tioned. It was said that the crew had disputed with the natives on shore when 
trading with them for yams, but the former had not done any of the boat's 
crew any injury. 

Mr. Ellison knew two slaves taken from the island of Fernando Po by the 
Dobson's boat of Liverpool, and carried to Old Calabar, where the ship lay. 
He went to the same island for yams, a few days after the transaction, and 
fired, as the usual signal, for the natives to bring them. Seeing some of them 
peep through the bushes, he wondered why they would not come to the boat. 
He accordingly swam on shore, when some of the islanders came round him : 
an old man showed, by signs, that a ship's boat had stolen a man and woman. 
He was then soon surrounded by numbers, who presented darts to him, signi- 
fying that they would kill him, if the man and woman were not brought back. 
Upon this, the people in the boat fired some shot, when they all ran into the 
woods. Mr. Ellison went to Calabar, and told Captain Briggs he could get 
no yams, in consequence of the two people being stolen ; upon which Captain 
Briggs told the captaiu of the Dobson there would be no more trade if he did 



PROCURING SLAVES. 123 

not deliver up the people, which he at length did. As soon as the natives saw 
their countrymen, they loaded the boat with yams, goats, fowls, honey, and 
palm-wine : and they would take nothing for them. They had the man and 
woman delivered to them, whom they carried away in their arms. The Dobson 
did not stay above eight, ten, or twelve days. This was the last trip her boat 
was to make, when they carried off the two slaves. 

Mr. Morley says, that when off Taboo, two men came in a canoe, alongside 
his vessel. One of them came up and sat on the netting, but would not come 
into the ship. The captain at length enticing him, intoxicated him so with 
brandy and laudanum, that he fell in upon the deck. The captain then ordered 
him to be put into the men's room, with a sentry over him. The other man 
in the canoe, after calling in vain for his companion, paddled off fast towards 
the shore. The captain fired several musket balls after him, which did not hit 
him. About three or four leagues farther down, two men came on board from 
another canoe. While they were on board, a drum was kept beating near the 
man who had been seized, to prevent his hearing them, or they him. He says 
again, in speaking of another part of the coast, that Captain Briggs's chief 
mate, in Old Calabar river, lying in ambush to stop the natives coming down 
the creek, pursued Oruk Robin John, who, jumping on shore, shot the mate 
through the head. He says also, of another part of the coast, that a Mr. 
"Walker, master of a sloop, was on board the Jolly Prince, Captain Lambert, 
when the king of Nazareth stabbed the captain at his own table, and took the 
vessel, putting all the whites to death, except the cook, a boy, and, he believes, 
one man. Captain Walker, being asked why the king of Nazareth took this 
step, said it was on account of the people whom Matthews had carried off from 
Gaboon and Cape Lopez the voyage before. Walker escaped by knowing the 
language of the country. Mr. Morley sailed afterwards with the same Cap- 
tain Matthews to Gaboon river, where the chiefs' sons came on board to de- 
mand what he had done with their sons, and the boys he had carried off, (the 
same that Walker alluded to,) and told him that if he dared to come on shore, 
they would have his head. 

As a farther corroboration that such practices as the above take place, it ap- 
pears in evidence, that the natives of the coast and islands are found constantly 
hovering in their canoes, at a distance, about such vessels as are passing by, 
shy of coming on board, for fear of being taken off. But if they can discover 
that such vessels are not in the slave trade, but are men-of-war, they come on 
board readily, or without any hesitation, which they would not otherwise have 
done, and in numbers, and traverse the ships with as much confidence as if they 
had been on shore. 

Mr. Ellison says, when he was lying at Yanamaroo, in the Gambia, slaves 
were brought down. The traders raised the price. The captains would not 
give it, but thought to compel them by firing upon the town. They fired red 
hot shot from the ship, and set several houses on fire. All the ships, seven or 
eight, fired. 

Mr. Falconbridge heard Captain "Vicars, of a Bristol ship, say at Bonny, 



12-i AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

when his traders were slack, he fired a gun into or over the town, to freshen 
their way. Captain Vicars told this to hirn and other people there at the time, 
but he has seen no instance of it himself. 

Mr. Isaac Parker says the Guinea captains lying in Old Calabar river, fixed 
on a certain price, and agreed to lie under a £50 bond, if any one of them 
should give more for slaves than another ; in consequence of which, the natives 
did not readily bring slaves on board to sell at those prices ; upon which, the 
captains used to row guard at night, to take the canoes as they passed the ships, 
and so stopping the slaves from getting to their towns, prevent the traders from 
getting them. These they took on board the different ships, and kept them 
till the traders agreed to slave at the old prices. 

Lieutenant Storey says that Captain Jeremiah Smith, in the London, in 
1766, having a dispute with the natives of New Town, Old Calabar, concern- 
ing the stated price which he was to give for slaves, for several days stopped 
every canoe coming down the creek from New Town, and also fired several 
guns indiscriminately over the woods into the town, till he brought them to his 
own terms. 

Captain Hall says, in Old Calabar river there are two towns, Old Town and 
New Town. A rivalship in trade produced a jealousy between the towns ; so 
that, through fear of each other, for a considerable time, no canoe would leave 
their towns to go up the river for slaves. This happened in 1767. In this 
year, seven ships, of which five were the following — Duke of York, Bevan ; 
Edgar, Lace ; Indian Queen, Lewis ; Nancy, Maxwell ; and Canterbury, 
Sparkes, — lay off the point which separates the towns. Six of the captains 
invited the people of both towns on board on a certain day, as if to reconcile 
them : at the same time they agreed with the people of New Town to cut off 
all the Old Town people who should remain on board the next morning. The 
Old Town people, persuaded of the sincerity of the captains' proposal, went 
on board in great numbers. Next morning, at eight o'clock, one of the ships 
fired a gun, as a signal to commence hostilities. Some of the traders were se- 
cured on board, some were killed in resisting, and some got overboard, and 
were fired upon. When the firing began, the New Town people, who were in 
ambush behind the Point, came forward and picked up the people of Old Town, 
who were swimming, and had escaped the firing. After the firing was over, 
the captains of five of the ships delivered their prisoners (persons of conse- 
quence) to the New Town canoes, two of whom were beheaded alongside the 
ships. The inferior prisoners were carried to the West Indies. One of the 
captains, who had secured three of the king's brothers, delivered one of them 
to the chief man of New Town, who was one of the two beheaded alongside ; 
the other brothers he kept on board, promising, when the ship was slaved, to 
deliver them to the chief man of New Town. His ship was soon slaved on ac- 
count of his promise, and the number of prisoners made that day ; but he re- 
fused to deliver the king's two brothers, according to his promise, and carried 
them to the West Indies, and sold them. It happened in process of time, that 
they escaped to Virginia, and from thence, after three years, to Bristol, where 



PROCURING SLAVES. 125 

the captain who brought them, fearing he had done wrong, meditated carrying 
or sending them back, but Mr. Jones, of Bristol, who had ships trading to Old 
Calabar, and hearing wiio they were, had them taken from the ship, where 
they were in irons, by habeas corpus. After inquiry how they were brought 
from Africa, they were liberated, and put in one of Mr. Jones's ships for Old 
Calabar, where Captain Hall was, when they arrived in the ship Cato. 

So satisfied were the people of Old Town, in 1767, of the sincerity of the 
captains who invited them, and of the New Town people, towards a reconcili- 
ation, that the night before the massacre, the chief man of Old Town gave to 
the chief man of New Town one of his favorite women as a wife. It was said 
that from three to four hundred persons were killed that day, in the ships, in 
the water, or carried off the coast. The king escaped from the ship he was in, 
by killing two of the crew, who attempted to seize him. He then got into a 
one-man canoe, and paddled to the shore. A six pounder from one of the ships 
struck the canoe to pieces ; he then swam on shore to the woods near the ships, 
and reached his own town, though closely pursued. It was said he received 
eleven wounds from musket shot. 

Captain Hall, in his first voyage on board the Neptune, had this account 
from the boatswain, Thomas Rutter, who, in 1767, had been boatswain to the 
Canterbury, Captain Sparkes, of London, and concerned in the said massacre. 
Rutter told him the story exactly as related, and never varied in it. He had 
it also from the king's two brothers, who agreed exactly with Rutter. Captain 
Hall also saw at Calabar, in the possession of the king's two brothers, their 
depositions taken at Bristol, and of Mr. Floyd, who was mate of one of the 
ships when the transaction happened, but he took no copy. Mr. Millar says 
that a quarrel happened between the people of Old and New Town, which pre- 
vented the ships lying in Calabar river from being slaved. He believes that in 
June, 1767, Captain S. Sparkes, (captain of his ship, the Canterbury,) came 
one evening to him, and told him that the two towns, so quarreling, would meet 
on board the different ships, and ordered him to hand up some swords. 

The next day several canoes, as Sparkes had before advertised him, came 
from both of the towns, on board the Canterbury, Mr. Millar's own ship, and 
one of the persons so coming on board, brought a letter, which he gave Sparkes, 
immediately on the receipt of which, he, Sparkes, took a hanger, and attacked 
one of the Old Town people then on board, cutting him immediately on the 
arms, head and body. The man fled, ran down the steps leading to the cabin, 
and Sparkes still following him with the hanger, darted into the boy's room. 
Mr. Millar is sure this circumstance can never be effaced from his memory 
From this room he was, however, brought up by means of a rope, and Sparkes 
renewing his attack on him, he leaped overboard. 

This being concluded, Sparkes left his own ship to go on board some of the 
other ships then lying in the river. Soon after he was gone, a boy belonging 
to Mr. Millar's ship came and informed him, Mr. Millar, that he had discov- 
ered a man concealed behind the medicine chest. Mr. Millar went and found 
the man. He was the person before mentioned as having brought a letter on 



12G AFRICAN SLAV!; TRADE. 

board. On being discovered by Mr. Millar, he begged for mercy, entreating 
that he might not be delivered up to the people of New Town. He was 
brought on the quarter-deck, where were some of the-New Town people, who 
would have killed him, had they not been prevented. The man was then ironed, 
and conducted into the room of the men slaves. 

Soon after this transaction, the captain returned, and brought with him a 
New Town trader, named Willy Honesty. On coming on board, he was in- 
formed of what had happened in his absence, and Mr. Millar believes, in the 
hearing of Willy Honesty, who immediately exclaimed, " Captain, if you will 
give me that man, to cut off his head, I will give you the best man in my ca- 
noe, and you shall be slaved the first ship." The captain upon this looked into 
Willy Honesty's canoe, picked his man, and delivered the other in his stead, 
when his head was immediately struck off in Mr. Millar's sight. 

Mr. Millar believes that some other cruelties, besides this particular act, were 
done, because he saw blood on the starboard side of the mizzen-mast, though 
he does not recollect seeing any bodies from whence the blood might come ; 
and others in other ships, because he heard several muskets or pistols fired from 
them at the same time. This affair might last ten minutes. He remembers a 
four-pounder fired at a canoe, but knows not whether any damage was done. 

As to other acts of injustice on the part of the Europeans, some consider 
frauds (says Mr. Newton) as a necessary branch of the slave-trade. They put 
false heads into powder casks ; cut off two or three yards from the middle of a 
piece of cloth ; adulterate their spirits, and steal back articles given. Besides 
these, there are others who pay in bottles, which contain but half the contents 
of the samples shown ; use false steelyards and weights, and sell such guns as 
burst on firing, so that many of the natives of the Windward Coast are with- 
out their fingers and thumbs on this account. 



CHAPTER X. 

African Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century, Continued. — The 
Middle Passage. 

Abstract of Evidence before House of Commons, continued. — The enslaved Africans on 
board the Ships — their dejection. — Methods of confining, airing, feeding and exerci- 
sing them. — Mode of stowing them, and its horrible, consequences. — Incidents of the 
terrible Middle Passage — shackles, chains, whips, filth, foul air, disease, suffocation. — 
Suicides by drowning, by starvation, by wounds, by strangling. — Insanity and Death. 
■ — Manner of selling them when arrived at their destination. — Deplorable situation 
of the refuse or sickly Slaves. — Mortality among Seamen engaged in the Slave Trade. 
Their miserable condition and sufferings from disease, and cruel treatment. 



T 



HE natives of Africa having been made slaves in the modes described in 
the former chapter, are brought down for sale to the European ships. On 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 127 

being brought on board, says Dr. Trotter, they show signs of extreme distress 
and despair, from a feeling of their situation, and regret at being torn from 
their friends and connections ; many retain those impressions for a long time ; 
in proof of which, the slaves on board his ship being often heard in the night 
making a howling melancholy noise, expressive of extreme anguish, he repeat- 
edly ordered the woman who had been his interpreter to inquire into the 
cause. She discovered it to be owing to their having dreamed they were in 
their own country again, and finding themselves, when awake, in the hold of a 
slave-ship. This exquisite sensibility was particularly observable among the 
women, many of whom, on such occasions, he found in hysteric fits. 

The foregoing description, as far as relates to their dejection, when brought 
on board, and the cause of it, is confirmed by Hall, Wilson, Claxton, Ellison, 
Towne, and Falconbridge, the latter of whom relates an instance of a young 
woman who cried and pined away after being brought on board, who recovered 
when put on shore, and who hung herself when informed she was to be sent 
again to the ship. 

Captain Hall says, after the first eight or ten of them come on board, the 
men are put into irons. They are linked two and two together by the hands 
and feet, in which situation they continue till they arrive in the West Indies, 
except such as may be sick, whose irons are then taken off. The women, how- 
ever, he says, are not ironed. On being brought up in a morning, says Surgeon 
Wilson, an additional mode of securing them takes place, for to the shackles 
of each pair of them there is a ring, through which is reeved a large chain, 
which locks them all in a body to ring-bolts fastened to the deck. The time 
of their coming up in the morning, if fair, is described by Mr. Towne to be 
between eight and nine, and the time of their remaining there to be till four in 
the afternoon, when they are again put below till the next morning. In the 
interval of being upon deck they are fed twice. They have also a pint of 
water allowed to each of them a day, which being divided is served out to 
them at two different times, namely, after their meals. These meals, says Mr. 
Falconbridge, consist of rice, yams, and horse-beans, with now and then a 
little beef and bread. After meals they are made to jump in their irons. 
This is called dancing by the slave-dealers. In every ship he has been desired 
to flog such as would not jump. He had generally a cat-of-nine-tails in his 
hand among the women, and the chief mate, he believes, another among the men. 

The parts, says Mr. Claxton, (to continue the account,) on which their 
shackles are fastened, are often excoriated by the violent exercise they are thus 
forced to take, of which they made many grievous complaints to him. In his 
ship even those who had the flux, scurvy, and such cedematous swellings in 
their legs as made it painful to them to move at all, were compelled to dance 
by the eat. He says, also, that on board his ship they sometimes sung, 
but not for their amusement. The captain ordered them to sing, and they 
sung songs of sorrow. The subject of these songs were their wretched situa- 
tion, and the idea of never returning home. He recollects their very words 
upon these occasions. 



128 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

The above account of shackling, messing, dancing,* and singing the slaves, 
is allowed by all the witnesses, as far as they speak to the same points, except 
by Mr. Palcoubridge, in whose ships the slaves had a pint and a half of water 
per day. 

On the subject of the stowage and its consequences, Dr. Trotter says that 
the slaves in the passage are so crowded below, that it is impossible to walk 
through them, without treading on them. Those who are out of irons are 
locked spoonways (in the technical phrase) to one another. It is the first 
mate's duty to see them stowed in this way every morning ; those who do not 
get quickly into their places, are compelled by a cat-of-nine-tails. 

When the scuttles are obliged to be shut, the gratings are not sufficient for 
airing the rooms. lie never himself could breathe freely, unless immediately 
under the hatchway. He has seen the slaves drawing their breath with all 
those laborious and anxious efforts for life, which are observed in expiring 
animals, subjected by experiment to foul air, or in the exhausted receiver 
of an air pump. He has also seen them, when the tarpaulings have inadvert- 
ently been thrown over the gratings, attempting to heave them up, crying out 
in their own language, " We are dying ! " On removing the tarpaulings and 
gratings, they would fly to the hatchway with all the signs of terror and dread 
of suffocation. Many of them he has seen in a dying state, but some have re- 
covered by being brought hither, or on the deck ; others were irrecoverably 
lost by suffocation, having had no previous signs of indisposition. 

Mr. Falconbridge also states on this head, that when employed in stowing 
the slaves, he made the most of the room and wedged them in. They had not 
so much room as a man in his coffin, either in length or breadth. It was im- 
possible for them to turn or shift with any degree of ease. He had often 
occasion to go from one side of their rooms to the other, in which case he 
always took off his shoes, but could not avoid pinching them ; he has the 
marks on his feet where they bit and scratched him. In every voyage, when 
the ship was full, they complained of heat and want of air. Confinement in 
this situation was so injurious, that he has known them to go down apparently in 
good health at night, and found dead in the morning. On his last voyage he 
opened a stout man who so died. He found the contents of the thorax and 
abdomen healthy, and therefore concludes he died of suffocation in the night 
He was never among them for ten minutes below together, but his shirt was as 
wet as if dipped in water. 

One of his ships, the Alexander, coming out of Bonny, got aground on the 
bar, and was detained there six or seven days, with a great swell and heavy 
rain. At this time the air ports were obliged to be shut, and part of the 
gratings on the weather side covered : almost all the men slaves were taken ill 
with the flux. The last time he went down to see them, it was so hot he took 
off his shirt. More than twenty of them had then fainted, or were fainting. 



* The necessity of exercise for health is the reason given for compellng the slaves to 
dance in the above manner. 



THE MIDLLE PASSAGE. 129 

He got, however, several of them hauled on deck. Two or three of these 
died, and most of the rest, before they reached the West Indies. He was 
down only about fifteen minutes, and became so ill by it that he could not °-et 
up without help, and was disabled (the dysentery seizing him also) from doing 
duty the rest of the passage. On board the same ship he has known two or 
three instances of a dead and living slave found in the morning shackled 
together. 

The crowded state of the slaves, and the pulling off the shoes by the sur 
geons, as described above, that they might not hurt them in traversing their 
rooms, are additionally mentioned by surgeons Wilson and Claxton. The 
slaves are said also by Hall and Wilson to complain on account of heat. 
Both Hall, Towne, and Morley, describe them as often in a violent perspira- 
tion, or dew sweat. Mr. Ellison has seen them faint through heat, and obliged 
to be brought on deck, the steam coming up through the gratings like a fur- 
nace. In Wilson's and Towne's ships, some have gone below well in an even- 
ing, and in the morning have been found dead ; and Mr. Newton has often 
seen a dead and living man chained together, and, to use his own words, one 
of the pair dead. 

To come now to the different incidents on the passage. Mr. Falconbridge 
says that there is a place in every ship for the sick slaves, but there are 
no accommodations for them, for they lie on the bare planks. He has seen 
frequently the prominent parts of their bones about the shoulder-blade and 
knees bare. He says he cannot conceive any situation so dreadful and dis- 
gusting as that of slaves when ill of the flux ; in the Alexander, the deck was 
covered with blood and mucus, and resembled a slaughter-house. The stench 
and foul air were intolerable. 

He has known several slaves on board refuse sustenance, with a design 
to starve themselves. Compulsion was used in every ship he was in to make 
them take their food. He has known also many instances of their refusing to 
take medicines when sick, because they wished to die. A woman on board the 
Alexander was dejected from the moment she came on board, and refused 
both food and medicine : being asked by the interpreter what she wanted, she 
replied, nothing but to die — and she did die. Many other- slaves expressed 
the same wish. 

The ships, he says, are fitted up with a view to prevent slaves jumping over- 
board ; notwithstanding which he has known instances of their doing so. In 
the Alexander two were lost in this way. In the same voyage, near twentv 
jumped overboard out of the Enterprise, Capt. Wilson, and several from ;i 
large Frenchman in Bonny Biver. In his first voyage he saw at Bonny, on 
board the Emilia, a woman chained to the deck, who, the chief mate said, was 
mad. On his second voyage, there was .a woman on board his own ship, whom 
they were forced to chain at certain times. In a lucid interval she was sold at 
Jamaica. He ascribes this insanity to their being torn from their connections 
and country. 

Doctor Trotter, examined on the same subject, says that the man sold with 
9 



130 AFRICAN SLAV:: TRADE. 

his family for witchcraft, (of which he had been accused, out of revenge, by a 
Cabosheer,) refused all sustenance after he came on board. Early next morn- 
ing it was found he had attempted to cut his throat. Dr. Trotter sewed up 
the wound, but the following night the man had not only torn out the sutures, 
but had made a similar attempt on the other side. From the ragged edges of 
the wound, and the blood upon his finger ends, it appeared to have been done 
with his nails, for though strict search was made through all the rooms, no in- 
strument was found. He declared he never would go with white men, uttered 
incoherent sentences, and looked wishfully at the skies. His hands were se- 
cured, but persisting to refuse all sustenance, he died of hunger in eight or ten 
days. He remembers also an instance of a woman who perished from refusing 
food : she was repeatedly flogged, and victuals forced into her mouth, but no 
means could make her swallow it, and she lived for the four last days in a state 
of torpid insensibility. A man jumped overboard, at Anamaboe, and was 
drowned. Another also, on the Middle Passage, but he was taken up. A 
woman also, after having been taken up, was chained for some time to the mizen- 
mast, but being let loose again made a second attempt, was again taken up, and 
expired under the floggings given her in consequence. 

Mr. Wilson, speaking also on the same subject, relates, among many cases 
where force was necessary to oblige the slaves to take food, that of a young 
man. He had not been long on board before he perceived him get thin. On 
inquiry, he found the man had not taken his food, and refused taking any. 
Mild means were then used to divert him from his resolution, as well as prom- 
ises that he should have any thing he wished for : but still he refused to eat. 
They then whipped him with the cat, but this also was ineffectual. He always 
kept his teeth so fast, that it was impossible to get any thing down. They 
then endeavored to introduce a speculum oris between them ; but the points 
were too obtuse to enter, and next tried a bolus knife, but with the same effect. 
In this state he was for four or five days, when he was brought up as dead, to 
be thrown overboard ; but Mr. Wilson finding life still existing, repeated his 
endeavors, though in vain, and two days afterwards he was brought up again 
in the same state as before. He then seemed to wish to get up. The crew 
assisted him, and brought him aft to the fire-place, when, in a feeble voice, in 
his own tongue, he asked for water, which was given him. Upon this they 
began to have hopes of dissuading him from his design, but he again shut his 
teeth as fast as ever, and resolved to die, and on the ninth day from the first 
refusal he died. 

Mr. Wilson says it hurt his feelings much to be obliged to use the cat so 
frequently to force them to take their food. In the very act of chastise- 
ment, they have looked up at him with a smile, and in their own language 
have said, "presently we shall be no more." 

In the same ship a woman found means to convey below the night preceding 
some rope-yarn, which she tied to the head of the armorer's vise, then in the 
women's room. She fastened it round her neck, and in the morning was found 
dead, with her head lying on her shoulder, whence it appeared, she must have 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 131 

used great exertions to accomplish her end. A young woman also hanged her- 
self, by tying rope-yarns to a batten, near her usual sleeping-place, and then 
slipping off the platform. The next morning she was found warm, and he 
used the proper means for her recovery, but in vain. 

In the same ship also, when off Annabona, a slave on the sick list jumped 
overboard, and was picked up by the natives, but died soon afterwards. At 
another time, when at sea, the captain and officers, when at dinner, heard the 
alarm of a slave's being overboard, and found it true, for they perceived him 
making every exertion to drown himself. He put his head under water, but 
lifted his hands up ; and thus went down, as if exulting that he had got away. 

Besides the above instance, a man slave who came on board apparently well, 
became afterwards mad, and at length died insane. 

Mr. Claxton, the fourth surgeon examined on these points, declares the 
steerage and boys' room to have been insufficient to receive the sick ; they 
were therefore obliged to place together those that were and those that were 
not diseased, and in consequence the disease and mortality spread more and 
more. The captain treated them with more tenderness than he has heard was 
usual, but the men were not humane. Some of the most diseased were obliged 
to keep on deck with a sail spread for them to lie on. This, in a little time, 
became nearly covered with blood and mucus, which involuntarily issued from 
them, and therefore the sailors, who had the disagreeable task of cleaning the 
sail, grew angry with the slaves, and used to beat them inhumanly with their 
hands, or with a cat. The slaves in consequence grew fearful of committing 
this involuntary action, and when they perceived they had done it would im- 
mediately creep to the tubs, and there sit straining with such violence, as to 
produce a prolapsus ani, which could not be cured. 

Some of the slaves on board the same ship, says Mr. Claxtou, had such 
an aversion to leaving their native places, that they threw themselves over- 
board, on an idea that they should get back to their own country. The cap- 
tain, in order to obviate this idea, thought of an expedient, viz : to cut off the 
heads of those who died, intimating to them, that if determined to go, they 
must return without their heads. The slaves were accordingly brought up to 
witness the operation. One of them seeing, when on deck, the carpenter 
standing with his hatchet up ready to strike off the head of a dead slave, with 
a violent exertion got loose, and flying to the place where the nettings had 
been unloosed, in order to empty the tubs, he darted overboard. The .ship 
brought to, and a man was placed in the main chains to catch him, which lie 
perceiving, dived under water, and rising again at a distance from the ship, 
made signs, which words cannot describe, expressive of his happiness in escap- 
ing. He then went down, and was seen no more. This circumstance deterred 
the captain from trying the expedient any more, and therefore he resolved for 
the future (as he saw they were determined to throw themselves overboard) to 
keep a strict watch ; notwithstanding which, some afterwards contrived to un- 
loose the lashing, so that two actually threw themselves into the sea, and were 
lost ; another was caught when about three parts overboard. 



132 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

All the above incidents, described as to have happened on the Middle Pas- 
sage, arc amply corroborated by the other witnesses. The slaves lie on the 
bare boards, says surgeon Wilson. They are frequently bruised, and the prom- 
inent parts of the body excoriated, adds the same gentleman, as also Trotter 
and Newton. They have been seen by Morley wallowing in their blood and 
excrement. Claxton, Ellison, and Hall describe them as refusing sustenance, 
and compelled to eat by the whip. Morley has seen the panuekin dashed 
against their teeth, and the rice held in their mouths, to make them swallow it, 
till they were almost strangled, and they have even been thumb-screwed * with 
this view in the ships of Towne and Millar. The man stolen at Galenas river, 
says the former, also refused to eat, and persisted till he died. A woman, says 
the latter, who was brought on board, refused sustenance, neither would she 
speak. She was then ordered the thumb-screws, suspended in the mizzen rig- 
ging, and every attempt was made with the cat to compel her to eat, but to no 
purpose. She died in three or four days afterwards. Mr. Millar was told that 
she had said, the night before she died, " She was going to her friends." 

As a third specific instance, in another vessel, may be mentioned that related 
by Mr. Isaac Parker. There was a child, says he, on board, nine mouths old, 
which refused to eat, for which the captain took it up in his hand, and flogged 
it with a cat, saying, at the same time, " Damn you, I '11 make you eat, or I 'II 
kill you." The same child having swelled feet, the captain ordered them to 
be put into water, though the ship's cook told him it was too hot. This brought 
off the skiu and nails. He then ordered sweet oil and cloths, which Isaac Par- 
ker himself applied to the feet ; and as the child at mess time again refused to 
eat, the captain again took it up and flogged it, and tied a log of mango-wood 
eighteen or twenty inches long, and of twelve or thirteen pounds weight, round 
its neck, as a punishment. He repeated the flogging for four days together at 
mess time. The last time after flogging it, he let it drop out of his hand, with 
the same expression as before, and accordingly in about three quarters of an 
hour the child died. He then called its mother to heave it overboard, and beat 
her for refusing. He however forced her to take it up, and go to the ship's 
side, where, holding her head on one side, to avoid the sight, she dropped 
her child overboard, after which she cried for many hours. 

Besides instances of slaves refusing to eat, with the view of destroying them- 
selves, and dying in consequence of it, those of their going mad are confirmed 
by Towne, and of their jumping overboard, or attempting to do it, by Towne, 
Millar, Ellison, and Hall. 

Other incidents on the passage, mentioned by some of the witnesses in their 
examination, may be divided into three kinds : 

The first kind consists of insurrections on the part of the slaves. Some of 
these frequently attempted to rise, but were prevented, (Wilson, Towne, Trot- 



* To show the severity of this punishment, Mr. Dove says, that while two slaves were 
under the torture of the thumb-screws, the sweat ran down their faces, and they trem- 
bled as under a violent ague fit ; and Mr. Ellison has known instances of their dying, a 
mortification having taken place in their thumbs in consequence of these screws. 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 133 

ter, Newton, Dalrymple, Ellison,) others rose, but were quelled, (Ellison, New- 
ton, Falconbridge,) and others rose and succeeded, killing almost all the whites: 
(Falconbridge and Towne.) Mr. Towne says that, inquiring of the slaves into 
the cause of these insurrections, he has been asked what business he had to 
carry them from their country. They had wives and children, whom they wanted 
to be with. After an insurrection, Mr. Ellison says he has seen them flogged, 
and the cook's tormentors and tongs heated to burn their flesh. Mr. Newton 
also adds that it is usual for captains, after insurrections and plots happen, to 
flog the slaves. Some captains, on board whose ships he has been, added tne 
thumb-screw, and one in particular told him repeatedly that he had put slaves 
to death, after an insurrection, by various modes of torture. 

The second sort of incident on the passage is mentioned by Mr. Falconbridge 
in the instance of an English vessel blowing up off Galenas, and most of the 
men-slaves, entangled in their irons, perishing. 

The third sort is described by Mr. Hercules Ross as follows. One instance, 
says he, marked with peculiar circumstances of horror, occurs : — About twenty 
years ago, a ship from Africa, with about four hundred slaves on board, struck 
upon some shoals, called the Morant Keys, distant eleven leagues, S.S.E. off 
the east end of Jamaica. The ofScers and seamen of the ship landed in their 
boats, carrying with them arms and provisions. The slaves were left on board 
in their irons and shackles. This happened in the night time. The Morant 
Keys consist of three small sandy islands, and he understood that the ship had 
struck upon the shoals, at about half a league to windward of them. When 
morning came, it was discovered that the negroes had got out of their irons, 
and were busy making rafts, upon which they placed the women and children, 
whilst the men, and others capable of swimming, attended upon the rafts, while 
they drifted before the wind towards the island where the seamen had landed. 
From an apprehension that the negroes would consume the water and provis- 
ions which the seamen had landed, they came to the resolution of destroying 
them by means of their fire-arms and other weapons. As the poor wretches 
approached the shore, they actually destroyed between three and four hun- 
dred of them. Out of the whole cargo, only thirty-three or thirty-four were 
saved, and brought to Kingston, where Mr. Ross saw them sold at public ven- 
due. The ship, to the best of his recollection, was consigned to a Mr. Hugh 
Wallace, of the parish of St. Elizabeth's. Mr. Ross says, in extenuation of 
this massacre, that the crew were probably drunk, or they would not have acted 
so, but he does not know it to have been the case. 

When the ships arrive at their destined ports, the slaves are exposed to sale. 
They are sold either by scramble, by public auction, or by lots. The sale by 
scramble is thus described by Mr. Falconbridge : " In the Emilia, at Jamaica, 
the ship was darkened with sails, and covered around. The men-slaves were 
placed on the main deck, and the women on the quarter deck. The purchasers 
on shore were informed that a gun would be fired when they were ready to open 
the sale. A great number of people came on board with tallies or cards in 
their hands, with their own names on them, and rushed through the barricado 



134 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

door with the ferocity of brutes. Some had three or four handkerchiefs tied 
together, to encircle as many as they thought fit for their purpose. In the yard 
at Grenada, he adds, (where another of his ships, the Alexander, sold by scram- 
ble,) the women were so terrified, that several of them got out of the yard, and 
ran about St. George's town as if they were mad. In his seeond voyage, while 
lying at Kingston, he saw a sale by scramble on board the Tryal, Captain Mac- 
donald. Forty or fifty of the slaves leaped into the sea, all of whom, how- 
ever, were taken up again." This was a very general mode of sale. Mr. Bail- 
lie says it was the common mode in America where he has been. Mr. Fitz- 
maurice has been at twenty sales by scramble in Jamaica. Mr. Clappeson 
never saw any other mode of sale during his residence there, and it is men- 
tioned as having been practiced under the inspection of Morley and of Trotter. 

The slaves sold by public auction are generally the refuse, or sickly slaves. 
These were in such a state of health that they sold, says Baillie, greatly under 
price. Falconbridge has known them sold for five dollars each, Town for a 
guinea, and Mr. Hercules Ross as low as a single dollar. 

The state of such is described to be very deplorable by General Tottenham 
and Mr. Hercules Ross. The former says that he once observed at Barbadoes 
a number of slaves that had been landed from a ship. They were brought 
into the yard adjoining the place of sale. Those that were not very ill were 
put into little huts, and those that were worse were left in the yard to die, 
for nobody gave them any thing to eat or drink ; and some of them lived 
three days in that situation. The latter has frequently seen the very refuse 
(as they are termed) of the slaves of Guinea ships landed and carried to the 
venrlue-masters in a very wretched state ; sometimes in the agonies of death ; 
and he has known instances of their expiring in the piazza of the auctioneer. 

Mr. Newton says, that in none of the sales he saw was there any care ever 
taken to prevent such slaves as were relations from being separated. They 
were separated as sheep and lambs by the butcher. This separation of rela- 
tions and friends is confirmed by Davison, Trotter, Clapperson, and Towne. 
Fitzmauriee also mentions the same, with an exception only to infants; but 
Mr. Falconbridge says that one of his captains (Frazer) recommended it to 
the planters never to separate relations and friends. He says he once heard 
of a person refusing to purchase a man's wife, and was next day informed the 
man had hanged himself. 

With respect to the mortality of slaves in the passage, Mr. Falconbridge 
says, that in three voyages he purchased 1,100, and lost 191 ; Trotter, in one 
voyage, about 600, and lost about 10; Millar, in one voyage, 490, and lost 
180 ; Ellison, in three voyages, where he recollects the mortality, bought 895, 
and lost 356. In one of these voyages, says the latter, the slaves had the 
small-pox. In this case he has seen the platform one continued scab ; eight 
or ten of them were hauled up dead in a morning, and the flesh and skin peeled 
off their wrists when taken hold of. 

Mr. Morley says that in four voyages he purchased about 1,325, and lost 
about 313. Mr. Towne, in two voyages, 630, and lost 115. Mr. Claxton, in 



THE MIDDLE TASSAGE. 135 

one voyage, 250, and lost 132. In this voyage, he says, they were so straighten- 
ed for provisions, that if they had been ten more days at sea, they must either 
have eaten the slaves that died, or have made the living slaves walk the plank, 
a term used among Guinea captains for making the slaves throw themselves 
overboard. He says, also, that he fell in with the Hero, Captain Withers, 
which had lost 360 slaves, or more than half her cargo, by the small-pox 
The surgeon of the Hero told him that when the slaves were removed from 
one place to another, they left marks of their skin and blood upon the deck, and 
it was the most horrid sight he had ever seen. 

Mr. Wilson states that in his ship and three others belonging to the same 
concern, they purchased among them 2064 slaves, and lost 586. He adds, that 
he fell in with the Hero, Captain Withers, at St. Thomas', which had lost 159 
slaves by the small-pox. Captain Hall, in two voyages, purchased 550, and 
lost 110. He adds, that he has known some ships in the slave-trade bury a 
quarter, some a third, and others half of their cargo. It is very uncommon 
to find shi; s without some loss* in their slaves. 

Besides those which die on the passage, it must be noticed here that several 
die soon after they are sold. Sixteen, says Mr. Falconbridge, were sold by 
auction out of the Alexander, all of whom died before the ship left the West 
Indies. Out of fourteen, says Mr. Claxton, sold from his ship in an infectious 
state, only four lived ; and though in the four voyages mentioned by Mr. Wil- 
son, no less than 586 perished on the passage out of 2,064, yet 220 addition- 
ally died of the small-pox in a very little time after their delivery in the river 
Plate, making the total loss for those ships not less than 836, out of 2,064. 

The causes of the disorders which carry off the slaves in such numbers, are 
ascribed by Mr. Falconbridge to a diseased mind, sudden transitions from heat 
to cold, a putrid atmosphere, wallowing in their own excrements, and being 
shackled together. A diseased mind, he says, is undoubtedly one of the causes; 
for many of the slaves on board refused medicines, giving as a reason, that 
they wanted to die, and could never be cured. Some few, on the other hand, 
who did not appear to think so much of their situation, recovered. That 
shackling together is also another cause, was evident from the circumstance of 
the men dying in twice the proportion the women did ; and so long as the 
trade continues, he adds, they must be shackled together, for no man will at- 
tempt to carry them out of irons. 

Surgeon Wilson, examined on the same topic, speaks nearly in the same 
manner. He says that of the death of two-thirds of those who died in his 
ship, the primary cause was melancholy. This was evident, not only from the 
symptoms of the disorder, and the circumstance that no one who had it was 
ever cured, whereas those who had it not, and yet were ill, recovered; but 
from the language of the slaves themselves, who declared that they wished to 
die, as also from Captain Smith's own declaration, who said their deaths were 

♦Total purchased, 7,904, lost, 2,053, exclusive of the Hero, being above one-fourth 
of the number purchased. The reader will observe that Mr. Claxton fell in with the 
Hero on one voyage, and Mr. Wilson on another. 



136 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

to be ascribed to their thinking so much of their situation. Though several 
died of the flux, he attributes their death, primarily, to the cause before assign- 
ed ; for, says he, their original disorder was a fixed melancholy, and the symp- 
toms, lowness of spirits and despondency. Hence they refused food. This 
only increased the symptoms. 

Mr. Towne, the only other person who speaks of the causes of the disorders 
of the slaves, says "they often fall sick, sometimes owing to their crowded 
state, but mostly to grief for being carried away from their country and friends." 
This he knows from inquiring frequently (which he was enabled to do by 
understanding their language) into the circumstances of their grievous com- 
plaints. 

We make some further extracts from the evidence, to exhibit the disastrous 
and fatal effects of the trade upon the seamen engaged in it. Such was the 
despotic character of the discipline on board of the slave-ships, and such the 
insensibility to suffering acquired by the officers, that the condition of the sea- 
men was not much better than that of the slaves. To exhibit the mortality 
among the seamen on board these infected ships, a report was made to the 
House of Commons, giving an abstract of the muster-rolls of such Liverpool and 
Bristol ships as were returned to the custom houses from September, 1784, to 
January, 1790. During this period, it appears that in 350 vessels, 12,263 sea- 
men were employed ; of these, only 5,760 returned home of the original crews ; 
of the remaining 6,503, there had died, before the vessels arrived in the West 
Indies, 2,643. The fate of the 3,860, not accounted for in the muster-rolls, 
we gather from the witnesses. 

The crews of the African slavers, says Captain Hall, when they arrive in 
the West Indies, are generally (he does not know a single instance to the con- 
trary) in a sickly, debilitated state, and the seamen, who are discharged or 
desert from those ships in the West Indies, are the most miserable objects he 
ever met with in any country in his life. He has frequently seen them with 
their toes rotted off, their legs swelled to the size of their thighs, and in an 
ulcerated state all over. He has seen them on the different wharves in the 
islands of Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, particularly at the two last 
islands. He has also seen them laying under the cranes and balconies of the 
houses near the water-side in Barbadoes and Jamaica expiring, and some quite 
dead. 

To confirm the assertion of Captain Hall, of the merchant service, that the 
'rews of Guinea-men generally arrive at their destined ports of sale in a sickly, 
debilitated state, we may refer to Captain Hall, of the navy, who asserts that 
in taking men (while in the West Indies) out of merchant ships for the king's 
service, he has, in taking a part of the crew of a Guinea ship, whose number 
then consisted of seventy, been able to select but thirty, who could have been 
thought capable of serving on board any ships of war, and when those thirty 
were surveyed by order of the admiral, he was reprimanded for bringing each 
men into the service, who were more likely to breed distemper than to be of 
any use, and tins at a time when seamen were so much wanted, that almost 



TREATMENT OF TI1E SEAMEN. 13 ( 

any thing would have been taken. He adds also that this was not a singular 
instance, but that it was generally the case ; for he had many opportunities 
between the years 1769 and 1773 of seeing the great distresses of crews of 
Guinea ships, when they arrived in the West Indies. 

We may refer also to Captain Smith, of the navy, who asserts that though 
he may have boarded near twenty of these vessels in the West Indies, for the 
purpose of impressing men, he was never able to get more than two men. 
The principal reason was the fear of infection, having seen many of them in a 
very disordered and ulcerated state. 

The assertion also of Captain Hall, of the merchant service, relative to 
their situation after their arrival at their destined ports of sale, is confirmed 
by the rest of the witnesses in the minutest manner ; for the seamen belonging 
to the slave-vessels are described as lying about the wharves and cranes, or 
wandering about the streets or islands full of sores and ulcers. It is asserted 
by the witnesses, that they never saw any other than Guinea seamen in that 
state in the West Indies. The epithets also of sickly, emaciated, abject, de- 
plorable objects, are applied to them. They are mentioned again as desti- 
tute, and starving, and without the means of support, no merchantmen taking 
them in because they are unable to work, and men-of-war refusing them for 
fear of infection. Many of them are also described as lying about in a 
dying state ; and others have been actually found dead, and negroes have 
been seen carrying the bodies of others to be interred. 

It may be remarked here, that this diseased and forlorn state of the seamen 
was so inseparable from the slave-trade, that the different witnesses had not only 
seen it at Jamaica, Antigua, and Barbadoes, the places mentioned by Captain 
Hall, but wherever they have seen Guinea-men arrive, namely, at St. Vincents, 
Grenada, Dominique, and in North America also. 

The reasons why such immense numbers were left behind in the West Indies, 
as were found }n this deplorable state, are the following : The seamen leave 
their ships from ill usage, says Ellison. It is usual for captains, say Clappe- 
son and Young, to treat them ill, that they may desert and forfeit their wages. 
Three others state they were left behind purposely by their captains ; and Mr. 
H. Rose adds, in these emphatical words, " that it was no uncommon thing for 
the captains to send on shore, a few hours before they sail, their lame, emaci- 
ated, and sick seamen, leaving them to perish. 

That the seamen employed in the slave-trade were worse fed, both in point 
of quantity and quality of provisions, than the seamen in other trades, was 
allowed by most of the witnesses, and that they had little or no shelter night 
or day from the inclemency of the weather, during the whole of the Middle 
Passage, was acknowledged by them all. With respect to their personal ill 
usage, the following extracts may suffice : 

Mr. Morley asserts that the seamen in all the Guinea-men he sailed in, 
except one, were generally treated with great rigor, and many with cruelty. 
He recollects many instances : Mathews, the chief mate of the Venus, Captain 
Forbes, would knock a man down for any frivolous thing with a cat, a piece of 



138 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

wood, or a cook's axe, with which he once cut a man down the should' r, by 
throwing it at him in a passion. Captain Dixon, likewise, in the Amelia, tied 
up the men, and gave them four or five dozen lashes at a time, and then 
rubbed them with pickle. Mr. Morley also himself, when he was Dixon's 
cabin-boy, for accidentally breaking a glass, was tied to the tiller by the hands, 
flogged with a cat, and kept hanging for some time. Mr. Morley has seen the 
seamen lie and die upon the deck. They are generally, he says, treated ill 
when sick. He has known men ask to have their wounds or ulcers dressed ; 
and has heard the doctor, with oaths, refuse to dress them. 

Mr. Ellison also, in describing the treatment in the Briton, says there was a 
boy on board, whom Wilson, the chief mate, was always beating. One morn- 
ing, in the passage out, he had not got the tea-kettle boiled in time for his 
breakfast, upon which, when it was brought, Wilson told him he would severely 
flog him after breakfast. The boy, for fear of this, went into the lee fore 
chains. When Wilson came from the cabin, and called for Paddy, (the name 
he went by, being an Irish boy,) he would not come, but remained in the fore 
chains ; on which Wilson going forward, and attempting to haul him iu, the 
boy jumped overboard, and was drowned. 

Another time on the Middle Passage, the same Wilson ordered one James 
Allison (a mau he had been continually beating for trifles) to go into the 
women's room to scrape it. Allison said he was not able, for he was very 
unwell ; upon which Wilson obliged him to go down. Observing, however, 
that the man did not work, he asked him the reason, and was answered as 
before, " that he was not able." Upon this, Wilson threw a handspike at him, 
which struck him on the breast, and he dropped down to appearance dead. 
Allison recovered afterwards a little, but died the next day. 

Mr. Ellison relates other instances of ill-usage on board his own ship, and 
with respect to instances in others, he says, that in all slave ships they are most 
commonly beaten and knocked about for nothing. He recollects that on board 
the Phoenix, a Bristol ship, while lying on the coast, the boatswain and five of 
the crew made their escape in the yawl, but were taken up by the natives. 
When Captain Bishop heard it, he ordered them to be kept on shore at Forje, 
a small town at the mouth of Calabar River, chained by the necks, legs, and 
hands, and to have each a plantain a day only. The boatswain, whose name 
was Tom Jones, and an old shipmate of his, and a very good seaman, died 
raving mad in his chains there. The other five died in their chains also. 

Mr. Towne, in speaking of the treatment on board the Peggy, Captain 
Davison, says that their chests were brought upon deck, and staved and burnt, 
and themselves turned out from lying below ; and if any murmurs were heard 
among them, they were inhumanly beaten with any thing that came in the way, 
or flogged, both legs put in irons, and chained abaft to the pumps, and there 
made to work points and gaskets, during the captain's pleasure ; and very 
often beat just as the captain thought proper. He himself has often seen the 
captain as he has walked by, kick them repeatedly, and if they have said any 
thing that he might deem offensive, he has immediately called for a stick to 



TREATMENT OF THE SEAMEN. 139 

beat them with; they at the same time, having both legs iu irons, an iron col- 
lar about their necks, and a chain ; and when on the coast of Guinea, if not 
released before their arrival there from their confinement, they were put into 
the boats, and made to row backwards and forwards, either with the captain 
from ship to ship, or on any other duty, still both legs in irons, an iron collar 
about their necks, with a chain lucked to the boat, and taken out when no other 
duty was required of them at night, and locked fast upon the open deck, ex- 
posed to the heavy rains and dews, without any thing to lie upon, or any thing 
tn cover them. This was a practice on board the Peggy. 

He says, also, that similar treatment [ire vailed on board the Sally, another 
ship in which he sailed. One of the seamen had both legs in irons, and a col- 
lar about his neck, and was chained to the boat for three months, and very often 
inhumanly beaten for complaining of his situation, both by the captain and 
other officers. At last he became so weak that he could not sit upon the 
thwart or seat of the boat to row, or do anything else. They then put him 
out of the boat, and made him pick oakum on board the ship, with only three 
pounds of bread a week, and half a pound of salt beef per day. He remain- 
ed in that situation, with both his legs in irons, but the latter part of the time 
without a collar. One evening he came aft, during the middle passage, to beg 
something to eat, or he should die. The captain on this inhumanly beat him, 
and used a great number of reproaches, and ordered him to go forward, and 
die and be damned. The man died in the night. The ill treatment on board 
the Sally was general. 

As another particular instance, a landsman, one Edw. Hilton, was in the boat 
watering, and complained of his being long in the boat without meat or drink. 
The boatswain, being the officer, beat him with the boat's tiller, having nothing 
else, and cut his head in several places, so that when he came on board he was 
all over blood. Mr. Towne asked him the reason of it. Hilton began to tell 
him, but before he could properly tell the story, the mate came forward, (by 
order of the captain) the surgeon and the boatswain, and all of them together 
fell to beating him with their canes. The surgeon struck him on the side of 
his eye, so that it afterwards mortified, and was lost. He immediately had both 
his legs put in irons, after he had been so beat that he could not stand. The 
next morning he was put into (he boat on the same duty as before, still remain- 
ing with both legs in irons, and locked with a chain to the boat, until such 
time as he became so weak that he was not able to remain any longer there. 
He was then put on board the ship, and laid forwards, still in irons, very ill. 
His allowance was immediately stopped, as it was the surgeon's opinion it was 
the only method of curing any one of them who complained of illness. He 
remained in that situation, after being taken out of the boat, for some weeks 
after. During this time, Mr. Towne was obliged to go to Junk River, and 
on his return he inquired for Hilton, and was told that he was lying before the 
foremast, almost dead. He went and spoke to him, but Hilton seemed insen- 
sible. The same day Mr. Towne received his orders to go a second time in 
the shallop to Junk River. After he had gotten under weigh, the commander 



140 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

of the shallop was ordered to bring to, and take Hilton in, and leave him on 
shore any where. He lived that evening and night out, and died early the 
next morning, and was thrown overboard off Cape Mesurado. 

Mr. Falconbridge, being called upon also to speak to the ill usage of sea- 
men, said that on board the Alexander, Captain M'Taggart, he has seen them 
tied up and flogged with the cat frequently. He remembers also an instance 
of an old man, who was boatswain of the Alexander, having one night some 
words with the mate, when the boatswain was severely beaten, and had one or 
two of his teeth knocked out. The boatswain said he would jump overboard; 
upon which he was tied to the rail of the quarter-deck, and a pump-bolt put 
into his mouth by way of gagging him. He was then untied, put under the 
half-deck, and a sentinel put over him all night — in the morniug he was re- 
leased. Mr. Falconbridge always considered him as a quiet, inoffensive man. 
In the same voyage a black boy was beaten every day, and one day, after he 
was so beaten, he jumped through one of the gun-ports of the cabin into the 
river. A canoe was lying alongside, which dropped astern and picked him up. 
Mr. Falconbridge gave him one of his own shirts to put on, and asked him if 
he did not expect to be devoured by the sharks. The boy said he did, and 
that it would be much better for him to be killed at once, than to be daily 
treated with so much cruelty. 

Mr. Falconbridge remembers also, on board the same ship, that the black 
cook one day broke a plate. For this he had a fish-gig darted at him, which 
would certainly have destroyed him if he had not stooped or dropped down. 
At another time also, the carpenter's mate had let his pitch-pot catch fire. 
He and the cook were accordingly both tied up, stripped and flogged, but the 
cook with the greatest severity. After that the cook had salt water and cay- 
enne pepper rubbed upon his back. A man also came on board at Bonny, 
belonging to a little ship, (Mr. Falconbridge believes the captain's name was 
Dodson, of Liverpool,) which had been overset at New Calabar. This man, 
when he came on board, was in a convalescent state. He was severely beaten 
one night, but for what cause Mr. Falconbridge knows not, upon which he 
came to Mr. Falconbridge for something to rub his back with. Mr. Falcon- 
bridge was told by the captain not to give him any thing, and the man was 
desired to go forward. He went accordingly, and lay under the forecastle. 
Mr. Falconbridge visited him very often, at which times he complained of his 
bruises. He died in about three weeks from the time he was beaten. The 
last words he ever spoke were, after shedding tears, " I cannot punish him," 
meaning the captain, "but God will."' These are the most remarkable in- 
stances which .Mr. Falconbridge recollects. He says, however, that the ill 
treatment was so general, that only three in this ship escaped being beaten out 
of fifty persons. 

To these instances, which fell under the eyes of the witnesses now cited, we 
may add the observations of a gentleman who, though never in the slave-trade, 
had yet great opportunities of obtaining information upon this subject. Sir 
George Young remarks, that those seamen whom he saw in the slave-trade, 



TREATMENT OF THE SEAMEN. 141 

while on the coast in a man-of-war, complained of their ill treatment, bad feed- 
ing, and cruel usage. They all wanted to enter on board his ship. It was like- 
wise the custom for the seamen of every ship he saw at a distance, to come on 
board him with their boats ; most of them quite naked, and threatening to turn 
pirates if he did not take them. This they told him openly. He is persuaded, 
if he had given them encouragement, and had had a ship-of-the-line to have 
manned, he could have done it in a very short time, for they would all have left 
their ships. He has also received several seamen on board his ship from the 
woods, where they had no subsistence, but to which they had fled for refuse 
from their respective vessels. 

That the above are not the only instances of barbarity contained in the evi- 
dence, and that this barbarous usage was peculiar to, or springing out of the 
very nature of the trade in slaves, may be insisted on the following accounts : 

Captain Thompson concludes from the many complaints he received from 
seamen, while on the coast, that they are far from being well treated on board 
the slave-ships. One Bowden swam from the Fisher, of Liverpool, Captain 
Kendal, to the Nautilus, amidst a number of sharks, to claim his protection. 
Kendal wrote for the man, who refused to return, saying his life would be en- 
dangered. He therefore kept him in the Nautilus till she was paid off, and 
found him a diligent, willing, active seaman. Several of the crew, he thinks, 
of the Brothers, of Liverpool, Captain Clark, swam towards the Nautilus, 
when passing by. Two only reached her. The rest, he believes, regained 
their own ship. The majority of the crew had the day before come on board 
the Nautilus, in a boat, to complain of ill usage, but he had returned them 
with an officer to inquire into and redress their complaints. He received many 
letters from seamen in slave-ships, complaining of ill usage, and desirin"- him 
to protect them, or take them on board. He is inclined to think that ships 
trading in the produce of Africa, are not so ill used as those in the slave-ships. 
Several of his own officers gave him the best accounts of the treatment in the 
Iris, a vessel trading for wood, gums, and ivory, near which the Nautilus lay 
for some weeks. 

Lieutenant Simpson says that on his first voyage, when lying at Fort Appo- 
lonia, the Fly Guineaman was in the roads. On the return of the Adventure's 
boat from the fort, they were hailed by some seamen belonging to the Fly, re- 
questing that they might be taken from on board the Guineaman, and put on 
board the man-of-war, for that their treatment was such as to make their lives 
miserable. The boat, by the direction.of Captain Parry, was sent to the Fly, 
and one or two men were brought on board him. In his second voyage, he re- 
collects that on first seeing the Albion Guineaman, she carried a press of sail 
seemingly to avoid them, but finding it impracticable, she spoke them ; the day 
after which the captain of the Albion brought a seaman on board the Adven- 
ture, whom he wished to be left there, complaining that he was a very riotous 
and disorderly man. The man, on the contrary, proved very peaceable and 
well-behaved, nor was there one single instance of his conduct from which he 
could suppose he merited the character given him. He seemed to rejoice at 



142 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

quitting the Albion, and informed Mr. Simpson that he was cruelly beaten both 
by the captain and surgeon ; that he was half starved ; and that the surgeon 
neglected the sick seamen, alleging that he was only paid for attending the 
slaves. He also informed Mr. Simpson that their allowance of provisions was 
increased, and their treatment somewhat better when a man-of-war was on the 
coast. He recollects another instance of a seaman, with a leg shockingly ul- 
cerated, requesting a passage in the Adventure to England ; alleging that he 
was left behind from a Guineaman. He alleged various instances of ill treat- 
ment he had received, and confirmed the account of the sailor of the Albion, 
that their allowonce of provisions was increased, and treatment better, when a 
man-of-war was on the coast. During Mr. Simpson's stay at Cape Coast Cas- 
tle, the Adventure's boat was sent to Annamaboe to the Spy Guineaman ; on 
her return, three men were concealed under her sails, who had left the slave- 
ship ; they complained that their treatment was so bad that their lives were 
miserable on board — beaten and half starved. There were various other in- 
stances which escaped his memory. Mr. Simpson says, however, that he has 
never heard any complaints from West Indiamen, or other merchant ships ; on 
the contrary, they wished to avoid a man-of-war ; whereas, if the captain of the 
Adventure had listened to all the complaints made to him from sailors of slave- 
ships, and removed them, he must have greatly distressed the African trade. 

Captain Hall, of the navy, speaking on the same subject, asserts that as to 
peculiar modes of punishment adopted in Guineamen, he once saw a man 
chained by the neck in the main top of a slave-ship, when passing under the 
stern of His Majesty's ship Crescent, in Kingston-Bay, St. Vincent's ; and was 
told by part of the crew, taken out of the ship, at their own request, that the 
man had been there one hundred and twenty days. He says he has great rea- 
son to believe that in no trade are seamen so badly treated as in the slave- 
trade, from their always flying to men-of-war for redress, and whenever they 
came within reach ; whereas men from West Indian or other trades seldom ap- 
ply to a ship-of-war. 

The last witness it will be necessary to cite is the Rev. Mr. Newton. This 
gentleman agrees in the ill usage of the seamen alluded to, and believes that 
the slave-trade itself is a great cause of it, for he thinks that the real or sup- 
posed necessity of treating the negroes with rigor gradually brings a numbness 
upon the heart, and renders most of those who are engaged in it too indiffer- 
ent to the sufferings of their fellow-creatures. If it should be asked how it 
happened that seamen entered for slave-vessels, when such general ill usage 
there could hardly fail of being known, the reply must be taken from the evi- 
dence, "that whereas some of them enter voluntarily, the greater part of them 
are trepanned, for that it is the business of certain landlords to make them in- 
toxicated, and get them into debt, after which their only alternative is a Guin- 
eaman or a gaol." 



SLAVERY IN WEST INDIES. 143 

CHAPTER XI. 

Slavery in the West Indies, 1750 to 1790. 

Abstract of Evidence continued. — Slavery in the West Indies from 1750 to 1790. — Gen- 
eral estimation and treatment of the Slaves. — Labor of Plantation Slaves— their days 
of rest, food, clothing, property. — Ordinary pnnishment by the whip and cowskiu. — 
Frequency and severity of these Punishments. — Extraordinary Punishments of vari- 
ous kinds, for nominal offenses.- — Capital offenses and Punishments. — Slaves turned 
off to steal, beg, or starve, when incapable of labor. — Slaves had little or no redress 
against ill usage. 



T 



HE natives of Africa, when bought by European colonists, are generally 
esteemed, says Dr. Jackson, a species of inferior beings, whom the right of 
purchase gives the owner a power of using at his will. Consistently with this 
definition, we find the evidence asserting, with one voice, that they "have no 
legal protection against their masters," and of course, that "their treatment 
varies according to the disposition of their masters." If their masters be good 
men, says the Dean of Middleham, they are well off, but if not, they suffer. 
The general treatment, however, is described to be very severe. Some speak 
more moderately than others upon it, but all concur in the general usage as 
being bad. Mr. Woolrich, examined on this point, says that he never knew 
the best master in the West Indies use his slaves so well as the worst master 
his servants in England ; that their state is inconceivable ; that it cannot be 
described to the full understanding of those who have never seen it, and that 
a sight of some gangs would convince more than all words. Others, again, 
make use of the words, " used with great cruelty, — like beasts, or worse ; " and 
the Dean of Middleham, after balancing in his mind all his knowledge upon 
this subject, cannot say, (setting aside on one hand particular instances of 
great severity, and on the other hand particular instances of great humanity,) 
that treatment altogether humane and proper was the lot of such as he had 
either observed or heard of. 

To come to a more particular description of their treatment, it will be 
proper to divide them into different classes. The first may be said to consist 
of those who are bought for the plantation use. These are artificers of Various 
descriptions, and the field slaves. The second consists of what may be termed 
in-or-out-door slaves. The former are domestics, both in town and country, 
and the latter, porters, fishermen, boatmen, and the like. 

The field-slaves, whose case is the first to be considered, are called out by 
day-light to their work. For this purpose the shell blows, and they hurry into 
the field. If they are not there in time, they are flogged. When put to their 
work, they perform it in rows, and, without exception, under the whip of dri- 
vers, a certain number of whom are allotted to each gang. By these means, 
the weak are made to keep up with the strong. Mr. Fitzmaurice is sorry to 
say, that from this cause many of them are hurried to the grave ; as the able, 
even if placed with the weakly to bring them up, will leave them behind, and 
then the weakly are generally flogged up by the driver. This, however, is the 



144 SLAVERY IX WEST INDIES. 

mode of their labor. As to the time of it, they begin, as before said, at day- 
light, and continue, with two intermissions, (one for half an hour in the morn- 
ing, and the other for two hours at noon,) till sun-set. 

The above description, however, does not include the whole of their opera- 
tions for the day, for it is expected that they shall range about and pick grass 
for the cattle. It is clear, from the different evidences, that the custom of 
grass-picking varies, as to the time in which it is to be done, on different 
estates, for on some it is to be done within the intervals of rest said to be 
allowed at noon, and on others after the labor of the day. It is complained 
of, however, in either case, as a great grievance, as it lengthens the time of 
work ; as also, because, particularly in droughts, it is very difficult to find grass 
at all, and because, if they do not bring it in sufficient quantities, they are 
punished. Grass-picking, says Captain Smith, is one of the most frequent 
causes of punishment. He has seen some flogged for not getting so great a 
quantity of it as others, and that at a time when he has thought it impossible 
they could have gotten half the quantity, having been upon the spot. 

It is impossible to pass over in silence the almost total want of indulgence 
which the women slaves frequently experience during the operations in the 
field. It is asserted by Dalrymple, that the drivers, in using their whip, never 
distinguish sex. 

The above accounts of the mode and duration of the labor of the field slaves, 
are confined to that season of the year which is termed "out of crop," or the 
time in which they are preparing the lands for the crop. In the crop season, 
however, the labor is of much longer duration. Weakly handed estates, says 
Mr. Fitzmaarice, which are far the most numerous, form their negroes in crop 
into two spells, which generally change at twelve at noon, and twelve at night. 
The boilers and others about the works, relieved at twelve at noon, cut canes 
from shell blow (half-past one) till dark, when they carry cane-tops or grass 
to the cattle pens, and then they may rest till twelve at night, when they re- 
lieve the spell in the boiling-house, by which they themselves had been relieved 
at twelve in the day. On all the estates the boiling goes on night and day with- 
out intermission ; but full-handed estates have three spells, and intermissions 
accordingly. 

Mr. Dalrymple, speaking also of their labor in time of crop, says they are 
obliged to work as long as they can, which is as long as they can keep awake 
or stand on their legs. Sometimes they fall asleep, through excess of fatigue, 
when their arms are caught in the mill and torn off. He saw several who had 
lost their arms in that way. Mr. Cook states, on the same subject, that in 
crop time they work in general about eighteen hours out of the twenty-four, 
and are often hurt through mere fatigue and want of sleep. He knew a girl 
lose her hand by the mill, while feeding it, for being overcome by sleep, she 
dropped against the rollers. He has heard of several instances of this kind. 

To this account of the labor of the slaves, both in and out of crop, it ap- 
pears by the evidence they have Sunday and Saturday afternoon out of crop, 
to themselves, that is, to cultivate their own grounds for their support ; on 



. ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE. 145 

others, Sunday only ; and on others, Sunday only in part, for some people, 
says the Dean of Middleham, required grass for the cattle on Sundays to be 
gathered twice in the day; and Lieutenant Davison says he has known them 
forced to work on Sundays for their masters. It appears again, that in crop, 
on no estates, have they more than Sunday for the cultivation of their lands. 
The Dean of Middleham has known them continue boiling the sugar till late 
on Saturday night, and in one instance remembers it to have been protracted 
till sun-rise on Sunday morning: and the care afterwards of setting up the 
sugar-jars must have required several hours. 

The point -which may be considered next, is that of the slaves' food. 
This appears by the evidence to be subject to no rule. On some estates they 
are allowed land, which they cultivate for themselves at the times mentioned 
above, but they have no provisions allowed them, except perhaps a small pres- 
ent of salt fish or beef, or salt pork, at Christmas. On others they are allowed 
provisions, but no land : on others again, they are allowed land and provisions 
jointly. Without enumerating the different rations mentioned to be allowed 
them by the different witnesses, it may be sufficient to take the highest. The 
best allowance is evidently at Barbadoes, and the following is the account of it. 
The slaves in general, says General Tottenham, appeared to be ill-fed ; each 
slave had a pint of grain for twenty-four hours, and sometimes half a rotten 
herring, when to be had. When the herrings were unfit for the whites, they 
were bought up by the planters for the slaves. Mr. Davis says that on those 
estates in Barbadoes, where he has seen the slaves' allowance dealt out, a 
grown negro had nine pints of corn, and about one pound of salt fish a week, 
but the grain of the West Indies is much lighter than wheat. He is of opin- 
ion that in general they were too sparingly fed. The Dean of Middleham also 
mentions nine pints per week as the quantity given, but that he has known 
masters abridge it in the time of crop. This is the greatest allowance mentioned 
throughout the whole of the evidence, and this is one of the cases in which the 
slaves had provisions but no land. Where, on the other hand, they have land 
and no provisions, all the witnesses agree that it is quite ample for their sup- 
port, but that they have not sufficient time to cultivate it. Their lauds, too, 
are often at the distance of three miles from their houses, and Mr. Giles thinks 
the slaves were often so fatigued by the labor of the week, as scarcely to be 
capable of working on them on Sunday for their own use. It is also mention- 
ed as a great hardship, that often when they had cleared these lands, their 
master has taken them away for canes, giving them new wood-land in their 
stead, to be cleared afresh. This circumstance, together with the removal of 
their houses, many of them have so taken to heart as to have died. 

Whether or not their food may be considered as sufficient in general for 
their support, may be better seen from the following than the preceding ac- 
count. Mr. Cook says that they have not sufficient food. He has known them 
to eat the putrid carcasses of animals, and is convinced they did it through 
want. Mr. J. Terry has known them, on estates where they have been worse 
fed than on others, eat the putrid carcasses of animals also. Dead mules, 
10 



14G SLAVERY IN VTE;:T indies. 

horses, and cows, says Mr. Coor, were all burned under the inspection of a 
white man. Had they been buried, the negroes would have dug them up in 
the night to eat them through hunger. It was generally said to be done to 
prevent the negroes from eating them, lest it should breed distempers. 

On the subject of their clothing, there is the same variation as to quantity 
as in their food. It depends on the disposition and circumstances of their 
masters. The largest allowance in the evidence is that which is mentioned by 
Dr. Harrison. The men, he says, at Christmas, are allowed two frocks, and 
two pair of Osnaburgh trowsers, and the women two coats and two shifts 
apiece. Some also have two handkerchiefs for the head. They have no other 
clothes than these, except they get them by their own extra labor. Woolrich 
and Coor agree, that as far as their experience went, the masters did not ex- 
pend for the clothing of their slaves more than half a crown or three shillings 
a year ; and Cook says that they are in general but very indifferently clothed, 
and that one-half of them go almost naked in the field. 

With respect to their houses and lodging, the accounts of the three follow- 
ing gentlemen will suffice : 

Mr. Woolrich states their houses to be small, square huts, built with poles, 
and thatched at the top and sides with a kind of bamboo, and built by the 
slaves themselves. He describes them as lying in the middle of these huts 
before a small fire, but to have no bedding. Some, he says, obtain a board or 
mat to lie on before the fire. A few of the head-slaves have cabins of boards 
raised from the floor, but no bedding, except some, who have a coarse blanket. 
The Rev. Mr. Rees, in describing their houses nearly in the same manner, 
observes that their furniture consists of stools and benches, that they had no 
beds or bedding in the houses he was in, but that some of them slept on the 
ground, and others on a board raised from it. Some of the new slaves, says 
Dr. Harrison, have a few blankets, but it is not the general practice : for in 
general they have no bedding at all. 

Of the property of the field-slaves, the next article to be considered, the 
following testimony will give a sufficient illustration : 

Many field-slaves, says Mr. Woolrich, have it not in their power to earn 
any thing, exclusive of their master's work. Some few raise fowls, and some 
few pigs, and sell them, but their number is very few. Mr. Dalrymple does 
not say that slaves never become possessed of much property, but he never 
knew an instance of it, nor can he conceive how they can have time for it. 
The Dean of Mi : ' ' m observes, that the quantity of ground allowed to 
field-slaves for raising provisions does not admit of their frequently possessing 
any considerable property. It is not likely they can spare much of their pro- 
duce for sale. Sometimes they possess a pig, and two or three fowls, and if 
they have also a few plantain trees, these may be the means of supplying them 
with knives, iron puts, and such other conveniences as their masters do not 
allow them. The greatest property Mr. M. Terry ever knew a field-slave to 
possess was two pigs, and a little poultry. A field-slave has not the means of 
getting much property. Mr. J. Terry has known the field-slaves so poor as 



ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE. 147 

not to be able to have poultry. They were not allowed to keep sheep on any 
estate he knew. On some they might keep two or three goats, but very few 
allowed it. Some keep pigs and poultry, if able to buy any. 

To this testimony it may be added, that all the witnesses, to whom the 
question has been proposed, agree in answering, that they never knew or heard 
of a field-slave ever amassing such a sum as enabled him to purchase his own 
freedom. 

With respect to the artificers, such as house-carpenters, coopers, and masons, 
and the drivers and head-slaves, who form the remaining part of the planta- 
tion slaves, they are described as having in general a more certain allowance 
of provisions, and as being better off. 

Having now described the state of the plantation, it will be proper to say a 
few words on that of the in-and-out-door slaves. The in-door slaves, or do- 
mestics, are allowed by all the witnesses to be better clothed and less worked 
than the others, and invariably to look better. Some, however, complain of 
their being much pinched for food. 

With respect to the out-door slaves, several persons, who have a few slaves, 
and little work, allow them to work out, and oblige them to bring home three 
or four bits a day. The situation of these is considered to be very hard, for 
they are often unable to find work, and to earn the stated sum, and yet, if they 
fail, they are severely punished. Mr. Clappeson has known them steal grass, 
and sell it, to make up the sum required. 

In this description maybe ranked such as follow the occupation of porters. 
These are allowed to work out, and at the end of the week obliged to bring 
home to their masters a certain weekly sum. Their situation is much aggra- 
vated by having no fixed rates. If, says Foster, on being offered too little for 
their work they remonstrate, they are often beaten, and receive nothing, and 
should they refuse the next call from the same person, they are summoned 
before a magistrate, and punished on the parade for the refusal, and he has 
known them so punished. 

Having now described the labor, food, clothing, houses, property, and differ- 
ent kinds of employment of the plantation, as well as the situation of the 
in-and-out-door slaves, as far as the evidence will warrant, it may be proper to 
advert to their punishments ; and, first, to those that are inflicted by the cow- 
skin or the whip. 

In the towns many people have their slaves flogged upon their own premises, 
in which case it is performed by a man, who is paid for it, and who goes round 
the town in quest of the delinquents. But those, says Mr. H. Ross, who do 
not choose to disturb their neighbors with the slave cries, send them to the 
wharves or Raul, where they are corrected also by persons paid. At other times 
they are whipped publicly round the town, and at others tied down, or made 
to stand in some public place, and receive it there. When they are flogged on 
the wharves, to which they go for the convenience of the cranes and weights, 
they are described by H. Ross, Morley, Jeffreys, Towne, and Captain Scott, 
to have their arms tied to the hooks of the crane, and weights of fifty-six 



148 SLAVERY IN WEST INDIES. 

pounds applied to their feet. In this situation the crane is wound up, so that 
it lifts them nearly from the ground, and keeps them in a stretched posture, 
when the whip or cow-skin is used. After this they are again whipped, but 
with ebony bushes (which are more prickly than the thorn bushes in this coun- 
try) in order to let out the congealed blood. 

Respecting the whippings in gaol aud round the town, Dr. Harrison thought 
them too severe to be inflicted on any of the human species. He attended a 
man, who had been flogged in gaol, who was ill in consequence five or six 
weeks. It was by his master's order for not coming when he was called. He 
could lay two or three fingers in the wounds made by the whip. 

The punishments in the country by means of the whip aud cow-skin appear 
to differ, except in one instance, from those which have been mentioned of the 
town. 

It is usual for those, says Mr. Coor, who do not come into the field in time, 
to be punished. In this case a few steps before they join the gang they throw 
down the hoe, clap both hands on their heads, and patiently take ten, fifteen, 
or twenty lashes. 

There is another mode described by Mr. Coor. About eight o'clock, says 
he, the overseer goes to breakfast, and if he has any criminals at home, he 
orders a black man to follow him ; for it is then usual to take such out of the 
stocks and flog them before the overseer's house. The method is generally 
this : The delinquent is stripped and tied on a ladder, his legs on the sides and 
his arms above his head, and sometimes a rope is tied round his middle. The 
driver whips him on the bare skin, and if the overseer thinks he does not lay it 
on hard enough, he sometimes knocks him down with his own hand, or makes 
him change places with the delinquent, and be severely whipped. Mr. Coor 
has known many to receive on the ladder, from one hundred to one hundred 
and fifty lashes, and some two cool hundreds, as they are generally called. He 
has known many returned to confinement, and in one, two or three days, 
brought to the ladder, and receive the same complement, or thereabouts, as 
before. They seldom take them off the ladder, until all the skin, from the 
hams to the small of the back, appears only raw flesh and blood, aud then they 
wash the parts with salt pickle. This appeared to him from the convulsions 
it occasioned, more cruel than the whipping, but it was done to prevent mor- 
tification. He has known many after such whipping sent to the field under 
guard and worked all day, with no food but what their friends might give them, 
out of their own poor pittance. He has known them returned to the stocks at 
night, and worked next day, successively. This cruel whipping, hard working, 
and starving has, to his knowledge, made many commit suicide. He remem- 
bers fourteen slaves, who, from bad treatment, rebelled on a Sunday, rau into 
the woods, and all cut their throats together. 

The whip, says Woolrich, is generally made of plaited cow-skin, wiih a 
thick strong lash. It is so formidable an instrument in the hands of some of 
the overseers, that by means of it they can take the skin off a horse's back. 
He has heard them boast of laying the marks of it in a deal board, and he has 



ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE. 149 

seen it done. On its application on a slave's back, he has seen the blood spurt 
out immediately on the first stroke. 

Nearly the same account of its construction is given by other witnesses, 
and its power and effects are thus described : At every stroke, says Captain 
Smith, a piece of flesh was drawn out. Dalrymple avers the same thing. It 
will even bring blood through the clothes, says J. Terry ; and such is the 
effusion of blood on those occasions, adds Fitzmaurice, as to make their frocks, 
if immediately put on, appear as stiff as buckram ; and Coor observes, that at 
his first going to Jamaica, a sight of a common flogging would put him in a 
tremble, so that he did not feel right for the rest of the day. It is observed 
also by Dr. Harrison and the Dean of Middleham, that the incisions are some- 
times so deep that you may lay your fingers in the wounds. There are also 
wheals, says Mr. Coor, from their hams to the small of their backs. These 
wheals, cuts, or marks, are described by Captain Thompson, Dean of Middle- 
ham, Mr. Jeffreys, and General Tottenham, as indelible, as lasting to old age, 
or as such as no time can erase, and Woolrich has often seen their backs one 
undistinguished mass of lumps, holes, and furrows. 

As farther proofs of the severity of these punishments by the whip or cow- 
skin, the following facts may be adduced. Duncan and Falconbridge have 
known them so whipped that they could not lie down. He knew also a negro 
girl die of a mortification of her wounds, two days after the whipping had ta- 
ken place. A case similar to the last is also mentioned by Mr. Rees. Find- 
ing, one day in his walks, a woman lying down and groaning, he understood 
from her that she had been so severely whipped for running away, that she could 
hardly move from the place where she was. Her left side, where she had been 
most whipped, appeared in a mortifying state, and almost covered with worms. 
He relieved her, as she was hungry, and in a day or two afterwards, going to 
visit her again, found she was dead and buried. To mention other instances : 
a planter flogged his driver to death, and even boasted of it to the person from 
whom Mr. Dalrymple had the account. Captain Hall (of the navy) also knows, 
by an instance that fell under his eye, that a slave's death may be occasioned 
by severe punishment. Dr. Jackson thinks, also, severe whippings are some- 
times the occasion of their death. He recollects a negro dying under the lash, 
or soon afterwards ; and Captain Ross avers that they often die in a few days 
after their severe punishments, for having but little food, and little care being 
taken to keep the sores clean after the whipping, their death is often the con- 
sequence. 

Having now collected what is said on the punishments by the whip and cow- 
skin, it will be proper to mention those other modes which the evidence 
presents us. These, however, are not easily subject to a division from the great 
variety of then- kinds. 

Captain Cook, speaking of the towns, says he has been shocked to see a girl 
of sixteen or seventeeu, a domestic slave, running in the streets on her ordi- 
nary business, with an iron collar, having two hooks projecting several inches, 
both before and behind. 



150 SLAVERY IN WEST INDIES. 

Captain Ross, speaking of the country, has known slaves severely punished, 
then put into the stocks, a cattle chain of sixty or seventy pounds weight put 
on them, and a large collar about their necks, and a weight of fifty-six pounds 
fastened to the chain when they were drove a-field. 

Mr. Cook states that, when runaway slaves are brought in, they are gener- 
ally severely flogged, and sometimes have an iron boot put on one or both legs, 
and a chain or collar round their necks. The chain is locked, the collar fas- 
tened on by a rivet. When the collar is with three projections, it is impossible 
for them to lie down to sleep ; even with two, they must lie uneasily. He has 
seen collars with four projections. He never knew any injury from the chain 
and collar, but severely galling their necks. He has, however, known a negro 
lose his leg from wearing the iron boot. 

Mr. Dalrymple, fu June, 1789, saw a negress brought to St. George's, Gre- 
nada, to have her fingers cut off. She had committed a fault, and ran away to 
avoid punishment ; but being taken, her master suspended her by the hands, 
flogged and cut her cruelly on the back, breast and thighs, and then left her 
suspended till her fingers mortified. In this state Mr. Dalrymple saw her at 
Dr. Gilpin's house. 

Captain Ross has seen a negro woman in Jamaica flogged with ebony bushes, 
(much worse than our own thorn-bushes) so that the skin of her back was taken 
off, down to her heels. She was then turned round and flogged from her breast 
down to her waist, and in consequence he saw her afterwards walking upon all 
fours, and unable to get up. 

Captain Cook being on a visit to General Frere, at an estate of his in Bar- 
badoes, and riding one morning with the General and two other officers, they 
saw, near a house, upon a dunghill, a naked negro, nearly suspended, by strings 
from his elbows backwards, to the bough of a tree, with his feet barely upon the 
ground, and an iron weight round his neck, at least, to appearance, of fourteen 
pounds weight : and thus, without one creature near him, or apparently near 
the house, was this wretch left exposed to the noon-day sun. Returning a few 
hours after, they found him still in the same state, and would have released him, 
but for the advice of General Frere, who had an estate in the neighborhood. 
The gentlemen, through disgust, shortened their visit, and returned the next 
morning. 

Lieutenant Davison and Mr. Woolrich mention the thumb-screw, and Mr. 
Woolrich, Captain Ross, Mr. Clappeson, and Dr. Harrison mention the picket 
as instruments of punishment. A negro man, in Jamaica, says Dr. Harrison, 
was put on the picket so long as to cause a mortification of his foot and hand, 
on suspicion of robbing his master, a public officer, of a sum of money, which, 
it afterwards appeared, the master had taken himself. Yet the master was 
privy to the punishment, and the slave had no compensation. He was pun- 
ished by order of the master, who did not then choose to make it known that 
he himself had made use of the money. 

Jeffreys, Captain Ross, M. Terry, and Coor, mention the cutting off of ears, 
as another species of punishment. The last gentleman gives the following in- 



ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE. 151 

stance in Jamaica : One of the house-girls having broken a plate, or spile a 
cup of tea, the doctor (with whom Mr. Coor boarded) nailed her ear to a post. 
Mr. Coor remonstrated with him in vain. They went to bed, and left her there. 
In the morning she was gone, having torn the head of the nail through her ear. 
She was soon brought back, and when Mr. Coor came to breakfast, he found 
she had been severely whipped by the doctor, who, in his fury, clipped both her 
ears off close to her head, with a pair of large scissors, and she was sent to 
pick seeds out of cotton, among three or four more, emaciated by his cruelties, 
until they were fit for nothing else. 

Mr. M. Cook, while in Jamaica, knew a runaway slave brought in, with part 
of a turkey with him, which he had stolen, and which, Mr. Cook thinks, he had 
stolen from hunger, as he was nothing but skin and bone. His master imme- 
diately made two negroes hold him down, and, with a hammer and a punch, 
knocked out two of his upper and two of his under teeth. 

Mr. Dalrymple was informed by a youug woman slave, in Grenada, who had 
no teeth, that her mistress had, with her own hands, pulled them out, and given 
her a severe flogging besides, the marks of which she then bore. This relation 
was confirmed by several town's people of whom he inquired concerning it. 

Mr. Jeffreys has seen slaves with one of their hands off, which he understood 
to have been cut off for lifting it up against a white man. Captain Lloyd also 
saw at Mrs. Winne's, at Maumee Bay, in Jamaica, a female slave with but one 
hand only, the other having been cut off for the same offense. Mrs. Winne 
had endeavored to prevent the amputation, but iu vain, for her indented white 
woman could not be dissuaded from swearing that the slave had struck her, and 
the hand was accordingly cut off. 

Captain Giles, Dr. Jackson, Mr. Fitzmaurice, and Mr. M. Terry, have seen 
negroes whose legs had been cut off, by their master's orders, for running away, 
and Mr. Dalrymple gives the following account : A French planter, says he, 
in the English island of Grenada, sent for a surgeon to cut off the leg of a ne- 
gro who had run away. On the surgeon's refusing to do it, the planter took 
an iron bar, and broke the leg in pieces, and then the surgeon cut it off. This 
planter did many such acts of cruelty, and all with impunity. 

Mr. Fitzmaurice mentions, among other instances of cruelty, that of drop- 
ping hot lead upon negroes, which he often saw practiced by a planter of the 
name of Rushic, during his residence in Jamaica. 

Mr. Hercules Ross, hearing one day, in Jamaica, from an inclosure, the 
cries of some poor wretch under torture, he looked through, and saw a young 
female suspended by the wrists to a tree, swinging to and fro. Her toes 
could hardly touch the ground, and her body was exceedingly agitated. The 
sight rather confounded him, as there was no whipping, and the master was 
just by, seemingly motionless ; but, on looking more attentively, he saw in his 
hand a stick of fire, which he held, so as occasionally to touch her as she 
swung. He continued this torture with unmoved countenance, until Mr. H. 
Ross, calling on him to desist, and throwing stones at him over the fence, 
stopped it. 



152 SLAVERY IN WEST INDIES. 

Mr. Fitzmaurice once found Rushie, the Jamaica planter before mentioned, 
in the act of hanging a negro. Mr. Fitzmaurice begged leave to intercede, 
as he was doing an action that in a few minutes he would repent of. Rushie, 
upon this, being a passionate man, ordered him off his estate. Mr. Fitzmau- 
rice accordingly went, but returned early the next morning, before Rushie was 
up, and going into the curing-house, beheld the same negro lying dead upon a 
board. It was notorious that Rushie had killed many of his negroes, and 
destroyed them so fast that he was obliged to sell his estate. Captain Ross 
says, also, that there was a certain planter irtthe same island, who had hanged 
a negro on a post, close to his house, and in three years destroyed forty 
negroes out of sytty by severity. The rest of the conduct of this planter, as 
described by Captain Ross, was, after a debate, canceled by the committee 
of the House of Commons who took the evidence, as containing circumstances 
too horrible to be given to the world. On Shrewsbury estate, in Jamaica, 
says Mr. Coor, the overseer sent for a slave, and in talking with him, he has- 
tily struck him on the head with a small hanger, and gave him two stabs about 
the waist. The slave said, "Overseer, you have killed me." He pushed him 
out of the piazza. The slave went home and died that night. He was buried 
and no more said about it. A manager of an estate, says Mr. Woolrich, in 
Tortola, whose owner did not reside on the island, sitting at dinner, in a sud- 
den resentment at his cook, went directly to his sword, and ran the negro 
woman through the body, and she died upon .the floor immediately, and the 
negroes were called in to take her away and bury her. 

Mr. Giles recollects several shocking instances of punishment. In particu- 
lar on the estate where he lived, in Montserrat, the driver at day-break once 
informed the overseer that one of four or five negroes, chained in the dun- 
geon, would not rise. He accompanied the overseer to the dungeon, who set 
the others that were in the chain to drag him out, and not rising when out, he 
ordered a bundle of cane-trash to be put round him and set fire to. As he 
still did not rise, he had a small soldering iron heated and thrust between his 
teeth. As the man did not yet rise, he had the chaiu taken off and sent him 
to the hospital, where he languished some days and died. 

An overseer on the estate where Mr. J. Terry was, in Grenada, (Mr. Cog- 
hlun.) threw a slave into the boiling cane-juice, who died in four days. Mr. 
J. Terry was told of this by the owner's son, by the carpenter, and by many 
slaves on the estate. He has heard it often. 

Mr. "Woolrich says a negro ran away from a planter in Tortola, with whom 
he was well acquainted. The overseer having ordered to take him, dead or 
alive, a while after found him in one of his huts, fast asleep, in the day time, 
and shot him through the body. The negro jumping up, said, " What, you 
kill me asleep ?" and dropped dead immediately. The overseer took off his 
head and carried it to the owner. Mr. Woolrich knew another instance in 
the same island. A planter, offended with his waiting man, a mulatto, stepped 
suddenly to his gun, on which the man ran off, but his master shot him through 
the head with a single ball. 



ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE. 153 

From the above accounts, there are no less than sixteen sorts of extraordi- 
nary punishments, which the imagination has invented in the moments of pas- 
sion and caprice. It is much to be lamented that there are others in the 
evidence not yet mentioned. But as it is necessary to insert a new head, 
under which will be explained the concern which the very women take, both 
in the ordinary and extraordinary punishments of the slaves, and as some of 
the latter, not yet mentioned, are inseparably connected with it, it was thought 
proper to cite them under this new division rather than continue them under 
the old. It will appear extraordinary to the reader, that many women, living 
in the colonies, should not only order, and often superintend, but sometimes 
actually inflict, with their own hands, some severe punishments upon their 
slaves, and that these should not always be women of a low order, but often 
of respectability and rank. 

Lieutenant Davison, Captain Smith and Dr. Jackson, all agree that it was 
common for ladies of respectability and rank to superintend the punishments 
of their slaves. Conformably with this, we find Dr. Harrison stating to the 
committee, that a negro, in Jamaica, was flogged to death by her mistress's 
order, who stood by to see the punishment. Lieutenant Davison also states, 
that in the same island he has seen several negro girls at work with the needle, 
in the presence of their mistresses, with a thumb-screw on their left thumbs, 
and he has seen the blood gush out from the ends of them. He has also seen 
a negro girl made to kneel with her bare knees on pebbles, and to work there 
at the same time ; a sort of punishment, he says, among the domestics, which 
he knows to be in common use. 

On the subject of women becoming the executioners of their own fury, Dr. 
Jackson observes, that the first thing that shocked him in Jamaica was a Creole 
lady of some consequence, superintending the punishment of her slaves, male 
and female, ordering the number of lashes, and, with her own hands, flogging 
the negro driver if he did not punish properly. 

Capt. Cook relates that two young ladies of fortune, in Barbadoes, sisters, 
one of whom was displeased at a female slave belonging to the other, pro- 
ceeded to some very derogatory acts of cruelty. With their own garters they 
tied the young woman neck and heels, and then beat her almost to death with 
the heels of their shoes. One of her eyes continued a long while afterwards 
in danger of being lost. They, after this, continued to use her ill, confining 
and degrading her. Capt. Cook came in during the beating, and was an eye 
witness to it himself. 

Lieutenant Davison states, in his evidence, that the clergyman's wife at Port 
Royal, was remarkably cruel. She used to drop hot sealing wax on her 
negroes, after flogging them. He was sent for as surgeon to one of them, 
whose breast was terribly burnt with sealing wax. He lived next door, he 
states, also, to a washer-woman at Port Royal, who was almost continually 
flogging her negroes. He has often gone in and remonstrated against her 
cruelty, when he has seen the negro women chained to the washing-tubs, 



154 SLAVERY IN WEST INDIES. 

almost naked, with their thighs and backs in a gore of blood, from flogging. 
He could mention various other capricious punishments, if necessary. 

Mr. Forster, examined on the same subject, says he has known a Creole 
woman, in Antigua, drop hot sealing wax on a girl's back, after a flogging. 
He and many others saw a young woman of fortune and character flogging a 
negro man very severely with her own hands. Many similar instances he 
could relate if necessary. They are almost innumerable among the domestic 
slaves. 

If it should be asked for what offenses the different punishments now cited 
have taken place, the following answer may be given : The slaves appeal to 
have been punished, as far as can be ascertained from the evidence under the 
head of ordina; "< punishments, for not coming into the field in time, not pick- 
ing a sufficient quantity of grass, not appearing willing to work, when in fact 
sick and not able, for staying too long on an errand, for not coming immedi- 
ately when called, for not bringing home (the women) the full weekly sum 
enjoined by their owners, for running away, and for theft, to which they were 
often driven by hunger. Under the head of "extraordinary punishments," 
some appear to have suffered for running away, or for lifting up a hand 
against a white man, or for breaking a plate, or spilling a cup of tea, or to 
extort confession. Others, again, in the moments of sudden resentment, and 
one on a diabolical pretext, which the master held out to the world to conceal 
his own villainy, and which he knew to be false. 

On the subject of capital offenses and punishments, a man and a woman slave 
are mentioned to have been hanged, the man for running away, and the woman 
for having secreted him. The Dean of Middleham saw two instances of slaves 
being gibbetted alive in chains, but he does not say for what, only that this is 
the punishment for enormous crimes : and Mr. Jeffreys, the only other person 
who speaks on this subject, says that he was in one of the islands, when some 
of the slaves murdered a white man, and destroyed some property on the es- 
tate. The execution of these he describes as follows : 

He was present, he says, at the execution of seven negroes in Tobago, in 
the year 1714, whose right arms were chopped off: they were then dragged to 
seven stakes, and a fire, consisting of trash and dry wood, was lighted about 
them. They were there burnt to death. He does not remember hearing one 
of them murmur, complain, cry, or do any thing that indicated fear. One of 
them, in particular, named Chubb, was taken in the woods that morning, was 
tried about noon, and was thus executed with the rest in the evening. Mr. Jef- 
freys stood close by Chubb when his arm was cut off. He stretched his arm 
out, and laid it upon the block, pulled up the sleeve of his shirt with more cool- 
ness than he (Mr. Jeffreys) should have done, were he to have been bled. He 
afterwards would not suffer himself to be dragged to the stake, as the others 
had been, but got upon his feet and walked to it. As he was going to the 
stake, he turned about, and addressed himself to Mr. Jeffreys, who was stand- 
ing within two or three yards of him, and said, "Buckra, you see me now, but 
to-morrow I shall be like that," kicking up the dust with his foot. (Here Mr. 



ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE. 155 

Jeffreys solemnly added, in his evidence, the words " So help me God.") The 
impression this made upon his mind, Mr. Jeffreys declared, no time could ever 
erase. Sampson, who made the eighth, and a negro, whose name Mr. Jeffreys 
does not recollect, were present at this execution. Sampson, next morning, 
was hung in chains alive, and there he hung till he was dead, which, to the best 
of his recollection, was seven days. The other negro was sentenced to be sent 
to the mines in Suuth America, and, he believes, was sent accordingly. Nei- 
ther of those two, during the time of the execution, showed any marks of con- 
cern, or dismay, that he could observe. A stronger instance of human forti- 
tude, he declared, he never saw. 

Having now stated the substance of the evidence on the subject of offenses 
and punishments, we come to a custom which appears to have been too general 
to be passed over in silence. 

Dalrymple, Forester, Captain Smith, Captain Wilson, and General Totten- 
ham, assert that it is no uncommon thing for persons to neglect and turn off 
their slaves when past labor. They are turned off, say Captain Wilson, Lieu- 
tenant Davison, and General Tottenham, to plunder, beg, or starve. Captain 
Cook has known some to take care of them ; but says others leave them to starve 
and die. They are often desired, when old, says Mr. Fitzmaurice, to provide 
for themselves, and they suffer much. Mr. Clappesou knew a man who hud an 
old, decrepit woman slave, to whom he would allow nothing. When past la- 
bor, the owner did not feed them, says Giles ; and Cook states that, within his 
experience, they had no food except what they could get from such relations as 
they might have had. General Tottenham has often met them, and, once in 
particular, an old woman, past labor, who told him that her master had set her 
adrift to shift for herself. He saw her about three days afterwards, lying dead 
in the same place. The custom of turning them off when old and helpless is 
called in the islands " Giving them free." 

As a proof of how little the life of an old slave was regarded in the West 
Indies, we may make the following extract from the evidence of Mr. Coor. 
Once, when he was dining with an overseer, an old woman who had run away a 
f ■ ■ , was brought home, with her hands tied behind. After dinner, the 

overseer, with the clerk, named Bakewell, took the woman, thus tied, to the 
hot-house, a place for the sick, and where the stocks are in one of the rooms. 
Mr. Coov went to work in the mill, about one hundred yards off, and hearing a 
most distressful cry from that house, he asked his men what it was. They said 
they thought it was old Quasheba. About five o'clock the noise ceased, and 
about the time he was leaving work, Bakewell came to him, apparently in great 
spirits, and said, " Well, Mr. Coor, Old Quasheba is dead. We took her to 
the stocks-room ; the overseer threw a rope over the beam ; I was Jack Ketch, 
and hauled her up till her feet were off the ground. The overseer locked the 
door, and took the key with him, till my return just now, with a slave for the 
stocks, when I found her dead." Mr. Coor said, "You have killed her; I 
heard her cry all the afternoon." He answered, " She was good for nothing; 
what signifies killing such an old woman as her?" Mr. Coor said, " Bakewell, 



156 SLAVERY IN WEST INDIES. 

you shock me," and left him. The next morning his men told him they hnd 
helped to bury her. 

But it appears that the aged are not the only persons whose fate is to be 
commiserated, when they became of no value ; for people in youth, if disabled, 
were abandoned to equal misery. General Tottenham, about three weeks before 
the hurricane, saw a youth, about nineteen, walking in the streets, in a most de- 
plorable situation, entirely naked, and with an iron collar about his neck, with 
five long projecting spikes. His body, before and behind, was almost cut to 
pieces, and with running sores all over it, and you might put your finger in 
some of the wheals. He could not sit down, owing to his being in a state of 
mortification, and it was impossible for him to lie down, from the projection of 
the prongs. The boy came to the general and asked relief. He was shocked 
at his appearance, and asked him what he had done to suffer such a punishment, 
and who inflicted it. He said it was his master, who lived about two miles 
from town, and that as he could not work, he would give him nothing to eat. 

If it be possible to view human depravity in a worse light than it has already 
appeared in on the subject of the treatment of the slaves when disabled from 
labor, it may be done by referring to the evidence of Captain Lloyd, who was 
told by a person of veracity, when in the West Indies, but whom he did not 
wish to name in his evidence, that it was the practice of a certain planter to 
frame pretenses for the execution of his old worn out slaves, in order to get the 
island allowance. And it was supposed that he dealt largely in that way. 

Having now cited both the ordinary and extraordinary punishments inflicted 
upon the slaves, it may be presumed that some one will ask here, whether, un- 
der these various acts of cruelty, they were wholly without redress ? To this 
the following answer may be given : That, with respect to the ordinary pun- 
ishments by the whip and cowskin, (where they did not terminate in death,) the 
power of the master or overseer was under little or no control. 

As to such of the extraordinary punishments before mentioned as did not 
terminate in death, such as picketing, dropping hot sealing-wax on the flesh, 
cutting off ears, and the like, it appears that slaves had no redress whatever, 
for that these actions also on the part of the masters were not deemed within 
the reach of the law. In the instance cited of the doctor clipping off the ears 
of a female slave, no more notice was taken of it, says Coor, than if a dog's 
ears had been cut off, though it must have been known to the magistrates. In 
the dreadful instance also cited of a planter's breaking his slave's leg by an iron 
bar, to induce the surgeon to cut it off, as a punishment, Mr. Dalrymple ob- 
serves that it was not the public opinion that any punishment was due to him 
on that account, for though it was generally known, he was equally well re- 
ceived in society afterwards as before ; and in the case also mentioned of the 
owner torturing his female slave by the application of a lighted torch to her 
body, Mr. H. Ross states, only that this owner was not a man of character ; 
with respect to his suffering by the law, he observes that he was never brought 
to any trial for it ; and he did not know that the law then extended to the pun- 
ishment of whites for such acts as these. 



ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE. 157 

With respect to such of the punishments as have terminated in death, the 
reader will be able to collect what power the masters and overseers, and what 
protection the slaves have had by law, from the following accounts : 

There are no less than seven specific instances mentioned in the evidence, in 
which slaves died in consequence of the whipping they received, and yet in 
no one of them was the murderer brought to account. One of the perpetra- 
tors is mentioned by Mr. Dalrymple as having boasted of what he had done; 
and Dr. Jackson speaks of the other in these words : " No attempts, says he, 
were made to bring him to justice : people said it was an unfortunate thing, 
and were surprised that he was not more cautious, as it was not the first thing 
of the kind that had happened to him, but they dwelt chiefly on the proprie- 
tor's loss." 

In such of the extraordinary punishments as terminated in death, there are 
ao less than seven specific instances also in the evidence. In one of them, viz : 
that of throwing the slave into the boiling cane-juice, we find from Mr. J. Terry 
that the overseer was punished, but his punishment consisted only of replacing 
the slave and leaving his owner's service. In that of killing the slave by light- 
ing a fire round him and putting a hot soldering iron into his mouth, the over- 
seer's conduct, says Mr. Giles, was not even condemned by his master, nor in 
any of the rest were any means whatsoever used to punish the offenders. In 
the three mentioned by Mr. Woolrich, he particularly says, all the white peo- 
ple in the island were acquainted with these acts. Neither of the offenders, 
however, were called to an account, nor were they shunned in society for it, or 
considered as in disgrace. 

Such appears to have been, in the experience of the different witnesses cited, 
the forlorn and wretched situation of the slaves. They often complain, says 
Dr. Jackson, that they are an oppressed people ; that they suffer in this world, 
but expect happiness in the next ; whilst they denounce the vengeance of God 
on their oppressors, the white men. If you speak to them of future punish- 
ments, they say, " "Why should a poor negro be puuished ? he does no wrong ; 
fiery caldrons, and such things, are reserved for white people, as punishments 
for the oppression of slaves." 

Bryan Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, gives the price of new ne- 
groes in 1191. An able man, in his prime, £50 sterling ; an able woman, £49 
sterling; a youth approaching to manhood, £47 sterling; a young girl, £46 
sterling ; boys and girls, from £40 to £45 sterling ; an infant, £5. The annual 
profit arising to the owner, from each able field negro, employed in cultivating 
sugar, he estimates at £25 sterling. An opinion prevailed among the planters 
that it was cheaper to buy than to breed. If a negro lasted a certain time his 
death was accounted nothing. This time was fixed at seven years by some 
planters ; by others at less. A planter of Jamaica, by name of Yeman, ac- 
cording to Captain Scott's testimony, reduced Ids calculation to four years, 
treating his slaves most cruelly, and saying that four years' labor was enough 
for him, for he then had got his money out of him, and he did not care what 
became of him afterwards. 



158 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

CHAPTER XII. 

Early Opponents op African Slavery in England and America. 

Period from 1660 to 1760: Godwin, Richard Baxter, Atkins, Hughes, Bishop Warbur- 
ton. — Planters accustomed to take their Slaves to England, and to carry them hack 
into slavery by force. — Important case of James Somerset decided, 1772. — John 
Wesley. — Motion in House of Commons against Slave-Trade, 1776. — Case of ship 
Zong. — Bridgwater Petitions. — The Quakers in England oppose Slavery. — Resolutions 
of the Quakers, from 1727 to 1760. — They Petition House of Commons. — First Society 
formed, 1783. — The Quakers and others in America. — Action of the Quakers of Penn- 
sylvania from 1688 to 1788. — Benezet writes tracts against Slavery. — His letter to the 
Queen. — Sentiment in America, favorable to Africans, 1772. — House of Burgesses of 
Va., addresses the King. — Original draft of Declaration of Independence. — First So- 
ciety formed in America "for Promoting Abolition of Slavery," 1774. — Opposition to 
the Slave-Trade in America. 



T 



HE first importation of slaves from Africa by the English was in 1502, in 
the reign of Elizabeth. This great princess seems on the very commencement 
of the trade to have questioned its lawfulness ; to have entertained a religious 
scruple concerning it, and, indeed, to have revolted at the very thought of it. 
She seems to have been aware of the evils to which its continuance might 
lead, or that, if it were sanctioned, the most unjustifiable means might be made 
use of to procure the persons of the natives of Africa. And in what light she 
would have viewed any acts of this kiud, had they taken place, we may con- 
jecture from this fact ; that when Captain (afterwards Sir John) Hawkins re- 
turned from his first voyage to Africa and Hispaniola, whither he had carried 
slaves, she sent for him, and, as we learn from Hill's Naval History, expressed 
her concern lest any of the Africans should be carried off without their free 
consent, declaring that " It would be detestable, and call down the vengeance 
of Heaven upon the undertakers." Captain Hawkins promised to comply 
with the injunctions of Elizabeth iu this respect. But he did not keep his 
word ; for when he went to Africa again, he seized many of the inhabitants, 
and carried them off as slaves, which occasioned Hill, in the account he gives 
of his voyage, to use these remarkable words : " Here began the horrid prac- 
tice of forcing the Africans into slavery, an injustice and barbarity which, so 
sure as there is vengeance in heaven for the worst of crimes, will some time be 
the destruction of all who allow or encourage it." 

Though the slave-trade commenced so early, there were no united and effec- 
tive efforts made for its abolition till the year 1787 ; at which period a num- 
ber of persons associated themselves in England for this benevolent object. 
However, for a long time previous to the forming of this important associa- 
tion, individuals were continually rising, who, by their writings and labors 
rendered valuable service to the cause of humanity, and who are properly con- 
sidered as forerunners inasmuch as they prepared the way for that extensive 
and united effort which finally succeeded in rendering illegal the abominable 
traffic. In giving a history of the Abolition of the slave-trade, it will be 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 159 

proper to notice a few of the more prominent and active of these harbingers 
in the great cause of humanity. 

Morgan Godwyn, a clergyman of the established church, wrote a Treatise 
upon the subject, which he dedicated to the then archbishop of Canterbury. 
He gave it to the world, at the time mentioned, under the title of " The 
Negro's and Indian's Advocate." In this treatise he lays open the situation 
of these oppressed people, of whose sufferings he had been an eyewitness in 
the island of Barbadoes. He calls forth the pity of the reader in an affecting 
manner, and exposes with a nervous eloquence the brutal sentiments and con- 
duct of their oppressors. This seems to have been the first work undertaken 
in England expressly in favor of the cause. 

Richard Baxter, the celebrated divine among the Nonconformists, in his 
Christian Directory, published about the same time as the Negro's and Indian's 
Advocate, gives advice to those masters in foreign plantations, who have 
negroes and other slaves. In this he protests loudly against this trade. He 
says expressly that they, who go out as pirates, and take away poor Africans, 
or people of another land who never forfeited life or liberty, and make theni 
slaves and sell them, are the worst of robbers, and ought to be considered as 
the common enemies of mankind ; and that they, who buy them, and use them 
as mere beasts for their own convenience, regardless of their spiritual welfare, 
are fitter to be called demons than christians. He then proposes several 
queries, which he answers in a clear and forcible manner, showing the great 
inconsistency of this traffic, and the necessity of treating those then in bondage 
with tenderness and due regard to their spiritual concerns. 

The person who seems to have noticed the subject next was Dr. Primatt. 
In his " Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy, and on the Sin of Cruelty to 
Brute-animals," he takes occasion to advert to the subject of the African slave 
trade. " It has pleased God," says he, " to cover some men with white skins, 
and others with black ; but as there is neither merit nor demerit in complex- 
ion, the white man, notwithstanding the barbarity of custom and prejudice, 
can have no right by virtue of his color to enslave and tyrannize over the 
black man. For whether a man be white or black, such he is by God's ap- 
pointment, and, abstractedly considered, is neither a subject for pride, nor an 
object of contempt." 

In the year 1735, Atkins who was a surgeon in the navy, published his 
voyage to Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies. In this work he describes 
openly the manner of making the natives slaves, such as by kidnapping, by 
unjust accusations and trials, and by other nefarious means. He states also 
the cruelties practiced upon them by the white people, and the iniquitous ways 
and dealings of the latter, and answers their argument, by which they insinua- 
ted that the condition of Africans was improved by their transportation to 
other countries. 

In the year 1Y50 the reverend Griffith Hughes, rector of St. Lucy, in Bar- 
badoes, published his Natural History of that island. He took an opportu- 



1G0 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

nity, in the course of it, of laying open to the world the miserable situation of 
the Africans, and the waste of them by hard labor and other cruel means. 

Edmund Burke, in his account of the European settlements, complains 
"that the negroes iu our colonies endure a slavery more complete, and attended 
with tar worse circumstances, than what any people in their condition suffer in 
any other part of the world, or have suffered in any other period of time." 

Bishop Warburton preached a sermon in the year 1166, before the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he took up the cause of the 
Africans, and in which he severely reprobated their oppressors. The language 
in this sermon is so striking, that we make an extract from it. " From the 
free savages," says he, "I now come to the savages in bonds. By these I 
mean the vast multitudes yearly stolen from the opposite continent, and sacri- 
ficed by the colonists to their great idol the god' of gain. But what then, say 
these sincere worshippers of mammon ? They are our own property which we 
offer up. Gracious God ! to talk, as of herds of cattle, of property in ra- 
tional creatures, creatures endued with all our faculties, possessing all our 
qualities but that of color, our brethren both by nature and grace, shocks all 
the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common sense ! But, alas ! what 
is there, iu the infinite abuses of society, which does not shock them ? Yet 
nothing is more certain in itself and apparent to all, than that the infamous 
traffic for slaves directly infringes both divine and human law. Nature created 
man free, and grace invites him to assert his freedom. 

" Iu excuse of this violation it hath been pretended, that though indeed 
these miserable outcasts of humanity be torn from their homes and native 
country by fraud and violence, yet they thereby become the happier, and their 
condition the more eligible. But who are you, who pretend to judge of 
another man's happiness ; that state, which each man under the guidance of 
his Maker forms for himself, and not one man for another? To know what 
constitutes mine or your happiness is the sole prerogative of Him who created 
us, and cast us in so various and different moulds. Did your slaves ever com- 
plain to you of their unhappiness amidst their native woods and deserts ? or 
rather let me ask, Did they ever cease complaining of their condition under 
you, their lordly masters, where they see indeed the accommodations of civil 
life, but see them all pass to others, themselves unbenefited by them ? Be- so 
gracious then, ye petty tyrants over human freedom, to let your slaves judge 
for themselves, what it is which makes their own happiness, and then see 
whether they do not place it in the return to their own country, rather than in 
the contemplation of your grandeur, of which their misery makes so large a 
part ; a return so passionately longed for, that, despairing of happiness here, 
that is, of escaping the chains of their cruel task-masters, they console them- 
selves with feigning it to be the gracious reward of heaven in their future 
state." 

Before the year 1700, planters, merchants, and others, resident iu the West 
Indies, but coming to England, were accustomed to bring with them certain 
slaves to act as servants with them during their stay. The latter, seeing the 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 16l 

freedom and the happiness of servants in that country, and considering what 
would be their own hard fate on their return to the islands, frequently abscon- 
ded. Their masters of course made search after them, and often had them 
seized and carried away by force. It was, however, declared by many on these 
occasions, that the English laws did not sanction such proceedings, for that all 
persons who were baptized became free. The consequence of this was, that 
most of the slaves who came over with their masters prevailed upon some 
pious clergyman to baptize them. They took of course godfathers of sue 
citizens as had the generosity to espouse their cause. When they were seized 
they usually sent to these, if they had an opportunity, for their protection. 
And in the result, their godfathers, maintaining that they had been baptized, 
and that they were free on this account as well as by the general tenor of the 
laws of England, dared those, who had taken possession of them, to send them 
out of the kingdom. 

The planters, merchants, and others, being thus circumstanced, knew not 
what to do. They were afraid of taking their slaves away by force, and they 
were equally afraid of bringing any of the cases before a public court. In this 
dilemma, in 1729 they applied to York and Talbot, the attorney and solicitor- 
general for the time being, and obtained the following strange opinion from 
them: "We are of opinion, that a slave by coming from the West Indies into 
Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his master, does not become 
free, and that his master's right and property in him is not thereby'determined 
or varied, and that baptism doth not bestow freedom on him, nor make any 
alteration in his temporal condition in these kingdoms. We are also of opin- 
ion, that the master may legally compel him to return to the plantations." 

This opinion was delivered in the year 1729. The planters, merchants, and 
others, gave it of course all the publicity in their power. And the consequen- 
ces were as might easily have been apprehended. In a little time slaves ab- 
sconding were advertised in the London papers as runaways, and rewards 
offered for the apprehension of them. They were advertised also, in the same 
papers, to be sold by auction, sometimes by themselves, and again with horses, 
chaises, and harness. They were seized also by their masters, or by .persons 
employed by them, in the very streets, and dragged from thence to the ships ; 
and so unprotected now were these poor slaves, that persons in nowise con- 
cerned with them began to institute a trade in their persons, making agree- 
ments with captains of ships going to the West Indies to put them on board 
at a certain price. 

These -circumstances did not fail of producing new coadjutors in the cause. 
And first they produced that able and indefatigable advocate, Mr. Granville 
Sharp. This gentleman is to be distinguished from those who preceded him in 
this particular, that, whereas these were only writers, he was both a writer and 
an actor in the cause. In fact, he was the first laborer in it in England. The 
following is a short history of the beginning and of the course of his labors : 

In the year 1765, Mr. David Lisle had brought over from Barbadoes, Jona- 
than Strong, an African slave, as his servant. He used the latter in a bar- 
11 



1G2 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

barous manner at his lodgings in Wapping, but particularly by beating him 
over the head with a pistol, which occasioned his head to swell. When the 
swelling went down, a disorder fell into his eyes, which threatened the loss of 
them. To this an ague and fever succeeded, and a lameness in both of his legs. 

Jonathan Strong, having been brought into this deplorable situation, and 
being therefore wholly useless, was left by his master to go whither he pleased. 
He applied accordingly to Mr. William Sharp, the surgeon, for his advice, as 
to one who gave up a portion of his time to the healing of the diseases of the 
poor. It was here that Mr. Granville Sharp, the brother of the former, saw 
him. Suffice it to say, that in process of time he was cured. During this 
time Mr. Granville Sharp, pitying his hard case, supplied him with money, 
and he afterwards got him a situation in the family of Mr. Brown, an apoth- 
ecary, to carry out medicines. 

In this new situation, when Strong had become healthy and robust in his 
appearance, his master happened to see him. The latter immediately formed 
the design of possessing him again. Accordingly, when he had found out his 
residence, he procured John Ross, keeper of the Poultry-eompter, and Will- 
iam Miller, an officer under the lord mayor, to kidnap him. This was done by 
sending for him to a public house in Fenchurch street, and then seizing him. 
By these he was conveyed, without any warrant, to the Poultry-eompter, where 
he was sold by his master, to John Kerr, for thirty pounds. 

Strong, in this situation, sent, as was usual, to his godfathers, John London 
and Stephen Nail, for their protection. They went, but were refused admit- 
tance to him. At length he sent for Mr. Granville Sharp. The latter went, 
but they still refused access to the prisoner. He insisted, however, upon see- 
ing him, and charged the keeper of the prison at his peril to deliver him up 
till he had been carried before a magistrate. 

Mr. Sharp immediately upon this waited upon Sir Robert Kite, the then 
lord mayor, and entreated him to send for Strong, and to hear his case. A 
day was accordingly appointed. Mr. Sharp attended, and also William 
M'Bean, a notary public, and David Laird, captain of the ship Thames, which 
was to have conveyed Strong to Jamaica, in behalf of the purchaser, John 
KeiT. A long conversation ensued, in which the opinion of York and Talbot 
was quoted. Mr. Sharp made his observation. Certain lawyers, who were 
present, seemed to be staggered at the case, but inclined rather to recommit 
the prisoner. The lord mayor, however, discharged Strong, as he had been 
taken up without a warrant. 

As soon as this determination was made known, the parties began to move 
off. Captain Laird, however, who kept close to Strong, laid hold of him be- 
fore he had quitted the room, and said aloud, "Then I now seize him as my 
slave." Upon this, Mr. Sharp put his hand upon Laird's shoulder, and pro- 
nounced these words : " I charge you in the name of the king with an assault 
upon the person of Jonathan Strong, and all these are my witnesses." Laird 
was greatly intimidated by this charge, made in the presence of the lord mayor 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 1G3 

and others, and fearing a prosecution, let his prisoner go, leaving him to be 
conveyed away by Mr. Sharp. 

Mr. Sharp, having been greatly affected by this case, and foreseeing how 
much he might be engaged in others of a similar nature, thought it time that 
the law of the laud should be known upon this subject. He applied therefore 
to Doctor Blackstone, afterwards Judge Blackstone, for his opinion upon it. 
He was, however, not satisfied with it, when he received it ; nor could he ob- 
tain any satisfactory answer from several other lawyers, to whom he afterward3 
applied. The truth is, that the opinion of York and Talbot, which had been 
made public and acted upon by the planters, merchants, and others, was con- 
sidered of high authority, and scarcely any one dared to question the legality 
of it. In this situation, Mr. Sharp saw no means of help but in his own in- 
dustry, and he determined immediately to give up two or three years to the 
study of the English law, that he might the better advocate the cause of these 
miserable people. The result of these studies was the publication of a book, 
in the year 1769, which he called "A Representation of the Injustice and dan- 
gerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery in England." In this work he refuted, 
in the clearest manner, the opinion of York and Talbot. He produced against 
it the opinion of the Lord Chief Justice Holt, who many years before had de- 
termined that every slave coming into England became free. He attacked 
and refuted it again by a learned and laborious inquiry into all the principles 
of villenage He refuted it again, by showing it to be an axiom in the British 
constitution, " That every man in England was free to sue for and defend his 
rights, and that force could not be used without a legal process," leaving it to 
the judges to determine whether an African was a man. He attacked, also, 
the opinion of Judge Blackstone, and showed where his error lay. This book, 
containing these and other arguments on the subject, he distributed, but par- 
ticularly among the lawyers, giving them an opportunity of refuting or 
acknowledging the doctrines it contained. 

While Mr. Sharp was engaged in this work, another case offered, in which 
he took a part. This was in the year 1768. Hjjas, an African slave, prose- 
cuted a person of the name of Newton for having kidnapped his wife, and sent 
her to the West Indies. The result of this trial was, that damages to ilie 
amount of a shilling were given, and the defendant was bound to bring back 
the woman, either by the first ship, or in six months from this decision of the 
court. 

But soon after the work just mentioned was out, and when Mr. Sharp was 
better prepared, a third case occurred. This happened in the year 1770. Rob- 
ert Stapylton, who lived at Chelsea, in conjunction with John Malony and 
Edward Armstrong, two watermen, seized the person of Thomas Lewis, an 
African slave, in a dark night, and dragged him to a boat lying in the Thames ; 
they then gagged him, and tied him with a cord, and rowed him down to a 
shin, and put him on board to be sold as a slave in Jamaica. This action took 
place near the garden of Mrs. Banks, the mother of Sir Joseph Banks. Lewis, 
it appears, on being seized, screamed violently. The servants of Mrs. Banks, 



164 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

who heard his cries, ran to his assistance, bnt the boat was gone. On inform- 
ing their mistress of what had happened, she sent for Mr Sharp, who began 
now to be known as the friend of the helpless Africans, and professed her will- 
ingness to incur the expense of bringing the delinquents to justice. Mr. Sharp, 
with some difficulty, procured a habeas corpus, in consequence of which Lewis 
was brought from Gravesend just as the vessel was on the point of sailing. 
An action was then commenced against Stapylton, who defended himself on 
the plea, " That Lewis belonged to him as his slave." In the course of the trial, 
Mr. Dunning, who was counsel for Lewis, paid Mr. Sharp a handsome com- 
pliment, for he held in his hand Mr. Sharp's book on the injustice and danger- 
ous tendency of tolerating slavery in England, while he was pleading ; and in 
his address to the jury he spoke and acted thus : " I shall submit to you," says 
Mr. Dunning, " what my ideas are upon such evidence, reserving to myself 
an opportunity of discussing it more particularly, and reserving to myself a 
right to insist upon a position, which I will maintain (and here he held up the 
book to the notice of those present) in any place and in any court of the king- 
dom, that our laws admit of no such property." The result of the trial was, 
that the jury pronounced the plaintiff not to have been the property of the 
defendant, several of them crying out "No property, no property." 

After this, one or two other trials came on, in which the oppressor was de- 
feated ; and several cases occurred, in which slaves were liberated from the holds 
of vessels, and other places of confinement, by the exertions of Mr. Sharp. 
One of these cases was singular. The vessel on board which a poor African 
had been dragged and confined had reached the Downs, and had actually got 
under way for the "West Indies. In two or three hours she would have been 
out of sight ; but just at this critical moment the writ of habeas corpus was 
carried on board. The officer who served it on the captain saw the miserable 
African chained to the mainmast, bathed in tears, and casting a last mournful 
look on the land of freedom, which was fast receding from his sight. The cap- 
tain, on receiving the writ, became outrageous ; but, knowing the serious con- 
sequences of resisting the law of the land, he gave up his prisoner, whom the 
officer carried safe, but now crying for joy, to the shore. 

Though the injured Africans, whose causes had been tried, escaped slavery, 
and though many, who had been forcibly carried into dungeons, ready to be 
transported back into the colonies, had been delivered out of them, Mr. Sharp 
was not easy in his mind. Not one of the cases had yet been pleaded on the 
broad ground, "Whether an African slave coming into England became free?" 
This great question had been hitherto studiously avoided. It was still, there- 
fore, left in doubt. Mr. Sharp was almost daily acting as if it had been deter- 
mined, and as if he had been following the known law of the land. He wished, 
therefore, that the next cause might be argued upon this principle. Lord 
Mansfield, too, who had been biased by the opinion of York and Talbot, be- 
gan to waver in consequence of the different pleadings he had heard on this 
subject. He saw also no end of trials like these, till the law should be ascer- 
tained, and he was anxious for a decision on the same basis as Mr. Sharp. Iu 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 165 

this situation the following case offered, which was agreed upon for the deter- 
mination of this important question. 

James Somerset, an African slave, had been brought to England by his 
master, Charles Stewart, in November, 1769. Somerset, in process of time, 
left him. Stewart took an opportunity of seizing him, and had him conveyed 
on board the Ann and Mary, Captain Knowles, to be carried out of the king 
dom, and sold as a slave in Jamaica. The question was, " Whether a slave, 
by coming into England, became free ? " 

In order that time might be given for ascertaining the law fully on this head, 
the case was argued at three different sittings. First, in January, It 12 ; 
secondly, in February, 1772 ; and thirdly, in May, 1772. And that no decis- 
ion otherwise than what the law warranted might be given, the opinion of the 
Judges was taken upon the pleadings. The result of the trial was, That as 
soon as ever any slave set his foot upon English territory, he became free 

Thus ended the great case of Somerset, which, having been determined after 
so deliberate an investigation of the law, can never be reversed while the Brit- 
ish Constitution remains. The eloquence displayed in it by those who were 
engaged on the side of liberty, was perhaps never exceeded on any occasion 

Mr. Sharp felt it his duty, immediately after the trial, to write to Lord 
North, then principal minister of state, warning him, in the most earnest man- 
ner, to abolish immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human 
species in all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcileable with the princi- 
ples of the British constitution, and the established religion of the land. 

In the year 1774, John Wesley, the celebrated divine, to whose pious labors 
the religious world will be long indebted, undertook the cause of the Africans. 
He had been in America, and had seen and pitied their hard condition. The 
work which he gave to the world in consequence, was entitled "Thoughts on 
Slavery." Mr. Wesley had this great cause much at heart, and frequently 
recommended it to the support of those who attended his useful ministry. 

The year 1776 produced two new friends in England, in the same cause, 
but iu a line in which no one had yet moved. David Hartley, then a member 
of parliament for Hull, found it impossible any longer to pass over without 
notice the cause of the oppressed Africans. He had long felt for their 
wretched condition, and, availing himself of his legislative situation, he made 
a motion in the house of commons, "That the slave trade was contrary to the 
laws of God and the rights of men." 

Dr. Adam Smith, in his "Theory of Moral Sentiments," had, so early as 
the year 1759, held the slaves up in an honorable, and their tyrants in a 
degrading light. " There is not a negro from the coast of Africa, who does 
not, in this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity which the soul of his 
sordid master is too often scarce capable of conceiving. Fortune never 
exerted more cruelly her empire over mankind, than when she subjected those 
nations of heroes to the refuse of the gaols of Europe, to wretches who possess 
the virtue neither of the countries they came from, nor of those they go to, 
and whose levity, brutality, and baseness so justly expose them to the con- 



166 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

tempt of the vanquished." In 1776, in his "Wealth of Nations," he showed 
in a forcible manner (for he appealed to the interest of those concerned) the 
dearness of African labor, or the impolicy of employing slaves. 

In the year 1783, we find Mr. Sharp coming again into notice. We find 
him at this time taking a part in a cause, the knowledge of which, in propor- 
tion as it was disseminated, produced an earnest desire among all disinterested 
persons for the abolition of the slave-trade. 

In this year, certain underwriters desired to be heard against Gregson and 
others of Liverpool, in the case of the ship Zong, captain Collingwood, 
alleging that the captain and officers of the said vessel threw overboard one 
hundred and thirty-two slaves alive into the sea, in order to defraud them, by 
claiming the value of said slaves, as if they had been lost in a natural way. 
In the course of the trial, which afterwards came on, it appeared that the 
slaves on board the Zong were very sickly ; that sixty of them had already 
died, and several were ill and likely to die ; when the captain proposed to 
James Kelsall, the mate, and others, to throw several of them overboard, 
stating "that if they died a natural death, the loss would fall upon the owners 
of the ship, but that if they were thrown into the sea, it would fall upon the 
underwriters." He selected, accordingly, one hundred and thirty-two of the 
most sickly of the slaves. Fifty-four of these were immediately thrown over- 
board, and forty-two were made to be partakers of their fate on the succeed- 
ing day. In the course of three days afterwards, the remaining twenty-six 
were brought upon the deck to complete the number of victims. The first 
sixteen submitted to be thrown into the sea, but the rest, with a noble resolu- 
tion, would not suffer the officers to touch them, but leaped after their com- 
panions and shared their fate. 

The plea which was set up in behalf of this atrocious and unparalleled act 
of wickedness, was that the captain discovered, when he made the proposal, 
that he had only two hundred gallons of water on board, and that he had 
missed his port. It was proved, however, in answer to this, that no one had 
been put upon short allowance ; and that, as if Providence had determined to 
afford an unequivocal proof of the guilt, a shower of rain fell and continued 
for three days immediately after the second lot of slaves had been destroyed, 
by means of which they might have filled many of their vessels with water, 
and thus have prevented all necessity for the destruction of the third. 

Mr. Sharp was present at this trial, and procured the attendance of a short- 
hand writer to take down the facts which should come out in the course of it. 
These he gave to the public afterwards. He communicated them, also, with a 
copy of the trial, to the Lords of the Admiralty, as the guardians of justice 
upon the seas, and to the Duke of Portland, as principal minister of state. No 
notice, however, was taken by any of these of the information which had been 
thus sent them. But though nothing was done by the persons then in power, 
in consequence of the murder of so many innocent individuals, yet the publi- 
cation of an account of it by Mr. Sharp, in the newspapers, made such an 
impression upon others that new coadjutors rose up. 



W ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 1G7 

In the year 1184, Dr. Gregory produced his "Essays Historical and Moral." 
He took an opportunity of disseminating in these a circumstantial knowledge 
of the slave-trade, and an equal abhorrence of it at the same time. He ex- 
plained, the manner of procuring slaves in Africa ; the treatment of them in 
the passage, (in which he mentioned the case of the ship Zong,) and the cruel 
treatment of them in the colonies. He recited and refuted also the various 
arguments adduced in defense of the trade. He showed that it was destruc- 
tive to seamen. He produced many weighty arguments also against slavery 
itself. He proposed clauses for an act of parliament for the abolition of 
both ; showing the good both to England and her colonies from such a meas- 
ure, and that a trade might be substituted in Africa, in various articles for 
that which he proposed to suppress. 

In the same year, James Ramsay, vicar of Teston in Kent, became also an 
able, zealous, and indefatigable patron of the African cause. This gentleman 
had resided nineteen years in the island of St. Christopher, where he had 
observed the treatment of the slaves, and had studied the laws relating to 
them. On his return to England, yielding to his own feelings of duty, and 
the solicitations of some friends, he published a work which he called "An 
Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of the African Slaves in the British 
Sugar Colonies." After having given an account of the relative situation of 
master and slave in various parts of the world, he explained the low and de- 
grading situation which the Africans held in society in the British islands. 
He showed that their importance would be increased, and the temporal inter- 
est of their masters promoted, by giving them freedom, and by granting them 
other privileges. He showed the great difficulty of instructing them in the 
state in which they then were, and such as he himself had experienced both in 
his private and public attempts, and such as others had experienced also. He 
stated the way in which private attempts of this nature might probably be 
successful. He then answered all objections against their capacities, as drawn 
from philosophy, form, anatomy, and observation ; and vindicated these from 
his own experience. And lastly, he threw out ideas for the improvement of 
their condition, by the establishment of a greater number of spiritual pastors 
among them ; by giving them more privileges than they then possessed ; and 
by extending towards them the benefits of a proper police. Mr. Ramsay had 
no other motive for giving this work to the public than that of humanity, for 
he compiled it at the hazard of forfeiting that friendship which he had con- 
tracted with many during his residence in the islands, and of suffering much in 
his private property, as well as subjecting himself to the ill-will and persecu- 
tion of numerous individuals. 

The publication of this book by one who professed to have been so long resi- 
dent in the islands, and to have been an eye-witness of facts, produced, as may 
easily be supposed, a good deal of conversation, and made a considerable im- 
pression, but particularly at this time, when a storm was visibly gathering over 
the heads of the oppressors of the African race. 

In the year 1785, another advocate was seen in Monsieur Necker, in his eel- 



1(58 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

ebrated work on the French Finances, which had just been translated into the 
English language from the original work, in 1784. This virtuous statesman, 
after having given his estimate of the population and revenue of the French 
West Indian colonies, proceeds thus : " The colonies of France contain, as 
we have seen, near five hundred thousand slaves, and it is from the number of 
these poor wretches that the inhabitants set a value on their plantations. "What 
a dreadful prospect ! and how profound a subject for reflection ! Alas ! how 
little are we both in our morality and our principles ! We preach up human- 
ity, and yet go every year to bind in chains twenty thousand natives of Africa ! 
We call the Moors barbarians and ruffians, because they attack the liberty of 
Europeans at the risk of their own ; yet these Europeans go, without danger, 
and as mere speculators, to purchase slaves by gratifying the avarice of their 
masters, and excite all those bloody scenes, which are the usual preliminaries 
of this traffic !" He goes on still further in the same strain. He then shows 
the kind of power which has supported this execrable trade. He throws out 
the idea of a general compact, by which all the European nations should agree 
to abolish it. And he indulges the pleasing hope that it may take place even 
in the present generation. 

In the same year we find other coadjutors coming before our view, but these 
in a line different from that in which any other belonging to this class had yet 
moved. Mr. George White, a clergyman of the established church, and Mr. 
John Chubb, suggested to Mr. William Tucket, the mayor of Bridgewater, 
where they resided, and to others of that town, the propriety of petitioning 
parliament for the abolition of the slave-trade. This petition was agreed up- 
on, and when drawn up, was as follows : 

" The humble petition of the inhabitants of Bridgewater showeth : That 
your petitioners, reflecting with the deepest sensibility on the deplorable con- 
dition of that part of the human species, the African negroes, who, by the 
most flagitious means, are reduced to slavery and misery in the British colonies, 
beg leave to address this honorable house in their behalf, and to express a just 
abhorrence of a system of oppression, which no prospect of private gain, no 
consideration of public advantage, no plea of political expediency, can suffi- 
ciently justify or excuse. 

" That, satisfied as your petitioners are that this inhuman system meets with 
the general execration of mankind, they flatter themselves the day is not far 
distant when it will be universally abolished. And they most ardently hope to 
see a British parliament, by the extinction of that sanguinary traffic, extend the 
blessings of liberty to millions beyond this realm, hold up to an enlightened 
world a glorious and merciful example, and stand foremost in the defense of 
the violated rights of human nature." 

This petition was presented by the honorable members for the town of 
Bridgewater. It was ordered to lie on the table. The answer which these 
gentlemen gave to their constituents relative to the reception of it in the house 
of commons, is worthy of notice : " There did not appear," say they in their 
common letter, "the least disposition to pay any further attention to it. Every 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 1C9 

one says that the abolition of the slave-trade must immediately throw the West 
Indian islands into convulsions, and soon complete their utter ruin." 

Amongst others, the amiable aud gifted Cowper did not fail to utter his sen- 
timents in regard to the cruel system. Who has not been impressed by the 
following lines ? 

"We hare no slaves at home — then why abroad 1 

And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave 

That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd. 

Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 

Receive our air, that moment they are free ; 

They touch our country, and their shackles fall. 

That 's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud 

And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, 

And let it circulate through every vein 

Of all your empire — that where Britain's pow'r 

Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too." 

George Fox, the venerable founder of the society of the Quakers, took strong 
and decided ground against the slave-trade. He was cotemporary with Rich- 
ard Baxter, being born not long after him, and dying much about the same 
time. When he was in the island of Barbadoes, in the year 1671, he delivered 
himself to those who attended his religious meetings in the following manner : 

" Consider with yourselves," says he, " if you were in the same condition as 
the poor Africans are, who came strangers to you, and were sold to you as 
slaves ; I say, if this should be the condition of you or yours, you would think 
it a hard measure ; yea, and very great bondage and cruelty ; and therefore con- 
sider seriously of this ; and do you for them, and to them, as you would willingly 
have them, or any others do unto you, were you in the like slavish condition." 

In the year 1727, we find that the whole society, at a yearly meeting held in 
London, adopted the following resolution : " It is the sense of this meeting, 
that the importing of negroes from their native country aud relations, by Friends, 
is not a commendable nor allowed practice, and is therefore censured by this 
meeting." 

In the year 1758, the Quakers thought it their duty, as a body, to pass an- 
other resolution upon this subject. At this time the nature of the trade begin- 
ning to be better known, we find them more animated upon it, a.= the following 
extract will show : 

" We fervently warn all in profession with us, that they carefully avoid be- 
ing any way concerned in reaping the unrighteous profits arising from the in- 
iquitous practice of dealing in negro or other slaves ; whereby, in the original 
ourehase, one man selleth another, as he doth the beasts that perish, without any 
better pretension to a property in him than that of superior force ; in direct 
violation of the Gospel rule, which teacheth all to do as they would be done 
by, and to do good to all ; being the reverse of that covetous disposition which 
furnisheth encouragement to those poor ignorant people to perpetuate their 
savage wars, in order to supply the demands of this most unnatural traffic, by 
which great numbers of mankind, free by nature, are subject to inextricable 



170 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

bondage ; and which hath often been observed to fill their possessors with 
haughtiness, tyranny, luxury, and barbarity, corrupting the minds and debasing 
the morals of their children, to the unspeakable prejudice of religion and vir- 
tue, and the exclusion of that holy spirit of universal love, meekness, and char- 
ity, which is the unchangeable nature and the glory of true Christianity. We 
therefore can do no less than, with the greatest earnestness, impress it upon 
Friends every where, that they endeavor to keep their hands clear of this un- 
righteous gain of oppression." 

At the yearly meeting of 1761, they agreed to exclude from membership 
such as should be found concerned in this trade ; and in the meeting of 17G3, 
they endeavored to draw the cords still tighter, by attaching criminality to those 
who should aid and abet the trade in any manner. 

The society was now ready to make an appeal to others, and to bear a more 
public testimony in favor of the injured Africans. Accordingly, in the month 
of June, 1783, when a bill had been brought into the house of commous for 
certain regulations to be made with respect to the African trade, the society 
sent the following petition to that brauch of the legislature : 

"Your petitioners, met in this their annual assembly, having solemnly consid- 
ered the state of the enslaved negroes, conceive themselves engaged, in religious 
duty, to lay the suffering situation of that unhappy people before you, as a sub- 
ject loudly calling for the humane interposition of the legislature. 

" Your petitioners regret that a nation professing the Christian faith, should 
so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice, as by the cruel treat- 
ment of this oppressed race to fill their minds with prejudices against the mild 
and benificent doctrines of the Gospel. 

" Under the countenance of the laws of this country, many thousands of 
these our fellow-creatures, entitled to the natural rights of mankind, are held 
as personal property in cruel bondage ; and your petitioners being informed 
that a bill for the regulation of the Africau trade is now before the house, 
containing a clause which restrains the ofiicers of the African company from 
exporting negroes, your petitioners, deeply affected with a consideration of the 
rapine, oppression, and bloodshed attending this traffic, humbly request that 
this restriction may be extended to all persons whomsoever, or that the house 
would grant sjch other relief in the premises as in its wisdom may seem meet." 

This petition was presented by Sir Cecil Wray, who, on introducing it, spoke 
very respectfully of the society. He declared his hearty approbation of their 
application, and said he hoped he should see the day when not a slave would 
remain within the dominions of this realm. Lord North seconded the motion, 
saying he could have no objection to the petition, and that its object ought to 
recommend it to every humane breast ; that it did credit to the most benevo- 
lent society in the world ; but that, the session being so far advanced, the sub- 
ject could not then be taken into consideration ; and he regretted that the slave- 
trade, against which the petition was so justly directed, was, in a commercial 
view, necessary to almost every nation of Europe. The petition was then 
brought up and read, after which it was ordered to lie on the table. This was 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 171 

the first petition (being two years earlier than that from the inhabitants of 
Bridgewater) which was ever presented to parliament for the abolition of the 
slave-trade. 

In the same year, 1783, an event occurred which will be found of great im- 
portance, and in which only individuals belonging to the society were concerned. 
This event seems to have arisen naturally out of existing or past circumstances. 
For the society, as before stated, had sent a petition to parliament in this year, 
praying for the abolition of the slave-trade. It has also laid the foundation 
far a public distribution of books, which had been published with a view of en- 
lightening others. The case of the ship Zong had occurred this same year. 
A letter also had been presented, much about the same time, by Benjamin 
West, from Anthony Benezet, in America, to the Queen, in behalf of the in- 
jured Africans, which she had received graciously. These subjects occupied at 
this time the attention of many Quaker families, and among others, that of a 
few individuals who were in close intimacy with each other. These, when they 
met together, frequently conversed upon them. They perceived, as facts came 
out in conversation, that there was a growing knowledge and hatred of the 
slave-trade, and that the temper of the times was ripening towards its aboli- 
tion. Hence a disposition manifested itself among these, to unite as laborers 
for the furtherance of so desirable an object. An union was at length proposed 
and approved of. The first meeting was held on the seventh of July, 1783. 
At this "they assembled to consider what steps they should take for the relief 
and liberation of the negro slaves in the West Indies, and for the discourage- 
ment of the slave-trade on the coast of Africa. " 

To promote this object, they conceived it necessary that the public mind 
should be enlightened respecting it. They had recourse therefore to the pub- 
lic papers, and they appointed their members in turn to write in these, and to 
see that their productions were inserted. They kept regular minutes for this 
purpose. It was not, however, known to the world that such an association 
existed. 

This was the first society ever formed in England for the promotion of the 
abolition of the slave-trade. 

The Quakers in America early manifested a deep and compassionate feeling 
toward the afflicted African. It is true that, at first, they with others became 
the owners of slaves, the manner in which they were procured not being at that 
time generally known. Most of them, however, treated their slaves with great 
kindness. But notwithstanding their mildness toward them, and the conse- 
quent content of their slaves, some of the society soon began to entertain 
doubts in regard to the lawfulness of holding the negroes in bondage at all. 

So early as in the year 1688, some emigrants from Krieshiem, in Germany, 
who had adopted the principles of William Penn, and followed him into Penn- 
sylvania, urged in the yearly meeting of the society there, the inconsistency of 
buying, selling, and holding men in slavery, with the principles of the Christian 
religion. 

In the year 1696, the yearly meeting for that province took up the subject 



172 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

as a public concern, and the result was advice to the members of it to guard 
against future importations of African slaves, and to be particularly attentive 
to the treatment of those who were then in their possession. 

In the year 1111, the same yearly meeting resumed the important subject, 
and confirmed and renewed the advice which had been before given. 

In the year 1154, the same meeting issued a pertinent and truly Christian 
letter to all the members within its jurisdiction. This letter contained exhor- 
tations to all in the connection to desist from purchasing and importing slaves, 
ami, where they possessed them, to have a tender consideration of their condi- 
tion. But that the first part of the subject of this exhortation might be en- 
forced, the yearly meeting for the same provinces came to a resolution, in 1155, 
that if any of the members belongiug to it bought or imported slaves, the 
overseers were to inform their respective monthly meetings of it, that " these 
might treat with them as they might be directed in the wisdom of truth. " 

In the year 1116, the same yearly meeting carried the matter still further. 
It was then enacted, " that the owner of slaves who refused to execute proper 
instruments for giving them their freedom, were to be disowned likewise." 

In 1118, it was enacted by the same meeting, "that the children of those 
who had been set free by members should be tenderly advised, and have a suit- 
able education given them." 

"Whilst the body were thus decisive in their measures, individuals of the so- 
ciety were zealous and devoted in their endeavors to promote the same humane 
cause. Amongst these Anthony Benezet stands conspicuous. This distin- 
guished philanthropist was born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, of a respectable 
family, in the year 1113. His father was one of the many protestants who, in 
consequence of the persecutions which followed the revocation of the edict of 
Nautz, sought an asylum in foreign countries. After a short stay in Holland, 
he settled,- with his wife and children, in London, in 1115. 

Anthony Benezet, having received from his father a liberal education, served 
an apprenticeship in an eminent mercantile house in London. In 1131, how- 
ever, he removed with his family to Philadelphia, where he joined in profession 
with the Quakers. His three brothers then engaged in trade, and made con- 
siderable pecuniary acquisitions in it. He himself might have partaken of their 
prosperity, but lie did not feel himself at liberty to embark in their undertak- 
ings. He considered the accumulation of wealth as of no importance, when 
compared with the enjoyment of doing good ; and he chose the humble situa- 
tion of a schoolmaster, as according best with his notion, believing that by en- 
deavoring to train up youth in knowledge and virtue, he should become more 
extensively useful than in any other way to his fellow-creatures. He had not 
been long in his new situation before he manifested such an uprightness of con- 
duct, such a courtesy of manners, such a purity of intention, and such a spirit 
of benevolence, that he attracted the notice, and gained the good opinion, of 
the inhabitants among whom he lived. He had ready access to them, in conse- 
quence, upon all occasions ; and if there were any whom he failed to influence 
at any of these times, he never went away without the possession of their respect. 



m ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 173 

In the year 1756, when a considerable number of French families were re- 
moved from Acadia into Pennsylvania, on account of some political suspicions, 
he felt deeply interested about them. In a country where few understood their 
langoag* . fcb*y were wretched and helpless; but Anthony Benezet endeavored 
to soften flic rigoii of their situation by his kind attention towards them. He 
exerted himself also in their behalf, by procuring many contributions for them, 
which, by the consent of his fellow-citizens, were entrusted to his care. 

One of the means which Anthony Benezet took to promote the cause in ques- 
tion, (and an effectual one it proved, as far as it went,) was to give his scholars 
a due knowledge and proper impressions concerning it. Situated as they were 
likely to be, in after life, in a country where slavery was a custom, he thus pre- 
pared many, and this annually, for the promotion of his plans. To enlighten 
others, and to give them a similar bias, he had recourse to different measures 
from time to time. In the almanacs published annually in Philadelphia, he 
procured articles to be inserted, which he believed would attract the notice of 
the reader, and make him pause, at least for a while, as to the lawfulness of 
the slave-trade. He wrote, also, as he saw occasion, in the public papers of 
the day. From small things he proceeded to greater. He collected, at length, 
farther information on the subject, and, winding it up with observations and re- 
flections, he produced several little tracts, which he circulated successively, (but 
generally at his own expense,) as he considered tham adapted to the temper 
and circumstances of the times. In the course of this employment, having 
found some who had approved his tracts, and to whom, on that account, he 
wished to write, and sending his tracts to others, to whom he thought it proper 
to introduce them by letter, he found himself engaged in a correspondence 
which much engrossed his time, but which proved of great importance in pro- 
curing many advocates for his cause. 

In the year 1762, when he had obtained a still greater store of information, 
he published a larger work. This he entitled, " A Short Account of that Part 
of Africa inhabited by the Negroes." In 1767, he published "A Cautionand 
Warning to Great Britain and her Colonies, on the Calamitous State of the 
enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions :" and soon after this appeared 
"A Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce, and the General 
Disposition of its Inhabitants ; with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress 
of the Slave-trade, its Nature, and Calamitous Effects." This pamphlet 
contained a clear and distinct development of the subject, from the best author- 
ities. It contained also the sentiments of many enlightened men upon it ; and 
it became instrumental, beyond any other book ever before published, in dissem- 
inating a proper knowledge and detestation of this trade. 

Anthony Benezet may be considered oue of the most zealous, vigilant, and 
active advocates which the cause of the oppressed Africans ever had. He 
seemed to have been born and to have lived for the promotion of it, and there- 
fore he never omitted any the least opportunity of serving it. If a person 
called upon him who was going a journey, his first thoughts usually were, how 
he could make him an instrument in its favor ; and he either gave him tracts to 



174 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

distribute, or he sent letters by him, or he gave him some commission on the 
subject, so that he was the means of employing several persons at the same 
time, in various parts of America, in advancing the work he had undertaken. 

In the same manner he availed himself of every other circumstance, as far 
as he could, to the same end. When he heard that Mr. Granville Sharp had 
obtained, in the year 1772, the verdict in the case of Somerset, the slave, be 
opened a correspondence with him, which he kept up, that there might be an 
union of action between them for the future, as far as it could be effected, and 
that they might each give encouragement to the other to proceed. 

He wrote also a letter to the Countess of Huntingdon on the following sub- 
ject : She had founded a college, at the recommendation of George White- 
field, called the Orphan-house, near Savannah, in Georgia, and had endowed 
it. The object of this institution was to furnish scholastic instruction to the 
poor, and to prepare some of them for the ministry. George Whitefield, ever 
attentive to the cause of the poor Africans, thought that this institution might 
have been useful to them also ; but soon after his death, they who succeeded 
him bought slaves, and these in unusual numbers, to extend the rice and indigo 
plantations belonging to the college. The letter then in question was written 
by Anthony Benezet, in order to lay before the countess, as a religious woman, 
the misery she was occasioning in Africa, by allowing the managers of her col- 
lege in Georgia to give encouragement to the slave-trade. The countess re- 
plied that such a measure should never have her countenance, and that she 
would take care to prevent it. 

On discovering that the Abbe Raynal had brought out his celebrated work, 
in which he manifested a tender feeling in behalf of the injured Africans, he 
entered into a correspondence with him, hoping to make him yet more useful 
to their cause. 

Finding, also, in the year 1783, that the slave-trade, wiiich had greatly de- 
clined during the war, was reviving, he addressed a pathetic letter to the queen, 
who, on hearing the high character of the writer of it from Benjamin West, 
received it with marks of peculiar condescension and attention. The following 
is a copy of it : 
" To Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain : 

" Impressed with a sense of religious duty, and encouraged by the opinion 
generally entertained of thy benevolent disposition to succor the distressed, I 
take the liberty, very respectfully, to offer to thy perusal some tracts, which I 
believe faithfully describe the suffering condition of many hundred thousands 
of our fellow-creatures of the African race, great numbers of whom, rent from 
every tender connection in life, are annually taken from their native land, to 
endure, in the American islands and plantations, a most rigorous and cruel 
slavery ; whereby many, very many of them, are brought to a melancholy ana 
untimely end. 

" When it is considered that the inhabitants of Great Britain, who are them- 
selves so eminently blessed in the enjoyment of religious and civil liberty, have 
long been, and yet are, very deeply concerned in this flagrant violation of the 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 175 

common rights of mankind, and that even its national authority is exerted in 
support of the African slave-trade, there is much reason to apprehend that 
this has been, and, as long as the evil exists, will continue to be, an occasion 
of drawing down the Divine displeasure on the nation and its dependencies. 
May these considerations induce thee to interpose thy kind endeavors in behalf 
of this greatly injured people, whose abject situation gives them an additional 
claim to the pity and assistance of the generous mind, inasmuch as they arc 
altogether deprived of the means of soliciting effectual relief for themselves ; 
that so thou mayest not only be a blessed instrument in the hand of Him ' by 
whom kings reign and princes decree justice,' to avert the awful judgments by 
which the empire has already been so remarkably shaken, but that the blessings 
of thousands ready to perish may come upon thee, at a time when the superior 
advantages attendant on thy situation in this world will no longer be of any 
avail to thy consolation and support. 

" To the tracts on this subject to which I have thus ventured to crave thy 
particular attention, I have added some which at different times I have be- 
lieved it my duty to publish,* and which, I trust, will afford thee some satisfac- 
tion, their design being for the furtherance of that universal peace and good 
will amongst men, which the gospel was intended to introduce. 

" I hope thou wilt kindly excuse the freedom used on this occasion by an 
ancient man, whose mind, for more than forty years past, has been much 
separated from the common intercourse of the world, and long painfully exer- 
cised in the consideration of the miseries under which so large a part of man- 
kind, equally with us the objects of redeeming love, are suffering the most 
unjust and grievous oppressions, and who sincerely desires thy temporal and 
eternal felicity, and that of thy royal consort. Anthony Benezet." 

Anthony Benezet, besides the care he bestowed upon forwarding the cause 
of the oppressed Africans in different parts of the world, fcund time to pro- 
mote the comforts and improve the condition of those in the state in which he 
lived. Apprehending that much advantage would arise both to them and the 
public, from instructing them in common learning, he zealously promoted the 
establishment of a school for that purpose. Much of the two last years of his 
life he devoted to a personal attendance on this school, being earnestly desirous 
that they who came to it might be better qualified for the enjoyment of that 
freedom to which great numbers of them had been then restored. To this he 
sacrificed the superior emoluments of his former school, and his bodily ease 
also, although the weakness of his constitution seemed to demand indulgence. 
By his last will he directed, that after the decease of his widow, his whole 
little fortune, the savings of the industry of fifty years, should, except a few 
very small legacies, be applied to the support of it. During his attendance 
upon it he had the happiness to find, and his situation enabled him to make 
the comparison, that Providence had been equally liberal to the Africans in 
genius and talents as to other people. 

* These related to the principles of the religious society of the Quakers. 



176 EARLT OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

After a few days illness this excellent man died at Philadelphia in the spring 
of 1784. The interment of his remains was attended by several thousand of 
all ranks, professions, and parties, who united in deploring their loss. The 
mournful procession was closed by some hundreds of those poor Africans, who 
had been personally benefited by his labors, and whose behavior on the occa- 
sion showed the gratitude and affection they considered to be due to him as 
their own private benefactor, as well as the benefactor of their whole race. 

Others in America beside the Quakers, early took the part of the oppress 
ed Africans. In the first part of the' eighteenth century, Judge Sewall, of 
New England, came forward as a zealous advocate for them. He addressed a 
memorial to the legislature, which he called The Selling of Joseph, and in 
which he pleaded their cause both as a lawyer and a Christian. This memo- 
rial produced an effect upon many, but particularly upon those of his own per- 
suasion ; and from this time the Presbyterians appear to have encouraged a 
sympathy in their favor. 

In the year 1739, the celebrated George Whitefield became an instrument 
in turning the attention of many others to their condition, and of begetting in 
these a fellow-sympathy towards them. This laborious minister, having been 
deeply affected with what he had seen in the course of Ms travels in America, 
thought it his duty to address a letter from Georgia to the inhabitants of 
Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina. This letter was printed 
in the year above mentioned, and is in part as follows : 

"As I lately passed through your provinces on my way hither, I was sen- 
sibly touched with a fellow-feeling for the miseries of the poor negroes. 
Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy slaves, and thereby encourage the 
nations from whom they are bought to be at perpetual war with each other, I 
•shall not take upon me to determine. Sure I am it is sinful, when they have 
bought them, to use them as bad as though they were brutes, nay, worse ; and 
whatever particular exceptions there maybe, (as I would charitably hope there 
are some,) I fear the generality of you, who own negroes, are liable to such a 
charge ; for your slaves, I believe, work as hard, if not harder, than the horses 
whereon you ride. These, after they have done their work, are fed and taken 
proper care of; but many negroes, when wearied with labor on your plantations, 
en obliged to grind their corn after their return home. Your dogs are 
' .wu\ fondled at your table ; but your slaves, who are frequently called 
dogs or beasts, have not an equal privilege They are scarce permitted to 
pick up the crumbs which fall from their master's table ; not to mention what 
numbers have been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel task-masters; who, 
by their unrelenting scourges, have plowed their backs, and made long fur- 
rows, and at length brought them even unto death. When passing along I 
have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious houses 
built, and the owners of them faring sumptuously every day, my blood has fre- 
quently almost run cold within me, to consider how many of your slaves had 
neither convenient food to eat nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding 
most of the comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable labors." 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA* 177 

The letter, from which this is an extract, produced a desirable effect npon 
many of those who perused it, but particularly upon such as began to be 
seriously disposed in those times. And as George Whitefield continued a 
firm friend to the Africans, never losing an opportunity of serving them, he 
interested, in the course of his useful life, many thousands of his followers In 
their favor. 

In the year 1772, a disposition favorable to the oppressed Africans became 
very generally manifest in some of the American Provinces. The house o. 
burgesses of Virginia even presented a petition to the king, beseeching his 
majesty to remove all those restraints on his governors of that colony, which 
inhibited their assent to such laws as might check that inhuman and impolitic 
commerce, the slave-trade : and it is remarkable that the refusal of the British 
government to permit the colonists to exclude slaves from among them by law, 
was enumerated afterwards among the public reasons for separating from the 
mother country. 

In allusion to the fact just stated, Mr. Jefferson, in his draft of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, said: "He (the king of England) has waged civil war 
against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty, 
in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him ; captivating, and 
carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death 
in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of 
infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain : deter- 
mined to keep open a market where MEN" should be bought and sold, he 
prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or 
to restrain this execrable commerce ; and, that this assemblage of horrors 
might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very people 
to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has de- 
prived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them, thus 
paying off former crimes, committed against the liberties of one people, with 
crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another." (See 
the fac-simile of this draft in Jefferson's Correspondence.) But this passage 
was struck out when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. 

But the friendly disposition was greatly increased in the year 1773, by the 
literary labors of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. In this year, at the 
instigation of Anthony Benezet, he took up the cause of the oppressed Afri- 
cans in a little work, which he entitled An Address to the Inhabitants of the 
British Settlements on the Slavery of the Negroes ; and soon afterwards in 
another, which was a vindication of the first, in '.luswer to an acrimonious 
attack by a West Indian planter. These publications contained many new 
observations. They were written in a polished style ; and while they exhibited 
the erudition and talents, they showed the liberality and benevolence of the 
author. Having had considerable circulation, they spread conviction among 
many, and promoted the cause for which they had been so laudably under- 
taken. 

12 



178 EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 

In the next year, or in the year Hf-i,* the increased good-will towards the 
Africans became so apparent, but more particularly in Pennsylvania, where 
the Quakers were more numerous than in any other state, that they, who con- 
sidered themselves more immediately as the friends of these injured people, 
thought it right to avail themselves of it : and accordingly James Pemberton, 
one of the most conspicuous of the Quakers iu Pennsylvania, and Dr. Rush, 
one of the most conspicuous of those belonging to the various other religious 
communities in that province, undertook, in conjunction with others, the im- 
portant task of bringing those into society who were friendly to this cause. 
In this undertaking they succeeded. This society, which was confined to 
Pennsylvania, was the first ever formed in America, in which there was a union 
of persons of different religious denominations in behalf of the African race. 

But this society had scarcely bugun to act, when the war broke out between 
England and America, which had the effect of checking its operations. This 
was considered as a severe blow upon it. But as those things which appear 
most to our disadvantage turn out often the most to our benefit, so the war, by 
giving birth to the independence of America, was ultimately favorable to its 
progress. For as this contest had produced during its continuance, so it left, 
when it was over, a general enthusiasm for liberty. Many talked of little 
else but of the freedom they had gained. These were naturally led to the con- 
sideration of those among them who were groaning in bondage. They began 
to feel for their hard case. They began to think that they should not deserve 
the new blessing which they had acquired, if they denied it to others. Thus 
the discussions which originated in this contest, became the occasion of turn- 
ing the attention of many, who might not otherwise have thought of it, 
toward the miserable condition of the slaves. 

Nor were writers wanting, who, influenced by considerations on the war and 
the independence resulting from it, made their works subservient to the same 
benevolent end. A work entitled, A Serious Address to the Rulers of 
America on the Inconsistency of their Conduct respecting Slavery, form- 
ing a Contrast between the Encroachments of England on American Lib- 
erty and American Injustice in tolerating Slavery, which appeared in 1783, 
was particularly instrumental in producing this effect. This excited a more 
than usual attention to the case of these oppressed people, and where most of 
all it could be useful. For the author compared in two opposite columns the 
animated speeches and resolutions of the members of congress in behalf of 
their own liberty with their conduct in continuing slavery to others. Hence 
congress began to feel the inconsistency of the practice ; and so far had the 
sense of this inconsistency spread, that when the delegates met from each 
state to consider of a federal union, there was a desire that the abolition of 
the slave-trade should be one of the articles of it. This was, however, op- 



* In tins year, Elhanan Winchester, a supporter of the doctrine of universal redemp- 
tion, turned the attention of many of his hearers to this subject, both by private con- 
ference and by preaching expressly upon it. 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 179 

posed by the delegates from North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, 
and Georgia, the five states which had the greatest interest in slaves. But 
even these offered to agree to the article, provided a condition was annexed to 
it, which was afterwards done, that such abolition should not commence till 
the first of January, 1808. 

In consequence of these circumstances, the society of Pennsylvania, the 
object of which was "for promoting the abolition of slavery and the relief of 
free negroes unlawfully held in bondage," became so popular, that in the year 
1787, it was thought desirable to enlarge it. Accordingly, several new mem- 
bers were admitted into it. The celebrated Dr. Franklin, who had long 
warmly espoused the cause of the injured Africans, was appointed President ; 
James Pemberton and Jonathan Penrose were appointed Vice-Presidents ; 
Dr. Benjamin Rush and Tench Coxe, Secretaries; James Star, Treasurer.* 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Movements in England to Abolish the Slave Trade. 

Thomas Clarkson, the historian of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. — Devotes his life 
to the cause, 1785. — Publishes his Essay on Slavery. — His coadjutors. — William Wil- 
berforce, parliamentary leader in the cause. — Middleton, Dr. Porteus, Lord Sears- 
dale. Granville Sharp. — Clarkson's first visit to a slave-ship. — Association formed. — 
Correspondence opened in Europe and America. — Petitions sent to Parliament. — Com- 
mittee of Privy Council ordered by the King, 1788.- — Great exertions of the friends 
of the cause. — Clarkson's interview with Pitt. 



T 



HE historian of the Abolition of the Slave Trade by the British Parlia- 
ment was Mr. Thomas Clarkson. He was among the warmest supporters of 
the sacred cause, and from the year 1785 he devoted his life to it. The vari- 
ous measures pursued to promote it, were registered at the time, either by 
himself or the committee with whom he acted. Not the shadow of a doubt 
has ever been expressed as to the authenticity of his work, and we cannot pre- 
sent information on this subject in a more satisfactory manner than by giving 
the reader a concise abridgement of the work itself. 

Besides Mr. Clarkson, there was another individual of whose mind the sub- 
ject took a deep hold. This was William Wilberforce. In October, 1757, 
he entered upon his journal that "the Almighty had placed before him the 
great object of the abolition of the slave-trade." Clarkson and Wilberforce, 
the twin spirits of the movement, were soon able to form a powerful confeder- 
acy, including men of all parties, and to impress the mind of the nation. 

Dr. Peckard, master of Magdalen College, in the University of Cambridge, 

* Abridged from Clarkson's History. 



180 HISTORY OF TIIE ABOLITION 

had not only censured the slave-trade in the severest manner, in a sermon 
preached before the University, but when he became vice-chancellor of it, in 
lt85, he gave out the following subject for one of the Latin dissertations : "Is 
it right to make slaves of others against their will ?" At this time Mr. Clark- 
son, who had obtained the prize for the best essay the preceding year, deter- 
mined to become again a candidate. He took prodigious pains to make 
himself master of the subject, as far as the time would allow, both by reading, 
and conversing with many persons who had been in Africa. Having completed 
his Latin essay, and sent it in to the vice-chancellor, he soon found himself 
honored with the first prize. The subject of the essay so entirely engrossed 
his thoughts that he became seriously affected. He tried to persuade himself 
that the contents of the essay were not true. The more, however, he reflected 
upon his authorities, the more he gave them credit, until he finally became con- 
vinced that it was the duty of some one to endeavor to mitigate the sufferings 
of the unhappy Africans. He finally resolved to devote his own life to the 
cause. When this resolution was formed he was but twenty-four years of age, 
and he considered his youth and want of knowledge of the world as a great 
obstacle. He thought, however, that there was one way in which he might 
begin to be useful ; by translating his Latin essay, and publishing it in Eng- 
lish. 

Of this period of his life and labors he says : " In the course of the autumn 
of this year (17S5), I walked frequently into the woods that I might think on 
the subject of the slave-trade in solitude. But there the question still occurred, 
' Are these things true ? ' Still the answer followed as instantaneously, ' They 
are.' Still the result accompanied it, 'Then surely some person should inter- 
fere.' I then began to envy those who had seats in parliament, and who had 
great riches, and widely extended connexions, which would enable them to take 
up this cause. Finding scarcely any one at that time who thought of it, I was 
turned frequently to myself. But here many difficulties arose. It struck me, 
among others, that a young man of only twenty-four years of age could not 
have that solid judgment, or knowledge of men, manners, and things, which 
were requisite to qualify him to undertake a task of such magnitude and im- 
portance ; and with whom was I to unite ? I believed also that it looked so 
much like one of the feigned labors of Hercules, that my understanding 
would be suspected if I proposed it. On ruminating, however, on the sub- 
ject, I found one thing at least practicable, and that this also was in my power. 
I could translate my Latin dissertation. I could enlarge it usefully. I could 
see how the public received it, or how far they were likely to favor any serious 
measures, which should have a tendency to produce the abolition of the slave- 
trade. Upon this, then, I determined ; and in the middle of the month of 
Novembe'r, 1785, I began my work. By the middle of January I had finished 
half of it, though I had made considerable additions. I now thought of en- 
gaging with some bookseller to print it when finished. For this purpose I 
called upon Mr. Cadell, in the Strand, and consulted him about it. He said 
that as the original essay had been honored by the University of Cambridge 



OF THE AFRICAN SLATE TRADE. 181 

with the first prize, this circumstance would insure it a respectable circulation 
among persons of taste. I own I was not much pleased with his opinion. I 
wished the essay to find its way among useful people, and among such as would 
think and act with me. Accordingly I left Mr. Cadell, after having thanked 
him for his civility, and determined, as I thought I had time sufficient before 
dinner, to call upon a friend in the city. In going past the Royal Exchange, 
Mr. Joseph Hancock, one of the religious society of the Quakers, and witl 
whose family my own had been long united in friendship, suddenly met me 
He first accosted me by saying that I was the person whom he was wishing to 
see. He then asked me why I had not published my prize essay. I asked 
him in return what had made him think of that subject in particular. He re- 
plied, that his own society had long taken it up as a religious body, and 
individuals among them were wishing to find me out. I asked him who. He 
answered, James Phillips, a bookseller, in George-yard, Lombard street, and 
William Dillwyn, of Walthamstow, and others. Having but little time to 
spare, I desired him to introduce me to one of them. In a few minutes he 
took me to James Phillips, who was then the only one of them in town, by 
whose conversation I was so much interested and encouraged, that without any 
further hesitation I offered him the publication of my work. This accidental 
introduction of me to James Phillips was, I found afterwards, a most happy 
circumstance for the promotion of the cause which I had then so deeply at 
heart, as it led me to the knowledge of several of those who became after- 
wards material coadjutors in it. It was also of great importance to me with 
respect to the work itself, for he possessed an acute penetration, a solid judg- 
ment, and a literary knowledge, which he proved by the many alterations and 
additions he proposed, and which I believe I uniformly adopted, after mature 
consideration, from a sense of their real value. It was advantageous to me 
also, inasmuch as it led me to his friendship, which was never interrupted but 
by his death. 

" On my second visit to James Phillips, at which time I brought him about 
half my manuscript for the press, I desired him to introduce me to William 
Dillwyn, as he had also mentioned him to me on my first visit, and as I had not 
seen Mr. Hancock since. Matters were accordingly arranged, and a day ap- 
pointed before I left him. On this day I had my first interview with my new 
friend. Two or three others of his own religious society were present, but who 
they were I do not now recollect. There seemed to be a great desire among 
them to know the motive by which I had been actuated in contending for the 
prize. I told them frankly that I had no motive but that which other young 
men in the University had on such occasions, namely, the wish of being distin- 
guished, or of obtaining literary honor ; but that I had felt so deeply on the 
subject of it, that I had lately interested myself in it from a motive of duty. 
My conduct seemed to be highly approved by those present, and much conver- 
sation ensued, but it was of a general nature. 

" As William Dillwyn wished very much to see me at his house at Waltham- 
stow, I appointed the thirteenth of March to spend the day with him there 



182 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

We talked for the most part, during my stay, on the subject of my essay. I 
soon discovered the treasure I had met with in his local knowledge, both of the 
slave-trade and of slavery, as they existed in the United States, and I gained 
from him several facts, which, with his permission, I afterwards inserted in my 
work. But how surprised was I to hear, in the course of our conversation, of 
the labors of Granville Sharp, of the writings of Ramsay, and of the controver- 
sy in which the latter was engaged, of all which I had hitherto known nothing. 
How surprised was I to learn, that William Dillwyn himself had two years be- 
fore associated himself with five others for the purpose of enlightening the 
public mind upon this great subject. How astonished was I to find that a 
society had been formed in America for the same object, with some of the prin- 
cipal member of which he was intimately acquainted. And how still more 
astonished at the inference which instantly rushed upon my mind, that he was 
capable of being made the great medium of connection between them all. 
These thoughts almost overpowered me. I believe that after this I talked but 
little more to my friend. My mind was overwhelmed with the thought that I 
had been providentially directed to his house ; that the finger of Providence 
was beginning to be discernible ; that the day-star of African liberty was rising 
and that probably I might be permitted to become an humble instrument in 
promoting it. 

" In the course of attending to my work, as now in the press, James Phillips 
introduced me also to Granville Sharp, with whom I had afterwards many in- 
teresting interviews from time to time, and whom I discovered to be a distant 
relation by my father's side. He introduced me also by letter t6 a correspond- 
ence with Mr. Ramsay, who in a short time afterwards came to London to see 
me. He introduced me also to his cousin, Richard Phillips, of Lincoln's Inn, 
who was at that time on the point of joining the religious society of the Qua- 
kers. In him I found much sympathy, and a willingness to cooperate with me. 
When dull and disconsolate, he encouraged me. When in spirits, he stimulated 
me further. Him I am now to mention as a new, but soon afterwards as an 
active and indefatigable coadjutor in the cause. I shall only now add that my 
work was at length printed ; that it was entitled, An Essay on the Slavery and 
Commerce of the Human Species, particularly the African, translated from a 
Latin Dissertation, which was honored with the First Prize in the University 
of Cambridge, for the year 1785; with Additions; and that it was ushered 
into the world in the mouth of June, 1786, or in about a year after it had 
leen read in the senate house in its first form. 

" I had long had the honor of the friendship of Mr. Bennet Langton, and I 
determined to carry him one of my books, and to interest his feelings in it, 
with a view of procuring his assistance in the cause. Mr. Langton was a 
gentleman of an ancient family and respectable fortune, in Lincolnshire, but 
resided then in Queen's-square, Westminster. He was known as the friend of 
Dr. Johnson, Jonas Hanway, Edmund Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and oth- 
ers. Among his acquaintance indeed were most of the literary, and eminent 
professional, and public-spirited men of the times. At court, also, he was 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 183 

well known, and had the esteem of his majesty, with whom he frequently con- 
versed. His friends were numerous, also, in both houses of the legislature. 
As to himself, he was much noted for his learning, but most of all for the 
great example he gave with respect to the usefulness and integrity of his life. 
By introducing my work to the sanction of a friend of such high character 
and extensive connexions, I thought I should be doing great things. And so 
the event proved. For when I went to him after he had read it, I found that 
it had made a deep impression upon his mind. As a friend to humanity, he 
lamented over the miseries of the oppressed Africans, and over the crimes of 
their tyrants as a friend to morality and religion. He cautioned me, however, 
against being too sanguine in my expectations, as so many thousands were 
interested in continuing the trade. Justice, however, which he said weighed 
with him beyond all private or political interest, demanded a public inquiry, 
and he would assist me to the utmost of his power in my attempts towards it. 
From this time he became a zealous and active coadjutor in the cause, and 
continued so to the end of his valuable life. 

" I had now Sir Charles Middleton, who was in the House of Commons. I 
was sure of Dr. Porteus, who was in the House of Lords. I could count 
upon Lord Scarsdale, who was a peer also. I had secured Mr. Langton, who 
had a most extensive acquaintance with members of both houses of the legis- 
lature. I had also secured Dr. Baker, who had similar connexions. I could 
depend upon Granville Sharp, James Phillips, Richard Phillips, Ramsay, 
Dillwyn, and the little committee to which he belonged, as well as the whole 
society of the Quakers. I thought, therefore, upon the whole, that, consider- 
ing the short time I had been at work, I was well off with respect to support. 
I believed, also, that there were still several of my own acquaintance whom I 
could interest in the question, and I did not doubt that by exerting myself 
diligently, persons who were then strangers to me would be raised up in time. 
I considered next, that it was impossible for a great cause like this to be for- 
warded without large pecuniary funds. I questioned whether some thousand 
pounds would not be necessary, and from whence was such a sum to come ? 
In answer to this, I persuaded myself that generous people would be found 
who would unite with me in contributing their mite towards the undertaking, 
and I seemed confident that as the Quakers had taken up the cause as a reli- 
gious body, they would not be behind hand in supporting it. I considered 
lastly, that if I took up the question I must devote myself wholly to it. I 
Was sensible that a little labor now and then would be inadequate to the pur- 
pose, or that where the interests of so many thousand persons were likely to 
be affected, constant exertion would be necessary. I felt certain that if ever 
the matter were to be taken up, there could be no hope of success, except it 
should be taken up by some one who would make it an object or business of 
his life. I thought, too, that a man's life might not be more than adequate to 
the accomplishment of the end. But I knew of no one who could devote 
such a portion of time to it. Sir Charles Middleton, though he was so warm 
and zealous, was greatly occupied in the discharge of his office. Mr. Langton 



184 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

spent a great portion of his time in the education of his children. Dr. Baker 
had a great deal to do in the performance of his parochial duty. The Qua- 
kers were almost all of them in trade. I could look, therefore, to no person 
but myself; and the question was, whether I was prepared to make the sacri- 
fice. In favor of the undertaking I urged to myself, that never was any cause 
which had been taken up by man in any country, or in any age, so great and 
important ; that never was there one in which so much misery was heard to 
cry for redress ; that never was there one in which so much good could be 
done; never one in which the duty of Christian charity could be so extensn ely 
exercised ; never one more worthy of the devotion of a whole life towards it ; 
and that, if a man thought properly, he ought to rejoice to have been en lied 
into existence, if he were only permitted to become an instrument in forward- 
ing it in any part of its progress. Against these sentiments on the 
hand I had to urge, that I had been designed for the church ; that I had 
already advanced as far as deacon's orders in it ; that my prospects there on 
account of my connexions were then brilliant; that by appearing to desert my 
profession my family would be dissatisfied, if not unhappy. These thoughts 
pressed upon me, and rendered the conflict difficult. But the sacrifice of my 
prospects staggered me, I own, the most. When the other objections, which 
I have related, occurred to me, my enthusiasm instantly, like a flash of light- 
ning, consumed them ; but this stuck to me and troubled me. I had ambition. 
I had a thirst after worldly interest and honors, and I could not extinguish it 
at once. I was more than two hours in solitude under this painful conflict. 
At length I yielded, not because I saw any reasonable prospect of success in 
my new undertaking, (for all cool-headed and cool-hearted men would have pro- 
nounced against it,) but in obedience, I believe, to a higher power. Aud this 
I can say, that both on the moment of this resolution, and for some time after- 
wards, I had more sublime and happy feelings than at any former period of 
my life. 

" The distribution of my books having been consigned to proper hands, I 
began to qualify myself by obtaining further knowledge for the management 
of this great cause. As I had obtained the principal part of it from reading, 
I thought I ought now to see what could be seen, and to know from living 
persons what could be known $u the subject. With respect to the first of 
these points, the river Thames presented itself as at hand. Ships were going 
occasionally from the port of London to Africa, and why could I not get on 
board them and examine for myself? After diligent inquiry, I heard of one 
which had just arrived. I found her to be a little wood vessel, called the 
Lively, captain Williamson, or one which traded to Africa in the natural pro- 
luctions of the country, such as ivory, beeswax, Malaguetta pepper, palm-oil 
and dye-woods. I obtained specimens of some of these, so that I now be- 
came possessed of some of those things of which I had only read before. On 
conversing with the mate, he showed me one or two pieces of the cloth made 
by the natives, and from their own cotton. I prevailed upon him to sell me a 
piece of each. Here new feelings arose, and particularly when I considered 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 185 

tnat persons of so much apparent ingenuity, and capable of such beautiful 
work as the Africans, should be made slaves, and reduced to a level with the 
brute creation. My reflections here on the better use which might be made 
of Africa by the substitution of another trade, and on the better use which 
might be made of her inhabitants, served greatly to animate and to sustain me 
against the labor of my pursuits. 

" The next vessel I boarded was the Fly, captain Cooley. Here I found 
myself for the first time on the deck of a slave vessel. The sight of the rooms 
below and of the gratings above, and of the barricado across the deck, and 
the explanation of the uses of all these, filled me both with melancholy and 
horror. I found soon afterwards a fire of indignation kindled within me. I 
had now scarce patience to talk with those on board. I had not the coolness 
this first time to go leisurely over the places that were open to me. I got 
away quickly. But that which I thought I saw horrible in this vessel had the 
same effect upon me as that which I thought I had seen agreeable in the other, 
namely, to animate and to invigorate me in my pursuit. 

" But I will not trouble the reader with any further account of my water 
expeditions, while attempting to perfect my knowledge upon this subject. I 
was equally assiduous in obtaining intelligence wherever it could be had ; and 
being now always on the watch, I was frequently falling in with individuals 
from whom I gained something. My object was to see all who had been in 
Africa, but more particularly those who had never been interested, or who at 
any rate were not then interested in the trade. I gained, accordingly, access 
very early to general Rooke ; to lieutenant Dalrymple, of the army ; to cap- 
tain Fiddes, of the engineers ; to the reverend Mr. Newton ; to Mr. Nisbett, 
a surgeon in the Minories ; to Mr. Devaynes, who was then in parliament, and 
to many others ; and I made it a rule to put down in writing, after every con- 
versation, what had taken place in the course of it. By these means things 
began to unfold themselves to me more and more, and I found my stock of 
knowledge almost daily on the increase. 

While, however, I was forwarding this, I was not inattentive to the other 
object of my pursuit, which was that of waiting upon members personally. 
The first I called upon was Sir Richard Hill. At the first interview he espoused 
the cause. I waited then upon others, and they professed themselves friendly ; 
but they seemed to make this profession more from the emotion of good hearts, 
revolting at the bare mention of the slave-trade, than from any knowledge con- 
cerning it. One, however, whom I visited, Mr. Powys, (the late Lord Lilford,) 
with whom I had been before acquainted in Northamptonshire, seemed to 
doubt some of the facts in my book, from a belief that human nature was not 
capable of proceeding to such a pitch of wickedness. I asked him to name 
his facts. He selected the case of the hundred and thirty-two slaves who were 
thrown alive into the sea to defraud the underwriters. I promised to satisfy 
him fully upon this point, and went immediately to Granville Sharp, who lent 
me his account of the trial, as reported at large from the notes of the short- 
hand writer whom he had employed on the occasion. Mr. Powys read the 



186 HISTORY OF TIIE ABOLITION 

account. He became, in consequence of it, convinced, as, indeed, he could not 
otherwise be, of the truth of what I had asserted, and he declared at the same 
time that, if this were true, there was nothing so horrible related of this trade, 
which might not immediately be believed. Mr. Powys had been always friend- 
ly to this question, but now he took a part in the distribution of my books. 

"Among those whom I visited, was Mr. Wilberforce. On my first interview 
with him, he stated frankly, that the subject had often employed his thoughts, 
and that it was near his heart. He seemed earnest about it, and also very 
desirous of taking the trouble of inquiring further into it. Having read my 
book, which I had delivered to him in person, he sent for me. He expressed 
a wish that I would make him acquainted with some of my authorities for the 
assertions in it, which I did afterwards to his satisfaction. He asked me if I 
could support it by any other evidence. I told him I could. I mentioned 
Mr. Newton, Mr. Nisbett, and several others to him. He took the trouble of 
sending for all these. He made memoranda of their conversation, and, send- 
ing for me afterwards, showed them to me. On learning my intention to 
devote myself to the cause, he paid me many handsome compliments. He 
then desired me to call upon him often, and to acquaint him with my progress 
from time to time. He expressed also his willingness to afford me any assist- 
ance in his power in the prosecution of my pursuits." 

Mr. Wilberforce finally pledged himself to bring forward the great question 
of the abolition of the slave-trade, in the House of Commons, as soon as he 
could prepare himself for so tremendous a task. The matter now assumed a 
new shape. A parliamentary leader had been secured, and one whose virtuous 
life corresponded with the sacredness of the cause he was to advocate. The 
friends of the cause formed themselves into an association, raised funds, and 
appointed a committee to procure information and select evidence. Mr. Clark- 
son was to visit Liverpool, Bristol, and other slave ports, to increase his own 
knowledge of the subject, and to procure evidence, in case parliament should 
call for witnesses. He was absent five months, and returned to London in 
December, 17S7. Meantime, the committee had opened an extensive corres- 
pondence throughout England, Scotland, and America. They circulated docu- 
ments, and addressed by letter all the corporate bodies of the kingdom. Tokens 
of approbation and promises of support flowed in upon them. From France, 
letters of encouragement were received from the Marquis de La Fayette, and 
the afterwards celebrated Brissot and Claviere. La Fayette informed the 
committee that he should attempt the formation of a similar society in France. 

Of the indefatigable labors and untiring faithfulness of the committee, the 
following summary will give some idea : From May, 1787, to July, 17S8, they 
had held no less than fifty-one meetings. These generally occupied them from 
about six in the evening till about eleven at night. In the intervals between 
the meetings they were often occupied, having each of them some object com- 
mitted to his charge. It is remarkable, too, that though they were all, except 
one, engaged in business or trade, and though they had the same calls as other 
men for innocent recreation, and the same interruptions of their health, there 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 187 

were individuals who were not absent more than five or six times within this 
period. In the course of the thirteen months, during which they had exercised 
this public trust, they had printed, and afterwards distributed, not at random, 
but judiciously, and through respectable channels, (besides twenty-six thousand 
five hundred and twenty-six reports, accounts of debates in parliament, and 
other small papers,) no less than fifty-one thousand four hundred and thirty- 
two pamphlets, or books. 

Thus commenced the great struggle which was destined to last for a period 
of twenty years ; a struggle with the gigantic commercial interest of Liverpool, 
Bristol, and other ports, and the proprietors of the West India plantations. 

Up to the month of February, 1788, thirty-five petitions had been presented 
to parliament, in favor of abolishing the trade. These proceedings produced 
such au effect upon the government, that the king was advised to order a com- 
mittee of privy council to inquire into the nature of the slave-trade. This 
was dated February 11, 1788, and required the committee "to take into their 
consideration the present state of the African trade, particularly as far as 
related to the practice and manner of purchasing or obtaining slaves on the 
coast of Africa, and the importation and sale thereof, either in the British 
colonies and settlements, or in the foreign colonies and settlements in America 
or the West Indies ; and also as far as related to the effects and consequences 
of the trade, both in Africa and in the said colonies and settlements, and to 
the general commerce of this kingdom ; and that they should report to him in 
council the result of their inquiries, with such observations as they might have 
to offer thereupon." 

An effort was made to enlist Mr. Pitt in the cause, and Mr. Clarkson thus 
describes his first interview with that great statesman : " My business in Lon- 
don was to hold a conversation with Mr. Pitt previously to the meeting of the 
council, and to try to interest him, as the first minister of state, in our favor. 
For this purpose, Mr. Wilberforce had opened the way for me, and an inter- 
view took place. We were in free conversation together for a considerable 
time, during which we went through most of the branches of the subject. Mr. 
Pitt appeared to me to have but little knowledge of it. He had also his doubts, 
which he expressed openly, on many points. He was at a loss to conceive 
how private interest should not always restrain the master of the slave from 
abusing him. This matter I explained to him as well as I could ; and if he 
was not entirely satisfied with my interpretation of it, he was at least induced 
to believe that cruel practices were more probable than he had imagined. A 
second circumstance, the truth of which he doubted, was the mortality and 
usage of seamen in this trade ; and a third was the statement, by which so 
much had been made of the riches of Africa, and of the genius and abilities of 
her people ; for he seemed at a loss to comprehend, if these things were so, 
how it had happened that they should not have been more generally noticed 
before. I promised to satisfy him upon these points, and an interview was 
fixed for this purpose the next day. 

"At the time appointed, I went with my books, papers and African produc- 



188 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

tions. Mr. Pitt examined the former himself. He turned over leaf after leaf, 
in which the copies of the muster-rolls were contained, with great patience ; 
and when he had looked over above a hundred pages accurately, and found the 
name of every seaman inserted, his former abode or service, the time of his 
entry, and what had become of him, either by death, discharge, or desertion, 
he expressed his surprise at the great pains which had been taken in this branch 
of the inquiry, and confessed, with some emotion, that his doubts were wholly 
removed with respect to the destructive nature of this employment ; and he said, 
moreover, that the facts contained in these documents, if they had been but 
fairly copied, could never be disproved. He was equally astonished at tho 
various woods and other productions of Africa, but most of all at the manufac- 
tures of the natives in cotton, leather, gold, and iron, which were laid before 
him. These he handled and examined over and over again. Many sublime 
thoughts seemed to rush in upon him at once at the sight of these, some of 
which he expressed with observations becoming a great and dignified mind. 
He thanked me for the light I had given him on many of the branches of this 
great question. And I went away under a certain conviction that I had left 
him much impressed in our favor." 

The first witnesses examined by the council, were persons sent expressly as 
delegates from Liverpool, who had not only been themselves in the trade, 
but were at that time interested in it. They endeavored to show that none of 
the enormities charged belonged to it ; that it was attended with circumstances 
highly favorable to the Africans ; that it was so vitally connected with the 
manufacturing and commercial interests of the country that it would be almost 
national ruin to abolish it. A few, but highly respectable witnesses upon the 
other side were called before the council, and contributed to counteract the 
testimony of the Liverpool delegates. The inquiry continued for four months, 
during which time the petitions from the people to parliament had increased 
to one hundred and three. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Parliamentary History. — The Twenty Years' Struggle. 

Mr. Pitt introduces the subject of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade into the House of 
Commons, May 9, 1788. — Speech of Mr. Pitt on the occasion. — Parliamentary action 
in 17S9. — Debate of 12th of May. — Speech of William Wilberforce. — Travels and ex- 
ertions of Clarkson. — Sessions of 1791 and 1792. — Debates in the Commons. — Speeches 
of Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox, Bailie, Thornton, Whitbread, Dundas, and Jenkinson. — 
Gradual abolition agreed upon by House of Commons. 



M, 



_R. "WILBERFORCE had been preparing to introduce the subject into 
the House of Commons when he was taken so ill that his life was despaired of. 
Under these circumstances, his friend Mr. Pitt, then chancellor of the exche- 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. . 1S9 

quer and prime minister, undertook to supply his place. On the 9th of May, 
1788, he opened the business in the house. 

Mr. Pitt arose : He said he intended to move a resolution relative to a 
subject which was of more importance than any which had ever been agitated 
in that house. This honor he should not have had, but for a circumstance 
which he could not but deeply regret, the severe indisposition of his friend Mr. 
Wilberfimv, in whose hands every measure which belonged to justice, human- 
ity, and the national interest, was peculiarly well placed. The subject in que* - 
tion was no less than that of the slave-trade. It was obvious from the great 
number of petitions which had been presented concerning it, how much it had 
engaged the public attention, and consequently how much it deserved the seri- 
ous notice of that house, and how much it became their duty to take some 
measure concerning it. But whatever was done on such a subject, every one 
would agree, ought to be done with the maturest deliberation. Two opinions 
had prevailed without doors, as appeared from the language of the different 
petitions. It had been pretty generally thought that the African slave-trade 
ought to be abolished. There were others, however, who thought it only stood 
in need of regulations. But all had agreed that it ought not to remain as it 
stood at present. But that measure which it might be the most proper to take, 
could only be discovered by a cool, patient, and diligent examination of the 
subject in all its circumstances, relations, and consequences. This had induced 
him to form an opinion that the present was not the proper time for discussing 
it ; for the session was now far advanced, and there was also a want of proper 
materials for the full information of the house. It would, he thought, be bet- 
ter discussed, when it might produce some useful debate, and when that inquiry 
which had been instituted by his majesty's ministers, (he meant the examina- 
tion by a committee of privy council,) should be brought to such a state of ma- 
turity as to make it fit that the result of it should be laid before the house. 
That inquiry, he trusted, would facilitate their investigation, and enable them 
the better to proceed to a decision, which should be equally founded on princi- 
ples of humanity, justice, and sound policy. As there was not a probability 
of reaching so desirable an end in the present state of business, he meant to 
move a resolution to pledge the house to the discussion of the question early 
in the next session. If by that time his honorable friend should be recovered, 
which he hoped would be the case, then he (Mr Wilberforce) would take the 
lead in it ; but should it unfortunately happen otnerwise, then he (the chancel- 
for of the exchequer) pledged himself to bring forward some proposition con- 
cerning it. The house, however, would observe that he had studiously avoided 
giving any opinion of his own on this great subject. He thought it wiser to 
defer this till the time of the discussion should arrive. He concluded with 
moving, after having read the names of the places from whence the different pe- 
titions had come, " That this house will, early in the next session of parliament, 
proceed to take into consideration the circumstances of the slave-trade com- 
plained of in the said petitions, and what may be fit to be done thereupon." 

The motion of Mr. Pitt was warmly discussed, and at considerable length. 



190 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

The principal speakers upon it were Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, Sir William Dol- 
ben, Lord Penrhyn, and Mr. Gascoyn. The two last were members from Liv- 
erpool, and were strongly opposed to meddling with the question of the aboli- 
tion of the slave-trade at any time. 

Mr. Fox wished that there might be no delay ; he said he was sorry the con- 
sideration of the question, but more particularly where so much human suffering 
was concerned, should be put off to another session, when it was obvious that 
no advantage could be gained by delay. 

At length, when the question was put, the resolution was agreed to unani- 
mously. Thus ended the first discussion that ever took place in the commons 
on this important subject. This debate, though many of the persons concerned 
in it abstained cautiously from entering into the merits of the general question, 
became interesting in consequence of circumstances attending it. Several rose 
up at once to give relief, as it were, to their feelings by utterance ; but by so 
doing, they were prevented, many of them, from being heard. They who were 
heard, spoke with peculiar energy, as if warmed in an extraordinary manner 
by the subject. There was an apparent enthusiasm in behalf of the injured 
Africans. It was supposed by some that there was a moment in which, if the 
chancellor of the exchequer had moved for an immediate abolition of the trade, 
he would have carried it that night. 

About this time, Mr. Clarkson brought out his powerful essay on the impol- 
icy of the slave-trade, which was circulated in great numbers by the committee. 
Their efforts had aroused the feelings of the whole English nation, and had 
attracted the notice of many distinguished persons throughout Europe and 
America. As soon as the session was over, Mr. Clarkson again undertook a 
journey, visiting all the seaports between Kent and Cornwall. His object was 
to find out new witnesses to strengthen the cause, and form auxiliary commit- 
tees. The committee, meantime, were indefatigable ; they had addressed the 
rulers of Spain, Portugal, and Sweden ; they had circulated five new works, 
besides the engraving which we have copied of the interior of a slave ship, ex- 
hibiting the closely packed bodies of the negroes. 

On the 19th of March, 1789, Mr. Wilberforce moved in the House of Com- 
mons that the house should, on the 29th of April, take into consideration its 
resolution of the last session. The motion was agreed to, but it was the sig- 
nal for all those who supposed themselves interested in the continuance of the 
trade, such as merchants, planters, manufacturers, mortgagees, and others, to 
begin a tremendous opposition. Meetings were called, and frightful resolu- 
tions passed. The public papers were filled with them ; and pamphlets issued, 
filled with the most bitter invectives against all engaged in the movement. 
Emancipation was industriously confounded with the abolition of the trade. 
Compensation was demanded in a moustrous degree. The cry was such that 
many began to be staggered about the propriety of the total abolition of the 
trade. Calculations exhibited that the number of slaves in the British West 
Indies amounted to 410,000, and that to keep up that number the annual im- 
portation of 10,000 was required ; that the English procured in Africa 30,000 



OF THE AFRICAN BLAVE TRADE. 191 

annually, and therefore could sell 20,000 to other nations ; that in the prose- 
cution of this trade, English manufactures to the amount of above £800,000 
sterling- were exported, and above £1,400,000 in value obtained in return, and 
that the government received £256,000 annually by the slave tax. 

The report of the privy council, consisting of the examinations before men- 
tioned, was laid before the house, and that all might have a chance to examine 
it, Mr. Pitt moved that the consideration of the subject be postponed from the 
29th of April to the 12th of May. 

At length the 12th of May arrived. Mr. Wilberforce rose up in the com- 
mons, and moved the order of the day for the house to resolve itself into a 
committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the petitions which 
had been presented against the slave-trade. 

This order having been read, he moved that the report of the committee of 
privy council ; that the acts passed in the islands relative to slaves ; that the 
evidence adduced last year on the slave-trade ; that the petitions offered in 
the last session against the slave-trade ; and that the accounts presented to 
the house, in the last and present session, relative to the exports and imports 
to Africa, be referred to the same committee. 

These motions having been- severally agreed to, the house immediately 
resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, and Sir William Dolben 
was put into the chair. 

Mr. Wilberforce began by declaring that when he considered how much dis- 
cussion the subject, which he was about to explain to the committee, had 
occasioned not only in that house but throughout the kingdom, and through- 
out Europe ; and when he considered the extent and importance of it, the 
variety of interests involved in it, and the consequences which might arise, he 
owned he had been filled with apprehensions, lest a subject of such magnitude 
and a cause of such weight should suffer from the weakness of its advocate ■ 
but when he recollected that in the progress of his inquiries he had every 
where been received with candor, that most people gave him credit for the 
purity of his motives, and that, however many of these might then differ from 
him, they were all likely to agree in the end, he had dismissed his fears and 
marched forward with a firmer step in this cause of humanity, justice and reli- 
gion. He could not, however, but lament that the subject had excited so 
much warmth. He feared that too many on this account were but ill prepared 
to consider it with impartiality. He entreated all such to endeavor to be 
calm and composed. A fair and cool discussion was essentially necessary. 
The motion he meant to offer was as reconcileable to political expediency as 
to national humanity. It belonged to no party question. It would in the 
end be found serviceable to all parties ; and to the best interests of the country. 
He did not come forward to accuse the West India planter, or the Liverpool 
merchant, or indeed any one concerned in this traffic ; but, if blame attached 
any where, to take shame to himself, in common, indeed, with the whole par- 
liament of Great Britain, who, having suffered it to be carried on under their 
own authority were all of them participators in the guilt. 



192 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

Tn endeavoring to explain the great business of the day, he said he should 
call the attention of the house only to the leading features of the slave-trade. 
Nor should he dwell long upon these. Every one might imagine for himself 
what must be the natural consequence of such a commerce with Africa. Was 
it not plain that she must suffer from it? that her savage manners must lie 
rendered still more ferocious ? and that a trade of this nature carried on 
round her coasts, must extend violence and desolation to her very centre ? It 
was well known that the natives of Africa were sold as goods, and that num- 
bers of them w y ere continually conveyed away from their country by the owners 
of British vessels. The question then was, which way the latter came by 
them. In answer to this question, the privy council report, which was then 
on the table, afforded evidence the most satisfactory and conclusive. He had 
found things in it, which had confirmed every proposition he had maintained 
before, whether this proposition had been gathered from living information of 
the best authority, or from the histories he had read. But it was unnecessary 
either to quote the report, or to appeal to history on this occasion. Plain 
reason and common sense would point out how the poor Africans were 
obtained. Africa was a country divided into many kingdoms, which had dif- 
ferent governments and laws. In many parts the princes were despotic. In 
others they had a limited rule. But in all of them, whatever the nature of 
the government was, men were considered as goods and property, and, as 
such, subject to plunder in the same manner as property in other countries. 
The persons in power there were naturally fond of our commodities ; and to 
obtain them (which could only be done by the sale of their countrymen) they 
waged war on one another, or even ravaged their own country when they could 
find no pretense for quarreling with their neighbors ; in their courts of law 
many poor wretches who were innocent were condemned ; and to obtain these 
commodities in greater abundance, thousands were kidnapped, and torn from 
their families, and sent into slavery. Such transactions, he said, were recorded 
in every history of Africa, and the report on the table confirmed them. With 
respect, however, to these, he should make but one or two observations. If 
we looked into the reign of Henry the Eighth, we should find a parallel for 
one of them. We should find that similar convictions took place ; and that 
penalties followed conviction. With respect to wars, the kings of Africa were 
never induced to engage in them by public principles, by national glory, and 
least of all, by the love of their people. This had been stated by those most 
conversant with the subject, by Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom. They had 
conversed with these princes, and had learned from their own mouths, thai 1" 
procure slaves was the object of their hostilities. Indeed, there was scarcely 
a single person examined before the privy council, who did not prove that the 
slave-trade was the source of the tragedies acted upon that extensive conti- 
nent. Some had endeavored to palliate this circumstance; but there was net 
one who did not more or less admit it to be true. By one the slave-trade was 
called the concurrent cause, by the majority it was acknowledged to be the 
principal motive of the African wars. The same might be said with respect 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 193 

to those instances of treachery and injustice in which individuals were con- 
cerned. Aud here he was sorry to observe that our own countrymen were 
often guilty. He would only at present advert to the tragedy at Calabar, 
where two large African villages, having been for some time at war, made 
peace. This peace was to have been ratified by intermarriages ; but some of 
our captains who were there, seeing the trade would be stopped for a while, 
sowed dissension again between them. They actually set one village against 
the other, took a share in the contest, massacred many of the inhabitants, and 
carried others of them away as slaves. But shocking as this transaction might 
appear, there was not a single history of Africa to be read, in which scenes of 
as atrocious a nature were not related. They, he said, who defended this 
trade, were warped and blinded by their own interests, and would not be con- 
vinced of the miseries they were daily heaping on their fellow-creatures. By 
the countenance they gave it, they had reduced the inhabitants of Africa to a 
worse state than that of the most barbarous nation. They had destroyed 
what ought to have been the bond of union and safety among them : they had 
introduced discord and anarchy among them : they had set kings against their 
subjects, and subjects against each other : they had rendered every private 
family wretched : they had, in short, given birth to scenes of injustice and 
misery not to be found in any other quarter of the globe. 

Having said thus much on the subject of procuring slaves in Africa, he 
would now go to that of the transportation of them. And here he had fondly 
hoped, that when men with affections and feelings like our own had been torn 
from their country, and every thing dear to them, he should have found some 
mitigation of their sufferings ; but the sad reverse was the case. This was 
the most wretched part of the whole subject. He was incapable of impressing 
the house with what he felt upon it. A description of their conveyauce was 
impossible. So much misery condensed in so little room was more than the 
human imagination had ever before conceived. Think only of six hundred 
persons linked together, trying to get rid of each other, crammed in a close 
vessel with every object that was nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and 
struggling with all the varieties of wretchedness. It seemed impossible to 
add any thing more to human misery. Yet, shocking as this description must 
be felt to be by every man, the transportation had been described by several 
witnesses from Liverpool to be a comfortable conveyance. Mr. Norris had 
painted the accommodations on board a slave-ship in the most glowing colore. 
He had represented them in a manner which would have exceeded his attempts 
at praise of the most luxurious scenes. Their apartments, he said, were fitted 
up as advantageously for' them as circumstances could possibly admit : they 
had several meals a day ; some, of their own country provisions, with the best 
6auces of African cookery ; and, by way of variety, another meal of pulse, 
according to the European taste. After breakfast they had water to wash 
themselves, while their apartments were perfumed with frankincense and lime- 
juice. Before dinner they were amused after the manner of their country : 
instruments of music were introduced : the song and the dance were promo- 
13 



194 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

ted : games of chance were furnished thern : the men played and sang, while 
the women and girls made fanciful ornameuts from beads, with which they 
were plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little fancies, and 
kept iu sprightly humor. Another of them had said, when the sailors were 
flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it should depress their 
spirits. He by no means wished to say that such descriptions were wilful 
misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved that interest or prejudice was 
capable of spreading a film over the eyes thick enough to occasion total blind- 
ness. 

Others, however, and these men of the greatest veracity, had given a differ- 
ent account. What would the house think, when by the concurring testimony 
of these the true history was laid open ? The slaves, who had been described 
as rejoiciug in their captivity, were so wrung with misery at leaving their 
country, that it was the constant practice to set sail in" the night, lest they 
should know the moment of their departure. With respect to their accommo- 
dation, the right ankle of one was fastened to the left ankle of another by an 
iron fetter ; and if they were turbulent, by another on the wrists. Instead of 
the apartments described, they were placed in niches, and along the decks, in 
such a manner that it was impossible for any one to pass among them, how- 
ever careful he might be, without treading upon them. Sir George Yonge 
had testified, that in a slave-ship, on board of which he went, and which had 
not completed her cargo by two hundred aud fifty, instead of the scent of 
frankincense being perceptible to the nostrils, the stench was intolerable. The 
allowance of water was so deficient that the slaves were frequently found gasp- 
ing for life, and almost suffocated. The pulse with which they had been said 
to be favored, were absolutely English horse beans. The legislature of Ja- 
maica had stated the scantiness both of water and provisions, as a subject 
which called for the interference of parliament. As Mr. Norris had said the 
song and the dance were promoted, he could not pass over these expressions 
without telling the house what they meant. It would have been much more 
fair if he himself had explained the word promoted. The truth was, that for 
the sake of exercise, the miserable wretches, loaded with chains and oppressed 
with disease, were forced to dance by the terror of the lash, and sometimes by 
the actual use of it. "I," said one of the evidences, "was employed to dance 
the men, while another person danced the women." Such, then, was the mean- 
ing of the word promoted ; and it might also be observed, with respect to 
food, that instruments were sometimes carried out in order to force them to 
eat ; which was the same sort of proof how much they enjoyed themselves in 
this instance also. With respect to their singing, it consisted of songs of 
lamentation for the loss of their country. While they sung they were in tears : 
so that one of the captains, more humane probably than the rest, threatened a 
woman with a flogging because the mournfulness of her song was too painful 
for his feelings. Perhaps he could not give a better proof of the sufferings of 
these injured people, during their passage, than by stating the mortality which 
accompanied it. This was a species of evidence which was infallible on this 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 195 

occasion. Death was a witness which could not deceive them ; and the pro- 
portion of deaths would not only confirm, but, if possible, even aggravate our 
suspicion of the misery of the transit. It would be found, upon an average 
of all the ships upon which evidence had been given, that, exclusively of such 
as perished before they sailed from Africa, not less than twelve and a half per 
cent, died on their passage : besides these, the Jamaica report stated that 
four and a half per cent, died while in the harbors, or on shore before the day 
of sale, which was only about the space of twelve or fourteen days after thei 
arrival there; and one-third more died in the seasoning: and this in a climate 
exactly similar to their own, and where, as some of the witnesses pretended, 
they were healthy and happy. Thus, out of every lot of oue hundred shipped 
from Africa, seventeen died in about nine weeks, and not more than fifty lived 
to become efficient laborers in our islands. 

Having advanced thus far in his investigation, he felt, he said, the wicked- 
ness of the slave-trade to be so enormous, so dreadful, and irremediable, that 
he could stop at no alternative short of its abolition. A trade founded on in- 
iquity, and carried on with such circumstances of horror, must be abolished, 
let the policy of it be what it might ; and he had from this time determined, 
whatever were the consequences, that he would never rest till he had effected 
that abolition. His mind had indeed been harassed by the objections of the 
West India planters, who had asserted that the ruin of their property must be 
the consequence of such a measure. He could not help, however, distrusting 
their arguments. He could not believe that the Almighty being, who had for- 
bidden the practice of rapine and bloodshed, had made rapine and bloodshed 
necessary to any part of his universe. He felt a confidence in this persuasion, 
and took the resolution to act upon it. Light, indeed, soon broke in 141(111 
him. The suspicion of his mind was every day confirmed by increasing iiii'ur- 
mation, and the evidence he had now to offer upon this point was decisive and 
complete. The principle upon which he founded the necessity of the abolition 
was not policy, but justice : but, though justice were the principle of the 
measure, yet lie trusted lie should distinctly prove it to be reconcilable with our 
truest political interest. 

In the first place, he asserted that the number of the slaves in the West In- 
dia islands might be kept up without the introduction of recruits from Africa; ; 
and to prove this, he would enumerate the different sources of their mortality. 
The first was the disproportion of the sexes, there being, upon an average; 
about five males imported to three females : but this evil, when the slave-trade 
was abolished, would cure itself. The second consisted in the bad condition in 
which they were brought to the islands, and the methods of preparing them 
for sale. They arrived frequently in a sickly and disordered state, and then 
they were made up for the market by the application of astringents, washes, 
mercurial ointments, and repelling drugs, so that their wounds might be hid 
These artifices were not only fraudulent, but fatal ; but these, it was obvious, 
would of themselves fall with the trade. A third was, excessive labor joined 
with improper food ; and a fourth was, the extreme dissoluteness of their man- 



19G HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

ners. These also would both of them be counteracted by the impossibility of 
getting further supplies ; for owners, now unable to replace those slaves whom 
they might lose, by speedy purchase in the markets, would be more careful how 
they treated them in future, and better treatment would be productive of better 
morals. And here he would just advert to an argument used against those 
who complained of cruelty in our islands, which was, that it was the interest 
of masters to treat their slaves with humanity ; but surely it was immediate 
and present, not future and distant, interest, which was the great spring of 
action in the affairs of mankind. Why did we make laws to punish men ? It 
was their interest to be upright and virtuous ; but there was a present impulse 
continually breaking in upon their better judgment, and an impulse which was 
known to be contrary to their permanent advantage. It was ridiculous to say 
that men would be bound by their interest, when gain or ardent passion urged 
them. It might as well be asserted that a stone could not be thrown into the 
air, or a body move from place to place, because the principle of gravitation 
bound them to the surface of the earth. If a planter in the West Indies found 
himself reduced in his profits, he did not usually dispose of any part of his 
slaves ; and his own gratifications were never given up so long as there was a 
possibility of making any retrenchment in the allowance of his slaves. But to 
return to the subject which he had left : He was happy to state, that as all the 
causes of the decrease which he had stated might be remedied, so, by the pro- 
gress of light and reformation, these remedies had been gradually coming into 
practice ; and that, as these had increased, the decrease of slaves had in an 
equal proportion been lessened. By the gradual adoption of these remedies, 
he could prove from the report on the table, that the decrease of slaves in Ja- 
maica had lessened to such a degree, that from the year 17^4 to the present it 
was not quite one in a hundred, and that in fact they were at present in a state 
of increase ; for that the births on that island, at this moment, exceeded the 
deaths by one thousand or eleven hundred per annum. Barbadoes, Nevis, An- 
tigua, and the Bermudas were, like Jamaica, lessening their decrease, and 
holding forth an evident and reasonable expectation of a speedy state of in- 
crease by natural population. But allowing the number of negroes even to 
decrease for a time, there were methods which would insure the welfare of the 
West India islands. The lands there might be cultivated by fewer hands, and 
this to greater advantage to the proprietors and to this country, by the produce 
of cinnamon, coffee, and cotton, than by that of sugar. The produce of the 
plantations might also be considerably increased, even in the case of sugar, 
with less hands than were at present employed, if the owners of them would 
but introduce machines of husbandry. Mr. Long himself, long resident as a 
planter, had proved, upon his own estate, that the plow, though so little used 
in the West Indies, did the service of a hundred slaves, and caused the same 
ground to produce three hogsheads of sugar, which, when cultivated by slaves, 
would only produce two. The division of work, which, in free and civilized 
countries, was the grand source of wealth, and the reduction of the number of 
domestic servants, of whom not less than from twenty to forty were kept in 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 197 

ordinary families, afforded other resources for this purpose. But granting 
that all these suppositions should be unfounded, and that every one of these 
substitutes should fail for a time, the planters would be indemnified, as is the 
case in all transactions of commerce, by the increased price of their produce in 
the British market. Thus, by contending against the abolition, they were de- 
feated in every part of the argument. But he would never give up the point, 
that the number of slaves could be kept up by natural population, and without 
any dependence whatever on the slave-trade. He therefore called upon the 
house again to abolish it as a criminal waste of life ; it was utterly unneces- 
sary ; he had proved it so by documents contained in the report. The merchants 
of Liverpool, indeed, had thought otherwise, but he should be cautious how 
he assented to their opinions. They declared last year that it was a losing 
trade at two slaves to a ton, and yet they pursued it when restricted to five 
slaves to three tons. He believed, however, that it was upon the whole a 
losing concern ; in the same manner as the lottery would be a losing adventure 
to any company who should buy all the tickets. Here and there an individual 
gained a large prize, but the majority of adventurers gained nothing. The 
same merchants, too, had asserted that the town of Liverpool would be ruined 
by the abolition. But Liverpool did not depend for its consequence upon the 
slave-trade. The whole export tonnage from that place amounted to no less 
than 170,000 tons, whereas the export part of it to Africa amounted only to 
13,000. Liverpool, he was sure, owed its greatness to other and very differ- 
ent causes ; the slave-trade bearing but a small proportion to its other trades. 
Having gone through that part of the subject which related to the slaves, 
he w r ould now answer two objections which he had frequently heard started. 
The first of these was, that the abolition of the slave-trade would operate to 
the total ruin of our navy, and to the increase of that of our rivals. For an 
answer to these assertions, he referred to what he considered to be the most 
valuable part of the report, and for which the house and the country were in- 
debted to the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Clarkson. By the report, it 
appeared that instead of the slave-trade being a nursery for British seamen, it 
was their grave. It appeared that more seamen died in that trade in one year 
than in the whole remaining trade of the country in two. Out of 910 sailors 
in it, 216 died in the year, while upon a fair average of the same number of 
men employed in the trades to the East and West Indies, Petersburgh, New- 
foundland, and Greenland, no more than 87 died. It appeared also, that out 
of 3,170, who had left Liverpool in the slave-ships in the year 1787,. only 
1,428 had returned. And here, while he lamented the loss which the country 
thus annually sustained in her seamen, he had additionally to lament the bar- 
barous usage which they experienced, ar.d which this trade, by the natural ten- 
dency to harden the heart, exclusively produced. He would just read an 
extract of a letter from Governor Parry, of Barbadoes, to Lord Sydney, one 
of the secretaries of state. The governor declared that he could no longer 
contain himself on account of the ill treatment which the British sailors en- 
duivd at the hands of their savage captains These were obliged to have 



198 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

their vessels strongly manned, not only on account of the unhealthiuess of the 
climate of Africa, but of the necessity of guarding the slaves, and preventing 
and suppressing insurrections ; and when they arrived in the West Indies, and 
were out of all danger from the latter, they quarreled with their men on the 
most frivolous pretenses, on purpose to discharge them, and thus save the pay- 
ment of supernumerary wages home. Thus many were left in a diseased and 
deplorable state, either to perish by sickness, or to enter into foreign service ; 
great numbers of whom were forever lost to their country. The governor 
concluded by declaring that the enormities attendant on this trade were so great 
as to demand the immediate interference of the legislature. 

The next objection to the abolition was, that if we were to relinquish the 
slave-trade, our rivals, the French, would take it up ; so that while we should 
suffer by the measure, the evil would still go on, and this even to its former 
extent. This was, indeed, a very weak argument ; and, if it would defend the 
continuance of the slave-trade, might equally be urged in favor of robbery; 
murder, and every species of wickedness, which, if we did not practice, others 
would commit. But suppose, for the sake of argument, that they were to take 
it up, what good would it do them? What advantages, for instance, would they 
derive from this pestilential commerce to their marine ? Should not we, on the 
other hand, be benefited by this chauge ? Would they not be obliged to come 
to us, in consequence of the cheapness of our manufactures, for what they 
wanted for the African market? But he would not calumniate the French 
nation so much as to suppose that they would carry on the trade if we were to 
relinquish it. He believed, on the other hand, that they would abolish it also. 
Mr. Necker, the present minister of France, was a man of religious principle; 
and, in his work upon the administration of the finances, had recorded his 
abhorrence of this trade. He was happy also to relate an anecdote of the 
present king of France, which proved that he was a friend to the abolition ; 
for, being petitioned to dissolve a society, formed at Paris, for the annihilation 
of the slave-trade, his majesty answered that he would not, and was happy to 
hear that so humane an association was formed in his dominions. And here, 
having mentioned the society in Paris, he could not help paying a due compli- 
ment to that established in London for the same purpose, which had labored 
with the greatest assiduity to make this important subject understood, and 
which had conducted itself with so much judgment and moderation as to have 
interested men of all religions, and to have united them in their cause. 

There was another topic which he would submit to the notice of the house 
before he concluded. They were, perhaps, not aware that a fair and honorable 
trade might be substituted in the natural productions of Africa, so that our 
connection with that continent in the way of commercial advantage need not 
oe lost. The natives had already made some advances in it ; and if they had 
not appeared so forward in raising and collecting their own produce for sale as 
in some other countries, it was to be imputed to the slave-trade ; but remove 
the cause, and Africa would soon emerge from her present ignorant and indo- 
lent state. Civilization would go on with her as well as with other nations. 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 199 

Europe, three or four centuries ago, was in many parts as barbarous as Africa 
at present, and chargeable with as bad practices. For what would be said, if, 
so late as the middle of the thirteenth century, he could find a parallel there for 
the slave-trade ? Yes. This parallel was to be found even in England. The 
people of Bristol, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, had a regular market for 
children, which were bought by the Irish ; but the latter having experienced a, 
general calamity, which they imputed as a judgment from heaven on account 
of this wicked traffic, abolished it. The only thing, therefore, which he had 
to solicit of the house, was to show that they are now as enlightened as the 
Irish were four centuries back, by refusing to buy the children of other nations. 
He hoped they would do it. He hoped, too, they would do it in an unqualified 
manner. Nothing less than a total abolition of the trade would do away the 
evils complained of. The legislature of Jamaica, indeed, had thought that 
regulations might answer the purpose. Their report had recommended that 
no person should be kidnapped, or permitted to be made a slave, contrary to 
the customs of Africa. But might he not be reduced to this state very unjustly, 
and yet by no means contrary to the African laws ? Besides, how could we 
distinguish between those who were justly or unjustly reduced to it? Could 
we discover them by their physiognomy ? But. if we could, who would believe 
that the British captains would be influenced by any regulations made in this 
country, to refuse to purchase those who had not been fairly, honestly, and 
uprightly enslaved? They who were offered to us for sale were brought, some 
of them, three or four thousand miles, and exchanged like cattle from one to 
another, till they reached the coast. But who could return these to their 
homes, or make them compensation for their sufferings during their long jour- 
neyings ? He would now conclude by begging pardon of the house for having 
detained them so long. He could indeed have expressed his own convictions 
in fewer words. He needed only to have made one or two short statements, 
and to have quoted the commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder." But he 
thought it his duty to lay the whole of the case, and the whole of its guilt 
before them. They would see now that no mitigations, no palliatives, would 
either be efficient or admissible. Nothing short of an absolute abolition could 
be adopted. This they owed to Africa; they owed it, too, to their own moral 
characters. And he hoped they would follow up the principle of one of the 
repentant African captains, who had gone before the committee of privy coun- 
cil as a voluntary witness, and that they would make Africa all the atonement 
in their power for the multifarious injuries she had received at the hands of 
British subjects. With respect to these injuries, their enormity and extent, it 
might be alleged in their excuse, that they were not fully acquainted with them 
till that moment, and therefore not answerable for their former existence ; but 
now they could no longer plead ignorance concerning them. They had seen 
them brought directly before their eyes, and they must decide for themselves, 
and must justify to the world and their own consciences the facts and principles 
upon which their decision was formed. 

Mr. Wilberforce having concluded his speech, which lasted three hours and 



200 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

a half, read, and laid on the table of the house, as subjects for their future dis- 
cussion, nine propositions, which he had deduced from the evidence contained 
in the privy council report, and of which the following is the abridged substance : 

1. That the number of slaves annually carried from the coast of Africa, in 
British vessels, was about 38,000, of which, on an average, 22,500 were carried 
to the British islands, and that of the latter, only 17,500 were retained there. 

2. That these slaves, according to the evidence on the table, consisted, first, 
of prisoners of war ; -secondly, of free persons sold for debt, or on account of 
real or imputed crimes, particularly adultery and witchcraft ; in which cases 
they were frequently sold with their whole families, and sometimes for the profit 
of those by whom they were condemned ; thirdly, of domestic slaves sold for 
the profit of their masters, in some places at the will of the masters, and in 
others, on being condemned by them for real or imputed crimes ; fourthly, of 
persons made slaves by various acts of oppression, violence, or fraud, committed 
either by the princes and chiefs of those countries on their subjects, or by pri- 
vate individuals on each other ; or, lastly, by Europeans engaged in this traffic. 

3. That the trade so carried on had necessarily a tendency to occasion fre- 
quent and cruel wars among the natives ; to produce unjust convictions and 
punishments for pretended or aggravated crimes ; to encourage acts of oppres- 
sion, violence, and fraud, and to obstruct the natural course of civilization and 
improvement in those countries. 

4. That Africa, in its present state, furnished several valuable articles of 
commerce which were partly peculiar to itself, but that it was adapted to the 
production of others, with which we were now either wholly, or in great part, 
supplied by foreign nations. That an extensive commerce with Africa might 
be substituted in these commodities, so as to afford a return for as many articles 
as had annually been carried thither in British vessels ; and, lastly, that such a 
commerce might reasonably be expected to increase by the progress of civili- 
zation there. 

5. That the slave-trade was peculiarly destructive to the seamen employed 
in it ; and that the mortality there had been much greater than in any British 
vessels employed upon the same coast in any other service or trade. 

6. That the mode of transporting the slaves froru Africa to the West Indies 
necessarily exposed them to many and grievous sufferings, for which no regu- 
lations could provide an adequate remedy ; and that in consequence thereof a 
large proportion had annually perished during the voyage. 

7. That a large proportion had also perished in the harbors in the West 
Indies, from the diseases contracted in the voyage and the treatment of the 
same, previously to their being sold, and that this loss amounted to four and a 
half per cent, of the imported slaves. 

8. That the loss of the newly imported slaves, within the three first years 
after their importation, bore a large proportion to the whole number imported. 

9. That the natural increase of population among the slaves in the islands 
appeared to have been impeded principally by the following causes : First, 
by the inequality of the sexes in the importations from Africa. Secondly, by 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 201 

the general dissoluteness of maimers among the slaves, and the want of proper 
regulations for the encouragement of marriages and of rearing children among 
them. Thirdly, by the particular diseases which were prevalent among them, 
and which were in some instances to be attributed to too severe labor, or rig- 
orous treatment, and in others to insufficient or improper food. Fourthly, by 
those diseases which affected a large proportion of negro children in their in- 
fancy, and by those to which the negroes newly imported from Africa had been 
found to be particularly liable. 

These propositions having been laid upon the table of the house, lord Pen- 
rhyn rose in behalf of the planters, and next after him, Mr. Gascoyne, (both 
members for Liverpool,) in behalf of the merchants concerned in the latter 
place. They both predicted the ruin and misery which would inevitably follow 
the abolition of the trade. The former said that no less than seventy millions 
were mortgaged upon lands in the West Indies, all of which would be lost. 
Mr. Wilberforce therefore should have made a motion to pledge the house to 
the repayment of this sum before he had brought forward his propositions. 
Compensation ought to have been agreed upon as a previously necessary meas- 
ure. The latter said that in consequence of the bill of last year, many ships 
were laid up and many seamen out of employ. His constituents had large 
capitals engaged in the trade, and if it were to be wholly done away, they 
would suffer from not knowing where to employ them. They both joined in 
asserting that Mr. Wilberforce had made so many misrepresentations in all the 
branches of this subject, that no reliance whatever was to be placed on the pic- 
ture which he had chosen to exhibit. They should speak, however, more fully 
to this point when the propositions were discussed. 

The latter declaration called up Mr. Wilberforce again, who observed that 
he had no intention of misrepresenting any fact. He did not know that he 
had done it in any one instance ; but, if he had, it would be easy to convict 
him out of the report upon the table. 

Mr. Burke then arose : He would not, he said, detain the committee long. 
Indeed he was not able, weary and indisposed as he then felt himself, even if 
he had an inclination to do it ; but as, on account of his other parliamentary 
duty, he might not have it in his power to attend the business now before them 
in its course, he would take that opportunity of stating his opinion upon it. 

And, first, the house, the nation, and all Europe were under great obliga- 
tions to Mr. Wilberforce for having brought this important subject forward. 
He had done it in a manner the most masterly, impressive, and eloquent. He 
had laid down his principles so admirably, and with so much order and force, 
that his speech had equaled any thing he had ever heard in modern oratory, 
and perhaps it had not lx>en excelled by anything to be found in ancient times. 
As to the slave-trade itself, there could not be two opinions about it where men 
were not interested. A trade, begun in savage war, prosecuted with unheard 
of barbarity, continued during the transportation with the most loathsome im- 
prisonment, and ending in perpetual exile and slavery, was a trade so horrid in 
all its circumstances that it was impossible to produce a single argument in its 



202 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

favor. On the ground of prudence, nothing could be said in defense of it , 
nor could it be justified by necessity. It was necessity alone that could be 
brought to justify inhumanity ; but no case of necessity could be made out 
strong enough to justify this monstrous traffic. It was therefore the duty of 
the house to put an end to it, and this without further delay. 

With respect to the consequences mentioned by the two members for Liver- 
pool, he had a word or two to offer upon them. Lord Penrhyn had talked of 
millions to be lost and paid for. But seeing no probability of any loss ulti- 
mately, he could see no necessity for compensation. He believed, on the other 
hand, that the planters would be great gainers by those wholesome regulations 
which they would be obliged to make if the slave-trade were abolished. lie 
did not, however, flatter them with the idea that this gain would be immediate. 
Perhaps they might experience inconveniences at first, and even some loss. But 
what then 1 With their loss, their virtue would be the greater. And in this 
light he hoped the house would consider the matter ; for, if they were called 
upon to do an act of virtuous energy and heroism, they ought to think it right 
to submit to temporary disadvantages for the sake of truth, justice, humanity, 
and the prospect of greater happiness. 

The other member, Mr. Gascoyne, had said that his constituents, if the trade 
were abolished, could not employ their capitals elsewhere. But whether they 
could or not, it was the duty of that house, if they put them into a traffic which 
was shocking to humanity and disgraceful to the nation, to change their appli- 
cation, and not to allow them to be used to a barbarous purpose. He believed, 
however, that the merchants of Liverpool would find no difficulty on this head. 
All capitals required active motion. It was in their nature not to remain pas- 
sive and unemployed. They would soon turn them into other channels. This 
they had done themselves during the American war ; for the slave-trade was 
then almost wholly lost, and yet they had their ships employed, either as trans- 
ports in the service of government, or in other ways. 

As he now called upon the house not to allow any conjectural losses to be- 
come impediments in the way of the abolition of the slave-trade, so he called 
upon them to beware how they suffered any representations of the happiness 
of the state of slavery in our islands to influence them against so glorious a 
measure. Nothing made a happy slave but a degraded man. In proportion 
as the mind grows callous to its degradation, and all sense of manly pride is 
lost, the slave feels 'omfort. In fact, he is no longer a man. If he were to 
define a man, he would say with Shakspeare, 

"Man is a being holding large discourse, 
Looking before and after." 

But a slave was incapable of looking before and after. He had no motive to 
do it. He was a mere passive instrument in the hands of others, to be used at 
their discretion. Though living, he was dead as to all voluntary agency. Though 
moving amidst the creation with an erect form, and with the shape and sem- 
blance of a human being, he was a nullity as a man. 



OF THE AFRICAN SLXWE TRADE. 203 

Mr. Fox observed, that a trade in human flesh and sinews was so scandalous, 
that it ought not openly to be carried on by any government whatever, and 
much less by that of a Christian country. With regard to the regulation of 
the slave-trade, he kuew of no such thing as a regulation of robbery and mur- 
der. There was no medium. The legislature must either abolish it, or plead 
guilty of all the wickedness which had been shown to attend it. He would 
say a word or two with respect to the conduct of foreign nations on this sub- 
ject It was possible that these, when tLey heard that the matter had been 
discussed in that house, might follow the example, or they might go before us 
and set one themselves. If this were to happen, though we might be the 
losers, humanity would be the gainer. He himself had been thought some- 
times to use expressions relative to France which were too harsh, and as if 
he could only treat her as the enemy of this country. Politically speaking, 
France was our rival. But he well knew the distinction between political 
enmity and illiberal prejudice. If there was any great and enlightened nation 
in Europe, it was France, which was as likely as any country upon the face of 
the globe to catch a spark from the light of our fire, and to act upon the 
present subject with warmth and enthusiasm. France had often been improp- 
erly stimulated by her ambition; and he had no doubt but that, in the present 
instance, she would readily follow its honorable dictates. 

Aldermen Newnhani, Sawbridge, and Watson, though they wished well to 
the cause of humanity, could not, as representatives of the city of London, 
give their concurrence to a measure which would injure it so essentially as 
that of the abolition of the slave-trade. This trade might undoubtedly be put 
under wholesome regulations, and made productive of great commercial ad- 
vantages. But if it were abolished, it would render the city of London one 
scene of bankruptcy and ruin. It became the house to take care, while they 
were giving way to the goodness of their hearts, that they did not contribute 
to the ruin of the mercantile interests of their country. 

Mr. Martin stated that he was so well satisfied with the speech of the hon- 
orable gentleman who had introduced the propositions, and with the language 
held out by other distinguished members on this subject, that he felt himself 
more proud than ever of being an Englishman. He hoped and believed that the 
melancholy predictions of the worthy aldermen would not prove true, and that 
the citizens of London would have too much public spirit to wish that a great 
national object, which comprehended the great duties of humanity and justice, 
should be set aside, merely out of consideration to their own private interests. 

Mr. William Smith would not detain the house long at that late hour upon 
this important subject ; but he could not help testifying the great satisfaction 
he felt at the manner in which the honorable gentleman who opened the de- 
bate (if it could be so called) had treated it. He approved of the proposi- 
tions as the best mode of bringing the decision to a happy issue. He gave 
Mr. Fox great credit for the open and manly way in which he had manifested 
his abhorrence of this trade, and for the support he meant to give to the total 
and unqualified abolition of it ; for he was satisfied that the more it was in- 



204: HISTORY OF TIIE ABOLITION 

quired into, the more it would be found that nothing short of abolition would 
cure the evil. With respect to certain assertions of the members for Liver- 
pool, and certain melancholy predictions about the consequences of such an 
event, which others had held out, he desired to lay in his claim for observation 
upon them, when the great question should come before the house. 

Soon after this the house broke up ; and the discussion of the propositions, 
which was the next parliamentary measure intended, was postponed to a future 
day, which was sufficiently distant to give all the parties concerned time to 
make the necessary preparations for it. 

Of this interval the committee for the abolition availed themselves to thank 
Mr. Wilberforce for the very able and satisfactory manner in which he had 
stated to the house his propositions for the abolition of the slave-trade, and 
for the unparalleled assiduity and perseverance with which he had all along 
endeavored to accomplish this object, as well as to take measures themselves 
for the further promotion of it. Their opponents availed themselves of this 
interval also. But that which now embarrassed them, was the evidence con- 
tained in the privy council report, They had no idea, considering the number 
of witnesses they had sent to be examined, that this evidence, when duly 
weighed, could by right reasoning have given birth to the sentiments which 
had been displayed in the speeches of the most distinguished members of the 
house of commons, or to the contents of the propositions which had been laid 
upon their table. They were thunder-struck as it were by their own weakness: 
and from this time they were determined, if possible, to get rid of it as a stand- 
ard for decision, or to interpose every parliamentary delay in their power. 

On the twenty-first of May, the subject came again before the attention of 
the house. It was ushered in, as was expected, by petitions collected in the 
interim, and which were expressive of the frightful consequences which would 
attend the abolition of the slave-trade. 

Mr. Wilberforce moved the order of the day, for the house to go into a 
committee of the whole house on the report of the privy council, and the 
several matters of evidence already upon the table relative to the slave-trade. 

Mr. Alderman Sawbridge immediately arose, and asked Mr. Wilberforce if 
he meant to adduce any other evidence besides that in the privy council report 
in behalf of his propositions, or to admit other witnesses, if such could be 
found, to invalidate them. Mr. Wilberforce replied, that he was quite satisfied 
with the report on the table. It would establish all his propositions. He 
should call no witnesses himself: as to permission to others to call them, that 
must be determined by the house. 

This question and this answer gave birth immediately to great disputes up- 
on the subject, Aldermen Sawbridge, Kewnham, and Watson ; Lords Pen- 
rhyn and Maitland ; Messrs. Gascoyne, Marsham, and others spcke against the 
admission of the evidence which had been laid upon the table. They contended 
that it was insufficient, defective, and contradictory ; that it was ex parte evi- 
dence ; that it had been manufactured by ministers ; that it was founded chiefly 
on hearsay, and that the greatest part of it was false ; that it had undergone 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TEADE. 205 

no cross-examination ; that it was unconstitutional ; and that, if they admitted 
it, they would establish a dangerous precedent, and abandon their rights. It 
was urged on the other hand by Mr. Courtenay, that it could not be ex parte 
evidence, because it contained testimony on both sides of the question. The 
circumstance also of its being contradictory, which had been alleged against it, 
proved that it was the result of an impartial examination. Mr. Fox observed 
that it was perfectly admissible. He called upon those who took the other 
side of the question to say why, if it was really inadmissible, they had not op- 
posed it at first. It had now been a long time on the table, and no fault had 
been found with it. The truth was, it did not suit them, and they were deter- 
mined by a side wind as it were to put an end to the inquiry. 

In the course of the debate much warmth of temper was manifest on both 
sides. The expression of Mr. Fox in a former debate, " that the slave-trade 
could not be regulated, because there could be no regulation of robbery and 
murder," was brought up, and construed by planters in the house as a charge 
of these crimes upon themselves. Mr. Fox, however, would not retract the 
expression. He repeated it. He had no notion, however, that any individual 
would have taken it to himself. If it contained any reflection at all, it was on 
the whole parliament who had sanctioned such a trade. Mr. Molyneux rose 
up, and animadverted severely on the character of Mr. Ramsay, one of the 
evidences in the privy council report, during his residence in the West Indies. 
This called up Sir William Dolben and Sir Charles Middleton in his defense, 
the latter of whom bore honorable testimony to his virtues from an intimate 
acquaintance with him, and a residence in the same village with him for twenty 
years. Mr. Molyneux spoke also in angry terms of the measure of the aboli- 
tion. To annihilate the trade, he said, and to make no compensation on ac- 
count of it, was an act of swindling. Mr. Macnamara called the measure 
hypocritical, fanatic, and methodistical. Mr. Pitt was so irritated at the in- 
sidious attempt to set aside the privy council report, when no complaint had 
been alleged against it before, that he was quite off his guard, and he thought 
it right afterwards to apologize for the warmth into which he had been betrayed. 
The speaker, too, was obliged frequently to interfere. On this occasion no less 
than thirty members spoke. And there had probably been few seasons when 
so much disorder had been discoverable in that house. 

The result of the debate was, a permission to those interested in the contin- 
aance of the slave-trade to bring counsel to the bar on the twenty-sixth of 
May, and then to introduce such witnesses as might throw further light on the 
propositions in the shortest time : for Mr. Pitt only acquiesced in this new 
measure on a supposition " that there would be no unnecessary delay, as he 
could by no means submit to the ultimate procrastination of so important a 
business." He even hoped (and in this hope he was joined by Mr. Fox) that 
those concerned would endeavor to bring the whole of the evidence they meant 
to offer at the first examination. 

On the day appointed, the house met for the purpose now specified ; when 
Alderman Newnham, thinking that such an important question should not be 



206 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

decided but in a full assembly of the representatives of the nation, moved for 
a call of the house on that day fortnight. Mr. Wilberforce stated that he had 
no objection to such a measure, believing the greater the number present, the 
more favorable it would be to his cause. This motion, however, produced a 
debate and a division, in which it appeared that there were one hundred and 
fifty-eight in favor of it, and twenty-eight against it. The business of the day 
now commenced. The house went into a committee, and Sir William Dolben 
was put into the chair. Mr. Serjeant Le Blanc was then called in. He made 
an able speech in behalf of his clients ; and introduced John Barnes, esquire, 
as his first witness, whose examination took up the remainder of the day. By 
this step they who were interested in the continuance of the trade attained their 
wishes, for they had now got possession of the ground with their evidence ; 
and they knew they could keep it almost as long as they pleased, for the pur- 
poses of delay. 

At length, on the ninth of June, by which time it was supposed that new 
light, and this in sufficient epiantity, would have been thrown upon the proposi- 
tions, it appeared that only two witnesses had been fully heard. The exami- 
nations, therefore, were continued, and they went on till the twenty-third. On 
this day, the order for the call of the house, which had been prolonged, stand- 
ing unrepealed, there was a large attendance of members. A motion was then 
made to get rid of the business altogether, but it failed. It was now seen, 
however, that it wad impossible to bring the question to a final decision in this 
session, for they who were interested in it affirmed that they had yet many im- 
portant witnesses to introduce. Alderman Newnhani, therefore, by the con- 
sent of Mr. Wilberforce, moved that "the further consideration of the subject 
be deferred to the next session." 

At the next session, in January, 1Y90, Mr. Wilberforce carried a motion that 
witnesses should be examined in future in a committee-room, which should lie 
open to all members. This was important, as the examinations otherwise 
might have taken up ten years. In the interim, Mr. Clarkson had again 
traversed the kingdom, and collected a respectable body of witnesses. He had 
visited over four hundred vessels. By the 20th of April, all the witnesses in 
favor of the trade had been examined, and an effort was made to have the case 
argued immediately, without hearing the evidence on the other side ; but the 
eloquence of Wilberforce prevailed, supported powerfully by Pitt and Fox, 
and the witnesses for their side were also examined. The session closed before 
half the evidence deemed necessary was heard. 

One circumstance occurred to keep up a hatred of the trade among the peo- 
ple in this interval, which, trivial as it was, ought not to be forgotten. The 
amiable poet Cowper had frequently made the slave-trade the subject, of his 
contemplation. He had already severely condemned it in his valuable poem, 
The Task. But now he had written three little fugitive pieces upon it. Of 
these the most impressive was that which he called The Negro's Complaint, 
and of which the following is a copy : 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 207 

Forced from home and all its pleasures, 

Afric's coast I left forlorn, 
To increase a stranger's treasures, 

O'er the raging billows borne ; 
Men from England bought and sold me, 

Paid my price in paltry gold ; 
But,' though theirs they have enroll'd me, 

Minds are never to be sold. 

Still in thought as free as ever, 

What are England's rights, I ask, 
Me from my delights to sever 

Me to torture, me to task f 
Fleecy locks and black complexion 

Cannot forfeit Nature's claim ; 
Skins may differ, but affection 

Dwells in black and white the same. 

Why did all creating Nature 

Make the plant, for which we toil ? 
Sighs must fan it, tears must water, 

Sweat of ours must dress the soil. 
Think, ye masters, iron-hearted, 

Lolling at your jovial boards, 
Think, how many backs have smarted 

For the sweets your cane affords. 

Is there, as you sometimes tell us, 

Is there One, who rules on high f 
Has He bid you buy and sell us, 

Speaking from his throne, the sky 1 
Ask Him, if your knotted scourges, 

Fetters, blood-extorting screws, 
Are tfie means, which duty urges 

Agents of His will to use I 

Hark ! He answers. Wild tornadoes 

Strewing yonder sea with wrecks, 
Wasting towns, plantations, meadows, 

Are the voice with which He speaks. 
He, foreseeing what vexations 

Afric's sons should undergo, 
Fix'd their tyrant's habitations 

Where his whirlwinds answer — No I 

By our blood in Afric wasted, 

Ere our necks receiv'd the chain; 
By the miseries, which we tasted 

Crossing, in your barks, the main ; 
By our sufferings, since you brought us 

To the man-degrading mart, 
All snstain'd by patience, taught us 

Only by a broken heart. 



208 



HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 



Deem our nation brutes no longer, 

Till some reason you shall find 
Worthier of regard, and stronger, 

Than the color of our kind. 
Slaves of gold ! whose sordid dealings 

Tarnish all your boasted powers, 
Prove that you have human feelings, 

Ere you proudly question ours. 

This little piece, Cowper presented in manuscript to some of his friends in 
London ; and these conceiving it to contain a powerful appeal in behalf of 
the injured Africans, joined in printing it. Having ordered it on the finest 
hot pressed paper, and folded it up in a small and neat form, they gave it the 
printed title of " A Subject for Conversation at the Tea-table." After this, 
they sent many thousand copies of it in franks into the country. From one it 
spread to another, till it traveled almost over the whole island. Falling at 
length into the hands of the musician, it was set to music ; and it then found 
its way into the streets, both of the metropolis and of the country, where it 
was sung as a ballad, and where it gave a plain account of the subject, with 
an appropriate feeling to those who heard it. 

Nor was the philanthropy of Mr. Wedgwood less instrumental in turning the 
popular feeling in favor of the cause. He made his manufactory contribute to 
this end. He took the seal of the committee for his 
model ; and lie produced a beautiful cameo, of a less 
size, of which (ho ground was a most delicate white, 
but the negro, who was seen imploring compassion in 
the middle of it, was in his own native color. Mr. 
Wedgwood made a liberal donation of these, when fin- 
ished, among his friends. They, to whom they were 
sent, did not lay them up in their cabinets, but gave 
them away likewise. They were soon, like the Negro's 
Complaint, in different parts of the kingdom. Some had them inlaid in gold 
on the lid of their snuff-boxes. Of the ladies several wore them in bracelets, 
and others had them fitted up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. 
At length, the taste for wearing them became general ; and thus the fashion, 
which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the hon- 
orable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity, and freedom. 

Mr. Clarkson again departed on another tour, and traveled from August, 
1790, to February, 1191, and added new and important witnesses to his list. 
The examinations were resumed, and closed finally on the 4th of April. It 
is from this body of evidence, Jms given, that we have quoted so extensively 
in former chapters. The evidence having been printed on both sides for the 
use of the members, the 18th of April was the day fixed upon for deciding 
the case. By this time every effort had been made to render the question 
unpopular in the commons. Indemnification, massacre, civil war, ruin, had 
been vociferated in the ears of members. At this time, unhappily, those san- 
guinary scenes described in another part of this volume, were taking ilace in 




OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 209 

St. Domingo, in consequence of the revolution which had been effected there, 
and an insurrection had broken out in the British island of Dominica. All 
these had been industriously exaggerated in print, and produced a terrific 
effect upon many members. In this unfavorable frame of mind they went into 
the house on the day appointed. 

On the eighteenth of April, 1791, Mr. Wilberforce made his motion. He 
began, by expressing a hope that the present debate, instead of exciting asper- 
ity and confirming prejudice, would tend to produce a general conviction o. 
the truth of what in fact was incontrovertible ; that the abolition of the slave- 
trade was indispensably required of them, not only by morality and religion, 
but by sound policy. He stated that he should argue the matter from the 
evidence. He adverted to the character, situation, and means of information 
of his own witnesses ; and having divided his subject into parts, the first of 
which related to the manner of reducing the natives of Africa to a state of 
slavery, he handled it in the following manner : 

He would begin, he said, with the first boundary of the trade. Captain 
Wilson and Captain Hills, of his majesty's navy, and Mr. Dalrymple of the 
land service, had concurred in stating, that in the country contiguous to the 
river Senegal, when slave-ships arrived there, armed parties were regularly 
sent out in the evening, who scoured the country, and brought in their prey. 
The wretched victims were to be seen in the morning bound back to back in 
the huts on shore, whence they were conveyed, tied hand and foot, to the slave 
ships. The design of these ravages was obvious, because, when the slave-trade 
•was stopped, they ceased. Mr. Kiernan spoke of the constant depredations 
by the Moors to procure slaves. Mr. Wadstrom confirmed them. The latter 
gentleman showed also that they were excited by presents of brandy, gun- 
powder, and such other incentives ; and that they were not only carried on by 
one community against another, but that the kings were stimulated to prac- 
tice them in their own territories, and on their own subjects : and in one in- 
stance a chieftain, who, when intoxicated, could not resist the demands of the 
slave-merchants, had expressed, in a moment of reason, a due sense of his 
own crime, and had reproached his christian seducers. Abundant also were 
the instances of private rapine. Individuals were kidnapped whilst in their 
fields and gardens. There was an universal feeling of distrust and apprehen- 
sion there. The natives never went any distance from home without arms ; 
and when Captain Wilson asked them the reason of it, they pointed to a slave 
ship then lying within sight, 

On the windward coast, it appeared from Lieutenant Story and Mr. Bow- 
man, that the evils just mentioned existed, if possible, in a still higher degree. 
They had seen the remains of villages which had been burned, whilst the fields 
of corn were still standing beside them, and every other trace of recent desola- 
tion. Here an agent was sent to establish a settlement in the country, and to 
send to the ships such slaves as he might obtain. The orders he received from 
the captain were, that " he was to encourage the chieftains by brandy and gun- 
powder to go to war, to make slaves." This he did. The chieftains perform- 
14 



210 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

ed their part in return. The neighboring villages were surrounded and set on 
fire in the night. The inhabitants were seized when making their escape ; and, 
being brought to the agent, were by him forwarded to his principal on the 
coast. Mr. How, a botanist in the service of government, stated that on the 
arrival of an order for slaves from Cape Coast Castle, while he was there, a 
native chief immediately sent forth armed parties, who brought in a supply of 
all descriptions in the night. 

All these atrocities, he said, were fully substantiated by the evidence ; and 
here he should do injustice to his cause if he were not to make a quotation 
from the speech of Mr. Bryan Edwards in the assembly of Jamaica, who, 
though he was hostile to his propositions, had yet the candor to deliver him- 
self in the following manner there : "I am persuaded," says he, "that Mr. 
Wilberforce has been rightly informed as to the manner in which slaves are 
generally procured. The intelligence I have collected from my own negroes 
abundantly confirms his account ; and I have not the smallest doubt, that in 
Africa the effects of this trade are precisely such as he has represented them. 
The whole, or the greatest part of that immense continent, is a field of warfare 
and desolation ; a wilderness in which the inhabitants are wolves towards each 
other. That this scene of oppression, fraud, treachery, and bloodshed, if not 
originally occasioned, is in part (I will not say wholly) upheld by the slave- 
trade, I dare not dispute. Every man in the sugar islands may be convinced 
that, it is so, who will inquire of any African negroes, on their first arrival, 
concerning the circumstances of their captivity. The assertion. that it is other- 
wise is mockery and insult." 

It was another effect of this trade that it corrupted the morals of those who 
carried it on. Every fraud was used to deceive the ignorance of the natives 
by false weights and measures, adulterated commodities, and other impositions 
of a like sort. These frauds were even acknowledged by many who had them- 
selves practiced them in obedience to the orders of their superiors. For the 
honor of the mercantile character of the country, such a traffic ought immedi- 
ately to be suppressed. 

With respect to the miseries of the middle passage, he had said so much on 
a former occasion, that he would spare the feelings of the committee as much as 
he could. He would therefore state that the evidence which was before them 
confirmed all those scenes of wretchedness, which he had then described ; the 
same suffering from a state of suffocation by being crowded together; the 
same dancing in fetters; the same melancholy singing; the same eating by 
compulsion ; the same despair ; the same insanity ; and all the other abomina- 
tions which characterized the trade. New instances, however, had occurred, 
where these wretched men had resolved on death to terminate their woes 
Some had destroyed themselves by refusing sustenance, in spite of threats and 
punishments. Others had thrown themselves into the sea ; and more than one, 
when in the act of drowning, were seen to wave their hands in triumph, "ex- 
ulting (to use the words of an eye-witness) that they had escaped." Yet these 
and similar things, when viewed through the African medium he had mention- 



SPEECH OF MR. WILBERFORCE. 211 

ed, took a different shape and color. Captain Knox, an adverse witness, had 
maintained that slaves lay during the night in tolerable comfort. And yet he 
confessed that in a vessel of one hundred and twenty tons, in which he had 
carried two hundred and ninety slaves, the latter had not all of them room to 
lie on their backs. How comfortably, then, must they have lain in his subse- 
quent voyages, for he carried afterwards, in a vessel of one hundred and eight 
tons, four hundred and fifty, and in a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons, no 
less than six hundred slaves. Another instance of African deception was to 
be found in the testimony of Captain Prazer, one of the most humane captains 
in the trade. It had been said of him that he had held hot coals to the mouth 
of a slave to compel him to eat. 

But upon whom did the cruelties thus arising out of the prosecution of this 
barbarous traffic fall ? Upon a people with feeling and intellect like ourselves. 
One witness had spoken of the acuteness of their understanding ; another of 
the extent of their memories ; a third of their genius for commerce ; a fourth 
of their proficiency in manufactures at home. Many had admired their gentle 
and peaceable disposition, their cheerfulness, and their hospitality. Even 
they, who were nominally slaves in Africa, lived a happy life. A witness 
against the abolition had described them as sitting and eating with their mas- 
ters in the true style of patriarchal simplicity and comfort. Were these, then. 
a people incapable of civilization ? The argument that they were an inferior 
species had been proved to be false. 

Mr. Wilberforce, after showing in a very lucid manner, and by incontestable 
arguments, that the abolition of the trade in question, instead of being an in- 
jury, would be a lasting benefit to the West India islands, concluded by decla- 
ring that, interested as he might be supposed to be in the final event of the ques- 
tion, he was comparatively indifferent as to the present decision of the house upon 
it. Whatever they might do, the people of Great Britain, he was confident, 
would abolish the slave-trade when, as would soon happen, its injustice and 
cruelty should be fairly laid before them. It was a nest of serpents, which 
would never have existed so long, but for the darkness in which they lay hid. 
The light of day would now be let in on them, and they would vanish from the 
sight. For himself, he declared that he was engaged in a work which he would 
never abandon. The consciousness of the justice of his cause would carry him 
forward, though he were alone ; but he could not but derive encouragement 
from considering with whom he was associated. Let us not, he said, despair. 
It is a blessed cause; and success ere long will crown our exertions. Already 
we have gained one victory. We have obtained for these poor creatures the 
recognition of their human nature, which for a while was most shamefully de- 
nied them. This is the first fruit of our efforts. Let us persevere, and our 
triumph will be complete. Never, never will we disist till we have wiped away 
this scandal from the Christian name ; till we have released ourselves from the 
load of guilt under which we at present labor ; and till we have extinguished 
every trace of this bloody traffic, which our posterity, looking back to the his- 



212 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

tory of these enlightened times, will scarcely believe had been suffered to exist 
so long, a disgrace and a dishonor to our country. 

lie then moved that the chairman be instructed to move for leave to bring 
in a bill to prevent the further importation of slaves into the British colonies 
in the West Indies. 

Colonel Tarleton immediately rose up and began by giving an historical ac- 
count of the trade from the reign of Elizabeth to the present time. He then 
proceeded to the sanction which parliament had always given it. Hence it 
could not be withdrawn without a breach of faith. Hence, also, the private 
property embarked in it was sacred ; nor could it be invaded unless an ade- 
quate compensation were given in return. They who had attempted the aboli- 
tion of the trade were led away by a mistaken humanity. The Africans them- 
selves had no objection to its continuance. With respect to the middle pas- 
sage, he believed the mortality there to be on an average only five in the hun- 
dred ; whereas in regiments sent out to the West Indies, the average loss in 
the year was about ten and a half per cent. The slave-trade was absolutely 
necessary, if we meant to carry on our West India commerce ; for many at- 
tempts had been made to cultivate the lands in the different islands by white 
laborers, but they had always failed. It had also the merit of keeping up a 
number of seamen in readiness for the state. Lord Rodney had stated this as 
one of its advantages on the breaking out of a war. Liverpool alone could 
supply nine hundred and ninety-three seamen annually. 

He would now advert to the connections dependent upon the African trade. 
It was the duty of the house to protect the planters, whose lives had been, 
and were then exposed to imminent dangers, and whose property had under- 
gone an unmerited depreciation, and to what could this depreciation, and to 
what could the late insurrection at Dominica be imputed, which had been saved 
from horrid carnage and midnight butchery only by the adventitious arrival of 
two British regiments ? They could only be attributed to the long delayed 
question of the abolition of the slave-trade; and if this question were to go 
much longer unsettled, Jamaica would be endangered also. To members of 
landed property he would observe, that the abolition would lessen the com- 
merce of the country, and increase the national debt and the number of their 
taxes. The minister, he hoped, who patronized this wild scheme, had some 
new pecuniary resource in store to supply the deficiencies it would occasion. 

Mr. Grosvenor then rose : He complimented the humanity of Mr. Wilber- 
force, though he differed from him on the subject of his motion. He himself 
had read only the privy council report ; and he wished for no other evidence. 
The question had been delayed two years. Had the abolition been so clear a 
point as it was said to be, it could not have needed either so much evidence or 
time. 

He had heard a good deal about kidnapping and other barbarous practices. 
He was sorry for them. But these were the natural consequences of the laws 
of Africa ; and it became us as wise men to turn them to our own advantage. 



DEBATE m PARLIAMENT. 213 

JThe slave-trade was certainly not an amiable trade. Neither was that of a 
butcher ; but yet it was a very necessary one. 

There was great reason to doubt the propriety of the present motion. He 
had twenty reasons for disapproving of it. The first was, that the thing was 
impossible. He needed not, therefore, to give the rest. Parliament, indeed, 
might relinquish the trade. But to whom ? To foreigners, who would con- 
tinue it, and without the humane regulations which were applied to it by his 
countrymen. 

He would give advice to the house on this subject in the words which the 
late Alderman Beckford used on a different occasion: "Meddle not with 
troubled waters ; they will be found to be bitter waters, and waters of afflic- 
tion." He again admitted that the slave-trade was not an amiable trade; 
but he would not gratify his humanity at the expense of the interests of his 
country ; and he thought we should not too curiously inquire into the unpleas- 
ant circumstances which attended it. 

Mr. James Martin succeeded Mr. Grosvenor. He said he had been long 
aware how much self-interest could pervert the judgment ; but he was not ap- 
prised of the full power of it till the slave-trade became a subject of discus- 
sion. He had always conceived that the custom of trafficking in human beings 
had been incautiously begun, and without any reflection upon it ; for he never 
could believe that any man, under the influence of moral principles, could suf- 
fer himself knowingly to carry on a trade replete with fraud, cruelty, and de- 
struction ; with destruction, indeed, of the worst kind, because it subjected the 
sufferers to a lingering death. But he found now that even such a trade as this 
could be sanctioned. 

It was well observed in the petition from the university of Cambridge against 
the slave-trade, "that a firm belief in the providence of a benevolent Creator 
assured them that no system, founded on the oppression of one part of man- 
kind, could be beneficial to another." He felt much concern, that in an assem- 
bly of the representatives of a country, boasting itself zealous, not only for the 
preservation of its own liberties, but for the general rights of mankind, it 
should be necessary to say a single word upon such a subject ; but the deceit- 
fulness of the human heart was such as to change the appearances of truth, 
when it stood in opposition to self-interest. And he had to lament that even 
among those whose public duty it was to cling to the universal and eternal 
principles of truth, justice, and humanity, there were found some who could 
defend that which was unjust, fraudulent and cruel. 

The doctrines he had heard that evening, ought to have been reserved for 
times the most flagrantly profligate and abandoned. He never expected then 
to learn that the everlasting laws of righteousness were to give way to imagi- 
nary, political, and commercial expediency ; and that thousands of our fellow- 
creatures were to be reduced to wretchedness, that individuals might enjoy 
opulence, or government a revenue. 

This motion, he said, came strongly recommended to them. The honorable 
member who had introduced it, was justly esteemed for his character. He was 



214 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

the representative, too, of a noble county, which had been always ready to take 
the lead in every public measure for the good of the community, or for the 
general benefit of mankind ; of a county, too, which had had the honor of 
producing a Saville. Had his illustrious predecessor been alive, he would 
have shown the same zeal on the same occasion. The preservation of the un- 
alienable rights of all his fellow-creatures was one of the chief characteristics 
of that excellent citizen. Let every member in that house imitate him in the 
purity of their conduct and in the universal rectitude of their measures, and 
they would pay the same tender regard to the rights of other countries as to 
those of their own; and, for his part, he shduld never believe those persons to 
be sincere, who were loud in their professions of love of liberty, if he saw that 
love coniined to the narrow circle of one community, which ought to be extend- 
ed to the natural rights of every inhabitant of the globe. 

But we should be better able to bring ourselves up to this standard of recti- 
tude, if we were to put ourselves into the situation of those whom we oppressed. 
This was the rule of our religion. What should we think of those who should 
say that it was their interest to injure us? But he hoped we should not de- 
ceive ourselves so grossly as to imagine, that it was our real interest to oppress 
any one. The advantages to be obtained by tyranny were imaginary, and de- 
ceitful to the tyrant ; and the evils they caused to the oppressed were grievous, 
and often insupportable. 

Before he sat down, he would apologize, if he had expressed himself too 
warmly on this subject. He did not mean to offend any one. There were 
persons connected with the trade, some of whom he pitied on account of the 
difficulty of their situation. But he should think most contemptibly of him- 
self as a man, if he could talk on this traffic without emotion. It would be a 
sign to him of his own moral degradation He regretted his inability to do 
justice to such a cause ; but if, in having attempted to forward it, he had shown 
the weakness of his powers, he must console himself with the consideration 
that he felt more solid comfort in having acted up to sound public principles, 
than he could have done from the exertion of the most splendid talents against 
the conviction of his conscience. 

Mr. Francis instanced an overseer, who, having thrown a negro into a 
copper of boiling cane-juice for a trifling offense, was punished merely by the 
loss of his place, and by being obliged to pay the value of the slave. He 
stated another instance of a girl of fourteen, who was dreadfully whipped for 
coming too late to her work. She fell down motionless after it, and was then 
dragged along the ground, by the legs, to a hospital, where she died. The 
murderer, though tried, was acquitted by a jury of his peers, upon the idea 
that it was impossible a master could destroy his own property. This was a 
notorious fact. It was published in the Jamaica Gazette ; and it had even 
happened since the question of the abolition had been started. 

Mr. Fox said that he would not believe that there could be found in the 
house of commons, men of such hard hearts and inaccessible understandings, 
as to vote an assent to the continuance of this detestable trade, and then go 



SPEECH OF MR. SMITH. 215 

home to their families, satisfied with their vote, after they had been once made 
acquainted with the subject. 

Mr. Matthew Montagu rose, and said a few words in support of the motion; 
and after condemning the trade in the strongest manner, he declared, that as 
long as he had life, he would use every faculty of his body and mind in endea- 
voring to promote its abolition. 

Lord John Russell succeeded Mr Montagu. He said that although slavery 
was repugnant to his feelings, he must vote against the abolition, as visionary 
and delusive. It was a feeble attempt without the power to serve the cause 
of humauity. Other nations would take up the trade. Whenever a bill of 
wise regulations should be brought forward, no man would be more ready than 
himself to lend his support. In this way the rights of humanity might be 
asserted without injury to others. He hoped he should not incur censure by 
his vote ; for, let his understanding be what it might, he did not know that he 
had, notwithstanding the assertions of Mr. Fox, an inaccessible heart. 

Mr. William Smith remarked : That the slaves were exposed to great misery 
in the islands, was<rue as well from inference as from facts ; for what might 
not be expected from the use of arbitrary power, where the three characters of 
party, judge, and executioner were united! The slaves, too, were more capable 
on account of their passions, than the beasts of the field, of exciting the pas- 
sions of their tyrants. To what a length the ill treatment of them might be 
carried, might be learnt from the instance which General Tottenham mentioned 
to have seen in the year 1780, in the streets of Bridge Town, Barbadoes : "A 
youth about nineteen, (to use his own words in the evidence,) entirely naked, 
with an iron collar about his neck, having five long projecting spikes. His 
body, both before and behind, was covered with wounds. His belly and thighs 
were almost cut to pieces, with running ulcers all over them ; and a finger 
might have been laid in some of the weals. He could not sit down, because 
his hinder part was mortified; and it was impossible for him to lie down, on 
account of the prongs of his collar." He supplicated the general for relief. 
The latter asked who had punished him so dreadfully ? The youth answered 
his master had done it. And because he could not work, this same master, in 
the same spirit of perversion which extorts from scripture a justification of 
the slave-trade, had fulfilled the apostolic maxim, that he should have nothing 
to eat. The use he meant to make of this instance, was to show the unpro- 
tected state of the slaves. What must it be where such an instance could pass 
not only unpunished, but almost unregarded ? If, in the streets of London, 
but a dog were to be seen lacerated like this miserable man, how would the 
cruelty of the wretch be execrated, who had thus even abused a brute ! 

The judicial punishments also inflicted upon the negro showed the low esti- 
mation in which, in consequence of the strength of old customs and deep-rooted 
prejudices, they were held. Mr. Edwards, in his speech to the assembly at 
Jamaica, stated the following case, as one which had happened in one of the 
rebellions there. Some slaves had surrounded the dwelling-house of their mis- 
tress. She was in bed with a lovely infant. They deliberated upon the means 



210 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

of putting her to death in torment. But in the end one of them reserved her 
for his mistress ; and they killed her infant with an axe before her face. " Now," 
says Mr. Edwards, (addressing himself to his audience,) "you will think that 
no torments were too great for such horrible excesses. Nevertheless, I am of 
a different opinion. I think that death, unaccompanied with cruelty, should be 
the utmost exertion of human authority over our unhappy fellow-creatures." 
Torments, however, were always inflicted in these cases. The punishment was 
gibbeting alive, and exposing the delinquents to perish by the gradual effects 
of hunger, thirst, and a parching sun ; in which situation they were known to 
suffer for nine days, with a fortitude scarcely credible, never uttering a single 
groan. But horrible as the excesses might have been, which occasioned these 
punishments, it must be remembered that they were committed by ignorant 
savages, who had been dragged from all they held most dear; whose patience 
had been exhausted by a cruel and loathsome confinement during their trans- 
portation ; and whose resentment had been wound up to the highest pitch of 
fury by the lash of the driver. 

But he would now mention another instance, by way of contrast, out of the 
evidence. A child on board a slave-ship, of about ten months old, became 
sulky and would not eat. The captain flogged it with a cat, swearing that 
he would make it eat, or kill it. From this and other ill treatment the child's 
legs swelled. He then ordered some water to be made hot to abate the swell- 
ing. But even his tender mercies were cruel ; for the cook, on putting his 
hand into the water, said it was too hot. Upon this the captain swore at him, 
and ordered the feet to be put in. This was done. The nails and skin came 
off. Oiled cloths were then put round them. The child was at length tied to 
a heavy log. Two or three days afterwards, the captain caught it up again, 
and repeated that he would make it eat, or kill it. lie immediately flogged it 
again, and in a quarter of an hour it died. But, after the child was dead, whom 
should the barbarian select to throw it overboard but the wretched mother? 
In vain she started from the office. He beat her till he made her take up the 
child and carry it to the side of the vessel. She then dropped it into the sea, 
turning her head the other way that she might not see it. 

Now it would naturally be asked, Was not this captain also gibbeted alive ? 
Alas 1 although the execrable barbarity of the European exceeded that of the 
Africans before mentioned, almost as much as his opportunities of instruction 
had been greater than theirs, no notice whatsoever was taken of this horrible 
action ; and a thousand similar cruelties had been committed in this abomina- 
ble trade with equal impunity : but he would say no more. He should vote for 
the abolition, not only as it would do away all the evils complained of in Af- 
rica and the middle passage, but as it would be the most effectual means of 
ameliorating the condition of those unhappy persons who were still to continue 
slaves in the British colonies. 

Mr. Courtenay entreated every member to recollect that on his vote that 
night depended the happiness of millions ; and that it was then in his power 
to promote a measure of which the benefits would be felt over one whole quar- 



SPEECH OF MR. PITT. 217 

ter of the globe ; that the seeds of civilization might, by the present bill, be 
sown all over Africa ; and the first principles of humanity be established in re- 
gions where they had hitherto been excluded by the existence of this execrable 
trade. 

Mr. Pitt rose and said that from the first hour of his having had the honor 
to sit in parliament down to the present, among all the questions, whether po- 
litical or personal, in which it had been his fortune to take a share, there had 
never been one in which his heart was so deeply interested as in the present ; 
both on account of the serious principles it involved, and the consequences 
connected with it. 

The present was not a mere question of feeling. The argument which 
ought in his opinion to determine the committee, was, that the slave-trade was 
unjust. It was therefore such a trade as it was impossible for him to support, 
uuless it could be first proved to him that there were no laws of morality bind- 
ing upon nations ; and that it was not the duty of a legislature to restrain its 
subjects from invading the happiness of other countries, and from violating the 
fundamental principles of justice. 

Several had stated the impracticability of the measure before them. They 
wished to see the trade abolished ; but there was some necessity for continuing 
in it which they conceived to exist. Nay, almost every one, he believed, ap- 
peared to wish that the further importation of slaves might cease, provided it 
could be made out that the population of the West Indies could be maintained 
without it. He proposed, therefore, to consider the latter point ; for, as the 
impracticability of keeping up the population there appeared to operate as the 
chief objection, he trusted that, by showing it to be ill founded, he should clear 
away all other obstacles whatever ; so that, having no ground either of justice or 
necessity to stand upon, there could be no excuse left to the committee for re- 
sisting the present motion. 

He might reasonably, however, hope that they would not reckon any small 
or temporary disadvantage which might arise from the abolition to be a suffi- 
cient reason against it. It was surely not any slight degree of expediency, 
nor any small balance of profit, nor any light shades of probability on the one 
side, rather than on the other, which would determine them on this question. 
He asked pardon even for the supposition. The slave-trade was an evil of 
such magnitude that there must be a common wish in the committee at once to 
put an end to it, if there were no great and serious obstacles. It was a trade 
by which multitudes of unoffending nations were deprived of the blessings of 
civilization, and had their peace and happiness invaded. It ought, therefore, 
to be no common expediency, it ought to be nothing less than the utter ruin of 
our islands which it became those to plead who took upon them to defend the 
continuance of it. 

He could not help thinking that the "West India gentlemen had manifested 
an over great degree of sensibility as to the point in question ; and that their 
alarms had been unreasonably excited upon it. He had examined the subject 
carefully for himself; and he would now detail those reasons which had in- 



218 DEBATE IN PAKLIAMENT 

duced hiin firmly to believe not only that no permanent mischief would follow 
from the abolition, but not even any such temporary inconvenience as could be 
stated to be a reason for preventing the house from agreeing to the motiou be- 
fore them ; on the contrary, that the abolition itself would lay the foundation 
for the more solid improvement of all the various interests of those colonies. 

In doing this, he should apply his observations chiefly to Jamaica, which 
contained more than half the slaves in the British West Indies ; and if he 
should succeed in proving that no material detriment could arise to the popu- 
lation there, this would afford so strong a presumption with respect to the other 
islands, that the house could no longer hesitate whether they should or should 
not put a stop to this most horrid trade. 

In the twenty years ending in IT 88, the annual loss of slaves in Jamaica, 
(that is, the excess of deaths above the births,) appeared to be one in the hun- 
dred. In a preceding period the loss was greater ; and, in a period before 
that, greater still ; there having been a continual gradation in the decrease 
through the whole time. It might fairly be concluded, therefore, that (the av- 
erage loss of the last period being one per cent.) the loss in the former part 
of it would be somewhat more, and in the hitter part somewhat less than one 
per cent., insomuch that it might be fairly cpaestioned whether, by this time, the 
births and deaths in Jamaica might not be stated as nearly equal. It was to 
be added that a peculiar calamity, which swept away fifteen thousand slaves, 
had occasioned a part of the mortality in the last mentioned period. The 
probable loss, therefore, now to be expected was very inconsiderable indeed. 

There was, however, one circumstance to be added, which the West India 
gentlemen, in stating this matter, had entirely overlooked ; and which was so 
material as clearly to reduce the probable diminution in the population of Ja- 
maica down to nothing. In all the calculations he had referred to of the com- 
parative number of births and deaths, all the negroes in the island were in- 
cluded. The newly imported, who died in the seasoning, made a part. But 
these swelled, most materially, the number of the deaths. Now as these ex- 
traordinary deaths would cease as soon as the importations ceased, a deduction 
of them ought to be made from his present calculation. 

But the number of those who thus died in the seasoning would make up of 
itself nearly the whole of that one per cent, which had been stated. He par- 
ticularly pressed an attention to this circumstance ; for the complaint of being 
likely to want hands in Jamaica arose from the mistake of including the pres- 
ent unnatural deaths, caused by the seasoning, among the natural and perpet- 
ual causes of mortality. These deaths, being erroneously taken into the cal- 
culations, gave the planters an idea that the numbers could not be kept up. 
These deaths, which were caused merely by the slave-trade, furnished the very 
ground, therefore, on which the continuance of that trade had been thought 
necessary. 

The evidence as to this point was clear ; for it would be found in that dread- 
ful catalogue of deaths arising from the seasoning and the passage, which the 
house had been condemned to look into, that one half died. An annual inor- 



SPEECH OF MR. PITT. 219 

tality of two thousand slaves in Jamaica might be therefore charged to the im- 
portation ; which, compared with the whole number on the island, hardly fell 
short of the whole one per cent, decrease. 

Joining this with all the other considerations, he would then ask, could the 
decrease of the slaves in Jamaica be such ; could the colonies be so destitute 
of means ; could the planters, when, by their own accounts, they were estab- 
lishing daily new regulations for the benefit of the slaves ; could they, under 
all these circumstances, be permitted to plead the total impossibility of keeping 
up their number, which they had rested on, as being indeed the only possible 
pretext for allowing fresh importations from Africa? He appealed, therefore, 
to the sober judgment of all, whether the situation of Jamaica was such as to 
justify a hesitation in agreeing to the present motion. 

It might be observed, also, that when the importations should stop, that dis- 
proportion between the sexes which was one of the obstacles to population, 
would gradually diminish, and a natural order of things be established. 
Through the want of this natural order, a thousand grievances were created, 
which it was impossible to define, and which it was in vain to think that, under 
such circumstances, we could cure. But the abolition of itself would w ork this 
desirable effect. The West Indians would then feel a near and urgent interest 
to enter into a thousand little details which it was impossible for him to de- 
scribe, but which would have the greatest influence on population. A founda- 
tion would thus be laid for the general welfare of the islands ; a new system 
would rise up, the reverse of the old ; and eventually both their general wealth 
and happiness would increase. 

He had now proved far more than he was bound to do ; for, if he could only 
show that the abolition would not be ruinous, it would be enough. lie could 
give up, therefore, three arguments out of four, through the whole of what he 
had said, and yet have enough left for his position. As to the Creoles, they 
would undoubtedly increase. They differed in this entirely from the imported 
slaves, who were both a burthen and a curse to themselves and others. The 
measure now proposed would operate like a charm ; and, besides stopping all 
the miseries in Africa and the passage, would produce even more benefit in the 
West Indies than legal regulations could effect. 

He would now just touch upon the question of emancipation. A rash eman- 
cipation of the slaves would be mischievous. In that unhappy situation, to 
which our baneful conduct had brought ourselves and them, it would be no jus- 
tice on either side to give them liberty. They were as yet incapable of it ; but 
their situation might be gradually amended. They might be relieved from 
every thing harsh and severe ; raised from their present degraded state, and 
put under the protection of the law. Till then, to talk of emancipation was 
insanity. But it was the system of fresh importations which interfered with 
these principles of improvement ; and it was only the abolition which could es- 
tablish them. The suggestion had its foundation in human nature. Wherever 
the incentive of honor, credit, and fair profit appeared, energy would spring 



220 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

up ; and when these laborers should have the natural springs of human action 
afforded them, they would then rise to the natural level of human industry. 

From Jamaica he would now go to the other islands. In Barbadoes the 
slaves had rather increased. In St. Kitts the decrease for fourteen years had 
been but three-fourths per cent., but here many of the observations would ap- 
ply which he had used in the case of Jamaica. In Antigua many had died 
by a particular calamity. But for this, the decrease would have been trifling. 
In Nevis and Montserrat there was little or no disproportion of the sexes ; so 
that it might well be hoped that the numbers would be kept up in these islands. 
In Dominica some controversy had arisen about the calculation ; but Governor 
Orde had stated an increase of births above the deaths. From Grenada and 
St. Vincents no accurate accounts had been delivered in answer to the queries 
sent them ; but they were probably not in circumstances less favorable than in 
the other islands. 

On a full review, then, of the state of the negro population in the West In- 
dies, was there any serious ground of alarm from the abolition of the slave- 
trade ? Where was the impracticability on which alone so many had rested 
their objections ? Must we not blush at pretending that it would distress our 
consciences to accede to this measure, as far as the question of the negro pop- 
ulation was concerned ? 

Intolerable were the mischiefs of this trade, both in its origin and through 
every stage of its progress. To say that slaves could be furnished us by fair 
and commercial means was ridiculous. The trade sometimes ceased, as during 
the late war. The demand was more or less, according to circumstances. But 
how was it possible, that to a demand so exceedingly fluctuating, the supply 
should always exactly accommodate itself? Alas! we made human beings the 
subject of commerce ; we talked of them as such ; and yet we would not al- 
low them the common principle of commerce, that the supply must accommo- 
date itself to the consumption. It was not from wars, then, that the slaves 
were chiefly procured. They were obtained in proportion as they were 
wanted. If a demand for slaves arose, a supply was forced in one way or 
other ; and it was in vain, overpowered as we then were with positive evi- 
dence, as well as the reasonableness of the supposition, to deny that by the 
slave-trade we occasioned all the enormities which had beeu alleged against it. 

Mr. Fox again rose and observed, that some expressions which he had used 
had been complained of as too harsh and severe. He had since considered 
them ; but he could not prevail upon himself to retract them ; because, if any 
gentleman, after reading the evidence on the table, and attending to the de- 
bate, could avow himself an abettor of this shameful traffic in human flesh, it 
could only be either from some hardness of heart, or some difficulty of under- 
standing, which lie really knew not how to account for 

Some had considered this question as a question of political, whereas it was 
a question of personal freedom. Political freedom was undoubtedly a great 
blessing ; but, when it came to be compared with personal, it sunk to nothing. 
To confound the two, served therefore to render all arguments on either per- 



SPEECH OF MK. FOX. 221 

plexiiig and unintelligible. Personal freedom was the first right of every 
human being. It was a right, of which he who deprived a fellow-creature 
was absolutely criminal in so depriving him, and which he who withheld was 
no less criminal in withholding. He could not therefore retract his words 
with respect to any, who (whatever regard he might otherwise have for them) 
should, by their vote of that night, deprive their fellow-creatures of so great a 
blessing. Nay, he would go further. He would say, that if the house, know- 
ing what the trade was by the evidence, did not by their vote mark to all 
mankind their abhorrence of a practice so savage, so enormous, so repugnant 
to all laws, human and divine, they would consign their character to eternal 
infamy. 

That the pretense of danger to our West Indian islands, from the abolition 
of the slave-trade, was totally unfounded, Mr. Wilberforce had abundantly 
proved : but if there were those who had not been satisfied with that proof, 
was it possible to resist the arguments of Mr. Pitt on the same subject ? It 
had been shown, on a comparison of the births and deaths in Jamaica, that 
there was not now any decrease of the slaves. But if there had been, it would 
have made no difference to him in his vote ; for, had the mortality been ever 
so great there, he should have ascribed it to the system of importing negroes, 
instead of that of encouraging their natural increase. Was it not evident 
that the planters thought it more convenient to buy them fit for work thau to 
breed them ? Why, then, was this horrid trade to be kept up ? To give the 
planters, truly, the liberty of misusing their slaves, so as to check population : 
for it was from ill usage only that in a climate so natural to them, their num- 
bers could dimiuish. The very ground, therefore, on which the planters rested 
the necessity of fresh importations, namely, the destruction of lives in the 
West Indies, was itself the strongest argument that could be given, and fur- 
nished the most imperious call upon parliament for the abolition of the trade. 

Against this trade innumerable were the charges. An honorable member, 
Mr. Smith, had done well to introduce those tragical stories, which had made 
such an impression upon the house. No one of these had been yet contro- 
verted. It had indeed been said that the cruelty of the African captain to the 
child was too bad to be true ; and we had been desired to look at the cross- 
examination of the witness, as if we should find traces of the falsehood of his 
testimony there. But his cross-examination was peculiarly honorable to his 
character ; for after he had been pressed, in the closest manuer, by some able 
members of the house, the only inconsistency they could fix upon him was, 
whether the fact had happened on the same day of the same month of the ye*r 
1164, or the year 1765. 

But it was idle to talk of the incredibility of such instances. It was not de- 
nied that absolute power was exercised by the slave captains ; and if this was 
granted, all the cruelties charged upon them would naturally follow. Never 
did he hear of charges so black and horrible as those contained in the evidence 
on the table. They unfolded such a scene of cruelty, that if the house, with 
all their present knowledge of the circumstances, should dare to vote for its 



222 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

continuance, they must have nerves of which he had no conception. We 
might find instances, indeed, in history, of men violating the feelings of nature 
on extraordinary occasions. Fathers had sacrificed their sons and daughters, 
and husbands their wives ; but to imitate their characters, we ought to have 
not only nerves as strong as the two Brutuses, but to take care that we had a 
cause as good ; or that we had motives for such a dereliction of our feelings 
as patriotic as those which historians had attributed to these when they handed 
them to the notice of the world. 

But what was our motive in the case before us, to continue a trade which 
was a wholesale sacrifice of a whole order and race of our fellow-creatures ? 
which carried them away by force from their native country, in order to subject 
them to the mere will and caprice, the tyranny and oppression of other human 
beiugs, for their whole natural lives, them and their posterity for ever ! 
most monstrous wickedness ! O unparalleled barbarity ! And, what was more 
aggravating, this most complicated scene of robbery and murder which man- 
kind had ever witnessed, had been honored by the name of trade. 

That a number of human beings should be at all times ready to be furnished 
as fair articles of commerce, just as our occasions might require, was absurd. 
The argumeut of Mr. Pitt, on this head, was unanswerable. Our demand was 
fluctuating ; it entirely ceased at some times ; at others it was great and press- 
ing. How was it possible, on every sudden call, to furnish a sufficient return 
in slaves without resorting to those execrable means of obtaining them which 
were stated in the evidence ? These were of three sorts, and he would now 
examine them. 

Captives in war, it was urged, were consigned either to death or slavery. 
This, however, he believed to be false in point of fact. But suppose it. were 
true ; did it not become us, with whom it was a custom, founded in the wisest 
policy, to pay the captives a peculiar respect and civility, to inculcate the 
same principles in Africa ? But we were so far from doing this, that we en- 
couraged wars for the sake of taking, not men's goods and possessions, but 
men themselves ; and it was not the war which was the cause of the slave- 
trade, but the slave-thrade which was the cause of the war. It was the prac- 
tice of the slave-merchants to try to intoxicate the African kings in order to 
turn them to their purpose. A particular instance occurred in the evidence 
of a prince, who, when sober, resisted their wishes ; but in the moment of 
inebriety, he gave the word for war, attacked the next village, and sold the 
inhabitants to the merchants. 

•The second mode was kidnapping. He referred the house to various in- 
stances of this in the evidence : but there was one in particular, from which we 
might immediately infer the frequency of the practice. A black trader had 
kidnapped a girl and sold her; but he was presently afterwards kidnapped and 
sold himself; and, when he asked the captain who bought him, "What! do 
you buy me, who am a great trader?" the only answer was, "Yes, I will buy 
you, or her, or any body else, provided any one will sell you;" and accordingly 
both the trader and the girl were carried to the West Indies and sold for slaves. 



SPEECH OF MR. FOX. 223 

The third mode of obtaining slaves was by crimes committed or imputed. 
One of these was adultery. But was Africa the place, where Englishmen, 
above all others, were to go to find out and punish adulterers? Did it become 
us to cast the first stone ? It was a most extraordinary pilgrimage for a most 
extraordinary purpose I And yet upon this plea we justified our right of car- 
rying off its inhabitants. The offense alleged next was witchcraft. What a 
reproach it was to lend ourselves to this superstition ! Yes : we stood by ; 
we heard the trial ; we knew the crime to be impossible , and that the accused 
must be innocent : but we waited in patient silence for his condemnation ; and 
then we lent our friendly aid to the police of the country, by buying the 
wretched convict, with all his family, whom, for the benefit of Africa, we car- 
ried away, also, into perpetual slavery. 

Of the slaves in the West Indies it had been said that they were taken from 
a worse state to a better. An honorable member, Mr. William Smith, had 
quoted some instances out of the evidence to the contrary. He also would 
quote one or two others. A slave under hard usage had run away. To pre- 
vent a repetition of the offense his owner sent for his surgeon, and desired 
him to cut off the man's leg. The surgeon refused. The owner, to render it 
a matter of duty in the surgeon, broke it. "Now," says he, "you must cut it 
off, or the man will die." We might console ourselves, perhaps, that this 
happened in a French island ; but he would select another instance which had 
happened in one of our own. Mr. Ross heard the shrieks of a female issuing 
from an out-house, and so piercing that he determined to see what was going 
on. On looking in he perceived a young female tied up to a beam by her 
wrists, entirely naked, and in the act of involuntary writhing and swinging, 
while the author of her torture was standing below her with a lighted torch in 
his hand, which he applied to all the parts of her body as it approached him. 
What crime this miserable woman had perpetrated he knew not ; but the hu- 
man mind could not conceive a crime warranting such a punishment. 

He was glad to see that these tales affected the house. Would they then 
sanction enormities, the bare recital of which made them shudder ? Let them 
remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish ear. It did not con- 
sist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these ; but in a disposition of the 
heart to remedy the evils they unfolded. Humanity belonged rather to the 
mind than to the nerves. But if so, it should prompt men to charitable exer- 
tion. Such exertion was necessary in the present case. It was necessary for 
the credit of our jurisprudence at home and our character abroad. For what 
would any man think of our justice who should see another hanged for a crime 
which would be innocence itself, if compared with those enormities which 
were allowed in Africa and the West Indies under the sanction of the British 
parliament. 

With respect to the intellect and sensibility of the Africans, it was pride 
only which suggested a difference between them and ourselves. There was a 
remarkable instance to the point in the evidence, and which he would quote. 
In one of the slave-ships was a person of consequence, a man once high in 



224 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT 

a military station, and with a mind not insensible to the eminence of his rank. 
lie had been taken captive and sold, and was then in the hold, confined pro- 
miscuously with the rest. Happening in the night to fall asleep, he dreamed 
that he was in his own country, high in honor and command, caressed by his 
family and friends, waited on by his domestics, and surrounded with all his 
former comforts in life. But awaking suddenly and finding where he was, he 
was heard to burst into the loudest groans and lamentations on the miserable 
contrast of his present state, mixed with the meanest of his subjects, and sub- 
jected to the insolence of wretches a thousand times lower than himself in 
every kind of endowment. He appealed to the house, whether this was not 
as moving a picture of the miserable effects of the slave-trade as could be well 
imagined. There was one way by which they might judge of it. Let them 
make the case their own. This was the Christian rule of judging ; and having 
meutioned Christianity, he was sorry to find that any should suppose that it 
had given countenance to such a system of oppression. So far was this from 
being the case, that he thought it one of the most splendid triumphs of this 
religion, that it had caused slavery to be so generally abolished on its appear- 
ance in the world. It had done this by teaching us, among other beautiful 
precepts, that in the sight of their Maker, all mankind were equal. Its in- 
fluence appeared to have been more powerful in this respect than that of all 
the ancient systems of philosophy ; though even in these, in point of theory, 
we might trace great liberality and consideration for human rights. Where 
could be found finer sentiments of liberty than in Demosthenes and Cicero ? 
Where bolder assertions of the rights of mankind than in Tacitus and Thuey- 
dides ? But alas ! these were the holders of slaves 1 It was not so with those 
who had been converted to Christianity. 

He would now conclude by declaring that the whole country, indeed the 
whole civilized world, *must rejoice that such a bill as the present had been 
moved for, not merely as a matter of humanity, but as an act of justice ; for 
he would put humanity out of the case. Could it be called humanity to for- 
bear from committing murder ? Exactly upon this ground did the present 
motion stand, being strictly a question of national justice. He thanked Mr. 
Wilberforce for having pledged himself so strongly to pursue his object till it 
was accomplished ; and, as for himself, he declared, that in whatever situation 
he might ever be, he would use his warmest efforts for the promotion of this 
righteous cause. 

Mr. Stanley (the member for Lancashire) rose, and declared that when he 
came into the house, he intended to vote against the abolition ; but that the 
impression made both on his feelings and on his understanding was such, that 
he could not persist in his resolution. He was now convinced that the entire 
abolition of the slave-trade was called for equally by sound policy and justice 
He thought it right and fair to avow manfully this change in his opinion. The 
abolition, he was sure, could not long fail of being carried. The arguments 
for it were irresistible. 

The Honorable Mr. Ryder said that he came to the house, not exactly in 



ON THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE." 225 

the same circumstances as Mr. Stanley, but very undecided on the subject. He 
was, however, so strongly convinced by the arguments he had heard, that he 
was become equally earnest for the abolition. 

Mr. Smith (member for Pontefract) said that he should not trouble the 
house at so late an hour further than to enter his protest, in the most solemn 
manner, against this trade, which he considered as most disgraceful to the 
country, and contrary to all the principles of justice and religion. 

Mr. Burke said he would use but few words. He declared that he had for 
long time had his mind drawn toward this great subject. He had even pre- 
pared a bill for the regulation of the trade, conceiving at that time that the 
immediate abolition of it was a thing hardly to be hoped for ; but when he found 
that Mr. Wilberforce had seriously undertaken the work, and that his motion 
was for the abolition, which he approved much more than his own, he had 
burnt his papers, and made an offering of them in honor of his nobler propo- 
sition, much in the same manner as we read that the curious books were offered 
up and burnt at the approach of the Gospel. He highly applauded the con- 
fessions of Mr. Stanley and Mr. Ryder. It would be a glorious tale for them 
to tell their constituents, that it was impossible for them, however prejudiced, if 
sent to hear discussion in that house, to avoid surrendering up their hearts aud 
judgments at the shrine of reason. 

Mr. Wilberforce made a short reply to some arguments in the course of the 
debate ; after which, at half-past three in the morning, the house divided. 
There appeared for Mr. Wilberforce's motion eighty-eight, and against it one 
hundred and sixty-three ; so that it was lost by a majority of seventy-five 
votes. 

Upon the news of this defeat the friends of the cause held a meeting. They 
passed a vote of thanks to the illustrious minority which had stood forth in the 
house of commons as the assertors of British justice and humanity ; and they 
resolved not to desist from appealing to their countrymen until the commercial 
intercourse with Africa should cease to be polluted with the blood of its .in- 
habitants. Mr. Clarkson made an abridgment of the evidence before the house 
of commons, which was circulated through the kingdom. Great numbers of 
people left off the use of articles produced by slave labor, and vented their 
feelings in public meetings to address parliament on the subject ; and this they 
did with so much earnestness and activity, that by the latter end of March, in 
1792, no less than 51*7 petitions were laid on the table of the commons, pray- 
ing for the total abolition of the slave-trade. Emboldened and supported by 
the people, Mr. "Wilberforce again introduced the question on the 2d of April, 
1792, and after a speech of four hours, moved "that it is the opinion of this 
house that the African slave-trade ought to be abolished." This led to a Ion"- 
and interesting debate. Never in the house of commons was so much splendid 
oratory displayed as on that night. We extract from the parliamentary 
records a report of some of the speeches made on that occasion. 

Mr. Wilberforce opened the debate in a luminous and impressive speech. 
Alter remarking at considerable length upon the evils and the injuries of the 
15 



226 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT 

slave-trade, he touched upon the argument so often repeated, that other na- 
tions would carry on the slave-trade if we abandoned it. But how did we 
know this? Had not Denmark given a noble example to the contrary? She 
had consented to abolish the trade in ten years ; and had she not done this, 
even though we, after an investigation of nearly five years, had ourselves hung 
back? But what might not be expected if we were to take up the cause in 
earnest ; if we were to proclaim to all nations the injustice of the trade, and 
to solicit their concurrence in the abolition of it ! He hoped the representa- 
tives of the nation would not be less just than the people. The latter had 
stepped forward and expressed their sense more generally by petitions than iu 
any instance in which they had ever before interfered. To see this great 
cause thus triumphing over distinctions and prejudices was a noble spectacle. 
Whatever might be said of our political divisions, such a sight had taught us 
that there were subjects still beyond the reach of party ; that there was a point 
of elevation where we ascended above the jarring of the discordant elements 
which ruffled and agitated the vale below. In our ordinary atmosphere, clouds 
and vapors obscured the air, and we were the sport of a thousand conflicting 
winds and adverse currents ; but here we moved in a higher region, where all 
was pure and clear, and free from perturbation and discomposure. 
"As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vale, ami midway leaves the storm : 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

Here, then, on this august eminence, he hoped we should build the temple 
of benevolence ; but we should lay its foundation deep in truth and justice ; 
and that we should inscribe upon its gates, " Peace and good will to men." 
Here we should offer the first fruits of our benevolence, and endeavor to com- 
pensate, if possible, for the injuries we had brought upon our fellow-men. 

He would only observe that his conviction of the indispensable necessity of 
immediately abolishing this trade remained as strong as ever. Let those who 
talk of allowing three or four years to the continuance of it, reflect on the dis- 
graceful scenes which had passed last year As for himself, he would wash his 
hands of the blood which would be spilled in this horrid interval. He could 
not, however, but believe that the hour was come when we should put a final 
period to the existence of this cruel traffic. Should he unhappily be mistaken, 
he would never desert the cause ; but to the last moment of his life he would 
exert his utmost powers in its support. He would now move, " That it is the 
opinion of this committee that the trade carried on by British subjects, for the 
purpose of obtaining slaves on the coast of Africa, ought to be abolished." 

Mr. Bailie was in hopes that the friends of the abolition would have been 
contented with the innocent blood which had been already shed. The great 
island of St. Domingo had been torn to pieces by insurrections. The most 
dreadful barbarities had been perpetrated there. In the year 1789, the im- 
ports into it exceeded five millions sterling. The exports from it in the same 
year amounted to six millions ; and the trade employed three hundred thou- 



ON THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 227 

sand tons of shipping, and thirty thousand seamen. This fine island, thus ad- 
vantageously situated, had been lost in consequence of the agitation of the 
question of the slave-trade. Surely, so much mischief ought to have satisfied 
those who supported it ; but they required the total destruction of all the West 
Indian colonies belonging to Great Britain to complete the ruin. 

The honorable gentleman who had just spoken, had dwelt upon the enormi- 
ties of the slave-trade. He was far from denying that many acts of inhu- 
manity might accompany it ; but as human nature was much the same every 
where, it would be unreasonable to expect, among African traders, or the in- 
habitants of our islands, a degree of perfection in morals which was not to be 
found in Great Britain itself. Would any man estimate the character of the 
English nation by what was to be read in the records of the Old Bailey ? He 
himself, however, had lived sixteen years in the West Indies, and he could 
bear testimony to the general good usage of the slaves. 

Before the agitation of this impolitic question, the slaves were contented 
with their situation. There was a mutual confidence between them and their 
masters : and this continued to be the case till the new doctrines were broached. 
But now depots of arms were necessary on every estate, and the scene was 
totally reversed. Nor was their religious then inferior to their civil state. 
When the English took possession of Grenada, where his property lay, they 
found them baptized and instructed in the principles of the Roman Catholic 
faith. The priests of that persuasion had indeed been indefatigable in their 
vocation ; so that imported Africans generally obtained within twelve months 
a tolerable idea of their religious duties. He had seen the slaves there go 
through the public mass in a manner, and with a fervency, which would have 
done credit to more civilized societies. But the case was now altered ; for, 
except where the Moravians had been, there was no trace in our islands of an 
attention to their religious interests. 

It had been said that their punishments were severe. There might be in- 
stances of cruelty, but these were not general. Many of them were undoubt- 
edly ill disposed ; though not more, according to their number on a planta- 
tion, than in a regiment, or in a ship's crew. Had we never heard of seamen 
being flogged from ship to ship, or of soldiers dying in the very act of punish- 
ment? Had we not also heard, even in this country of boasted liberty, of 
seamen being seized, and carried away, when returning from distant voyages, 
after an absence of many years ; and this without even being allowed to see 
their wives and families ? As to distressed objects, he maintained that there 
was more wretchedness and poverty in St. Giles than in all the West Indian 
islands belonging to Great Britain. 

He would now speak of the African and West Indian trades. The imports 
and exports of these amounted to upwards of ten millions annually; and they 
gave employment to three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and to about 
twenty-five thousand seamen. These trades had been sanctioned by our ances- 
tors in parliament. The acts for this purpose might be classed under three 
heads. "First, they were such as declared the colonies and the trade thereof 



228 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT 

advantageous to Great Britain, and therefore entitled to her protection. Sec 
ondly, such as authorized, protected and encouraged the trade of Africa, as 
advantageous in itself, and necessary to the welfare and existence of the sugar 
colonies ; and, thirdly, such as promoted and secured loans of money to the 
proprietors of the said colonies, either from British subjects or from foreign- 
ers. These acts, he apprehended, ought to satisfy every person of the legality 
and usefulness of these trades. They were enacted in reigns distinguished for 
the production of great and enlightened characters. We heard then of no 
wild and destructive doctrines like the present. These were reserved for this 
age of novelty and innovation. But he must remind the house that the in- 
habitants of our islands had as good a right to the protection of their property 
as the inhabitants of Great Britain. Nor could it be diminished in any shape 
without full compensation. The proprietors of lands in the ceded islands, 
which were purchased of government under specific conditions of settlement, 
ought to be indemnified. They, also, (of whom he was one,) who had pur- 
chased the territory granted by the crown to General Monkton in the island of 
St. Vincent, ought to be indemnified also. The sale of this had gone on 
briskly, till it was known that a plan was in agitation for the abolition of the 
slave-trade. Since that period the original purchasers had done little or noth- 
ing, and they had many hundred acres on hand which would be of no value if 
the present question was carried. In fact, they had a right to compensation. 
The planters generally spent their estates in this country. They generally 
educated their children in it. They had never been found seditious or rebel- 
lious ; and they demanded of the parliament of Great Britain that protection 
which, upon the principles of good faith, it was in duty bound to afford them 
in common with the rest of his majesty's loyal subjects. 

Mr. Henry Thornton remarked, that the manner of procuring slaves in Af- 
rica was the great evil to be remedied. Africa was to be stripped of its 
inhabitants to supply a population for the West Indies. There was a Dutch 
proverb which said, "My son, get money, honestly if you can; but get 
money;" or, in other words, "Get slaves, honestly if you can; but get slaves." 
This was the real grievance ; and the two honorable gentlemen, by confining 
their observations to the West Indies, had entirely overlooked it. 

Though this evil had been fully proved, he could not avoid stating to the 
house some new facts, which had come to his knowledge as a director of the 
Sierra Leone company, and which would still further establish it. The con- 
sideration that they had taken place since the discussion of the last year on 
this subject, obliged him to relate them. 

Mr. Falconbridge, agent to the company, sitting one evening in Sierra Leone, 
heard a shout, and immediately afterwards the report of a gun. Tearing an 
attack, he armed forty of the settlers, and rushed with them to the place from 
whence the noise came. He found a poor wretch, who had been crossing from 
a neighboring village, in the possession of a party of kidnappers, who were 
tying his hands. Mr. Falconbridge, however, dared not rescue him, lest, in 
the defenseless state of his own town, retaliation might be made upon him. 



ON THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 229 

At another time a young woman, living half a mile off, was sold, without 
any criminal charge, to one of the slave-ships. She was well acquainted with 
the agent's wife, and had been with her only the day before. Her cries were 
heard, but it was impossible to relieve her. 

At another time a young lad, one of the free settlers who went from Eng- 
land, was caught by a neighboring chief, as he was straggling alone from 
home, and sold for a slave. The pretext was, that some one in the town of 
Sierra Leone had committed an offense. Hence, the first person belonging to 
it, who could be seized, was to be punished. Happily, the free settlers saw 
him in his chains, and they recovered him before he was conveyed to the ship. 

To mark still more forcibly the scenes of misery to which the slave-trade 
gave birth, he would mention a case stated to him in a letter by king Naimbanna. 
It had happened to this respectable person, in no less than three instances, to 
have some branches of his family kidnapped, and carried off to the West Indies. 
At one time three young men, Corpro, Banna, and Marbrour, were decoyed on 
board a Danish slave-ship, under pretense of buying something, and were taken 
away. At another time another relation piloted a vessel down the river He 
begged to be put on shore, when he came opposite to his own town, but he 
was pressed to pilot her to the river's mouth. The captain then pleaded the 
impracticability of putting him on shore, carried him to Jamaica, and sold 
him for a slave. Fortunately, however, by means of a letter which was con- 
veyed there, the man, by the assistance of the governor, was sent back to Sierra 
Leone. At another time another relation was also kidnapped. But he had 
not the good fortune, like the former, to return. 

He would mention one other instance. A son had sold his own father, for 
whom he obtained a considerable price ; for, as the father was rich in domestic 
slaves, it was not doubted that he would offer largely for his ransom. The old 
man accordingly gave twenty-two of these in exchange for himself. The rest, 
however, being from that time filled with apprehensions of being, on some 
ground or other, sold to the slave-ships, fled to the mountains of Sierra Leone, 
where they now dragged on a miserable existence. The son himself was sold, 
in his turn, soon after. In short, the whole of that unhappy peninsula, as he 
learned from eye witnesses, had been desolated by the trade in slaves. Towns 
were seen standing without inhabitants all over the coast ; in several of which 
the agent of the company had been. There was nothing but distrust among 
the inhabitants. Every one, if he stirred from home, felt himself obliged to 
be armed. 

Such was the nature of the slave-trade. It had unfortunately obtained the 
name of a trade, and many had been deceived by the appellation. But it was 
war and not trade. It was a mass of crimes, and not commerce. It was that 
which prevented the introduction of a trade in Africa ; for it was only by 
clearing and cultivating the lands, that the climate could be made healthy for 
settlements ; but this wicked traffic, by dispersing the inhabitants, and causing 
the lands to remain uncultivated, made the coast unhealthy to Europeans. He 
had found, in attempting to establish a colony there, that it was an obstacle 



230 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

which opposed itself to him in innumerable ways ; it created more embarrass- 
ments than all the natural impediments of the country ; and it was more hard 
to contend with, than any difficulties of climate, soil, or natural disposition of 
the people. 

Colonel Tarleton repeated his arguments of the last year. In addition to 
these, he inveighed bitterly against the abolitionists, as a junto of sectaries, 
sophists, enthusiasts, and fanatics. He condemned the abolition as useless, 
unless other nations would take it up. He brought to the recollection of the 
house the barbarous scenes which had taken place in St. Domingo, all of which, 
he said, had originated in the discussion of this cpiestion. He described the 
alarms in which the inhabitants of the islands were kept, lest similar scenes 
should occur from the same cause. He ridiculed the petitions on the table. 
Itinerant clergymen, mendicant physicians, and others had extorted signatures 
from the sick, the indigent and the traveler. School-boys were invited to sign 
them, under the promise of a holiday. He had letters to produce which would 
prove all these things, though he was not authorized to give up the names of 
those who had written them. 

Mr. Whitbread said, that even if he could conceive that the trade was, as 
some had asserted it to be, founded on principles of humanity; that the Africans 
were rescued from death in their own country ; that, upon being carried to the 
West Indies, they were put under kind masters ; that their labor there was 
easy ; that at evening they returned cheerful to their homes ; that in sickness 
they were attended with care ; and that their old age was rendered comfortable ; 
even then he would vote for the abolition of the slave-trade, inasmuch as he 
was convinced that that which was fundamentally wrong, no practice could 
justify. 

No eloquence could persuade him that the Africans were torn from their 
country and their dearest connexions, merely that they might live a happier 
life ; or that they could be placed under the uncontrolled dominion of others 
without sufferiug. Arbitrary power would spoil the hearts of the best. Hence 
would arise tyranny on the one side, and a sense of injury on the other. Hence 
the passious would be let loose, and a state of perpetual enmity would follow. 

He needed only to go to the accounts of those who defended the system of 
slavery, to show that it was cruel. He was forcibly struck last year by an ex- 
pression of an honorable member, an advocate for the trade, who, when he 
came to speak of the slaves, on selling off the stock of a plantation, said that 
they brought less than the common price, because they were damaged. Dam- 
aged ! What! were they goods and chattels ? What an idea was this to hold 
out of our fellow-creatures ! We might imagine how slaves were treated, if 
they could be spoken of in such a manner. Perhaps these unhappy people had 
lingered out the best part of their lives in the service of their master. Able 
then to do but little, they were sold for little ; and the remaining substance of 
their sinews was to be pressed out by another, yet more hardened than the for- 
mer, who had made a calculation of their vitals accordingly. 

Mr. Dundas declared that he had always been a warm friend to the abolition 



SPEECH OF MR. FOX. 231 

of the slave-trade, though he differed with Mr. Wilberforce as to the mode of 
effecting it. 

The abolitionists, and those on the opposite side of the question, had, both 
of them, gone into extremes. The former were for the immediate and ab- 
rupt annihilation of the trade. The latter considered it as essentially neces- 
sary to the existence of the West Indian islands, and therefore laid it down that 
it was to be continued forever. Such was the vast distance between the parties. 

He would say that he agreed with his honorable friend, Mr. Wilberforce, in 
very material points He believed the trade was not founded in policy; that 
the continuation of it was not essential to the preservation of our trade with 
the West Indian islands ; and that the slaves were not only to be maintained, 
but increased there by natural population. He agreed, too, as to the propriety 
of the abolition. But when his honorable friend talked of direct and abrupt 
abolition, he would submit it to him, whether he did not run counter to the 
prejudices of those who were most deeply interested in the question ; and 
whether, if he could obtain his object without wounding these, it would not be 
better to do it ? Did he not also forget the sacred attention which parliament 
had ever shown to the private interests and patrimonial rights of individuals ? 

Mr. Addington (the speaker) professed himself to be one of those moderate 
persons alluded to by Mr. Dundas. He wished to see some middle measure 
suggested. The fear of doing injury to the property of others had hitherto 
prevented him from giving an opinion against the system, the continuance of 
which he could not countenance. 

Mr. Fox said that after what had fallen from the two last speakers, he 
could remain no longer silent. Something so mischievous had come out, and 
something so like a foundation had been laid for preserving, not only for years 
to come, but forever, this detestable traffic, that he should feel himself wanting 
in his duty, if he were not to deprecate all such deceptions and delusions upon 
the country. 

The honorable gentlemen had called themselves moderate men ; but upon 
this subject he neither felt, nor desired to feel, anything like a sentiment of 
moderation. Their speeches had reminded him of a passage in Middleton's 
Life of Cicero. The translation of it was defective, though it would equally 
suit his purpose. He says : " To enter into a man's house and kill him, his 
wife and family, in the night, is certainly a most heinous crime, and deserving 
of death ; but to break open his house, to murder him, his wife, and all his 
children, in the night, may be still right, provided it be done with moderation." 
Now, was there any thing more absurd in this passage, than to say that the 
slave-trade might be carried on with moderation ; for, if you could not rob or 
murder a single man with moderation, with what moderation could you pillage 
and wound a whole nation ? In fact, the question of the abolition was simply 
a question of justice. It was only whether we should authorize by law, re- 
specting Africa, the commission of crimes for which, in this country, we should 
forfeit our lives ; notwithstanding which, it was to be treated, in the opinion of 
these honorable gentlemen, with moderation. 



232 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

Upon the whole, he would give his opiuion of this traffic in a few words. 
He believed it to be impolitic, he kuew it to be inhuman ; he was certiau it 
was unjust ; he thought it so inhuman and unjust that if the colonies could not 
be cultivated without it, they ought not to be cultivated at all. It would be 
much better for us to be without them, than not to abolish the slave-trade. He 
hoped therefore that the members would this night act the part which would 
do them honor. He declared, that whether he should vote in a large minority 
or a small one, he would never give up the cause. Whether in the house of 
parliament or out of it, in whatever situation he might ever be, as long as he 
had a voice to speak, this question should never be at rest. Believing the 
trade to be of the nature of crimes and pollutions, which stained the honor of 
the country, he would never relax his efforts. It was his duty to prevent man 
from preying upon man ; and if he and his friends should die before they had 
attained their glorious object, he hoped there would never be wanting men 
alive to their duty, who would continue to labor till the evil should be wholly 
done away. If the situation of the Africans was as happy as servitude could 
make them, he could not consent to the enormous crime of selling man to man, 
nor permit a practice to continue, which put an entire bar to the civili- 
zation of one quarter of the globe. He was sure that the nation would not 
much longer allow the continuance of enormities which shocked human nature. 
The West Indies had no right to demand that crimes should be permit ted by 
this country for their advantage ; and if they were wise, they would lend their 
cordial assistance to such measures as would bring about in the shortest pos- 
sible time the abolition of this execrable trade. 

Mr. Jenkinson admitted that the slave-trade was an evil. He admitted also 
that the state of slavery was an evil ; if the question was, not whether we 
should abolish, but whether we should establish these, he would be the first to 
oppose himself to their existence ; but there were many evils which we should 
have thought it our duty to prevent, yet which, when they had once arisen, it 
was more dangerous to oppose than to submit to. The duty of a statesman 
was, not to consider abstractedly what was right or wrong, but to weigh the 
consequences which were likely to result from the abolition of an evil, against 
those which were likely to result from its continuance. Agreeing then most 
perfectly with the abolitionists in their end, he differed from them only in the 
means of accomplishing it. He was desirous of doing that gradually, which 
he conceived they were doing rashly. He had therefore drawn up two 
propositions. The first was, that an address be presented to his majesty, 
that he would recommend to the colonial assemblies to grant premiums to 
such planters and overseers as should distinguish themselves by promoting 
the annual increase of the slaves by birth ; and likewise freedom to every 
female slave, who had reared five children to the age of seven years. The 
second was, that a bounty of five pounds per head be given to the master 
of every slave-ship, who should import in any cargo a greater number of fe- 
males than males, not exceeding the age of twenty-five years. To bring for- 



SPEECH OF MR. PITT. 233 

ward these propositions, he would now move that the chairman leave the 
chair. 

Mr. Pitt rejoiced that the debate had taken a turn which contracted the 
question into such narrow limits. The matter then in dispute was merely as 
to the time at which the abolition should take place. He therefore congratu- 
lated the house, the country, and the world, that this great point had been 
gained ; that we might now consider this trade as having received its condem- 
nation ; that this curse of mankind was seen in its true light ; and that the 
greatest stigma on our national character, which ever yet existed, was about to 
be removed 1 Mankind, he trusted, were now likely to be delivered from the 
greatest practical evil that ever afflicted the human race; from the most 
severe and extensive calamity recorded in the history of the world. 

Mr. Pitt proceeded to remark upon #he civilization of Africa ; as his eye 
had just glanced upon a West Indian law, in the evidence upon the table, he 
said he would begin with an argument, which the sight of it had suggested to 
him. This argument had been ably answered in the course of the evening ; 
but he would view it in yet another light. It had heen said that the savage 
disposition of the Africans rendered the prospect of their civilization almost 
hopeless. This argument was indeed of long standing ; but last year it had 
been supported upon a new ground. Captain Frazer had stated in his evi- 
dence that a boy had been put to death at Cabenda, because there were those 
who refused to purchase him as a slave. This single story was deemed by him, 
and had been considered by others, as a sufficient proof of the barbarity of 
the Africans, and of the inutility of abolishing the slave-trade. But they, 
who had used this fact, had suppressed several circumstances relating to it. It 
appeared, on questioning Captain Frazer afterwards, that this boy had pre- 
viously run away from his master three several times ; that the master had to 
pay his value, tftcording to the custom of the country, every time he was 
brought back ; and that partly from anger at the boy for running away so 
frequently, and partly to prevent a repetition of the same expense, he deter- 
mined to destory him. Such was the explanation of the signal instance which 
was to fix barbarity on all Africa, as it came out in the cross-examination of 
Captain Frazer. That this African master was unenlightened and barbarous, 
he freely admitted ; but what would an enlightened and civilized West Indian 
have done in a similar case ? He would quote the law, passed in the West 
Indies in 1722, which he had just cast his eye upon in the book of evidence, 
by which law this very same crime of running away was by the legislature of 
an island, by the grave and deliberate sentence of an enlightened legisla- 
ture, punished with death ; and this, not in the case only of the third offense, but 
even in the very first instance. It was enacted, " That if any negro or other 
slave should withdraw himself from his master for the term of six months, or 
any slave, who was absent, should not return within that time, every such per- 
son should suffer death." There was also another West Indian law, by which 
every negro was armed against his fellow-negro, for he was authorized to kill 
every runaway slave ; and he had even a reward held out to him for so doing. 



234 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

Let the house now contrast the two cases. Let them ask themselves which of 
the two exhibited the greatest barbarity ; and whether they could possibly vote 
for the continuance of the slave-trade, upon the principle that the Africans 
had shown themselves to be a race of incorrigible barbarians 1 

Something like an opposite argument, but with a like view, had been main- 
tained by others on this subject. It had been said, in justification of the trade, 
that the Africans had derived some little civilization from their intercourse 
with us. Yes, we had given them just enough of the forms of justice to enable 
them to add the pretext of legal trials to their other modes of perpetrating 
the most atrocious crimes. We had given them just enough of European im- 
provements to enable them the more effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged 
wilderness. Alas I alas 1 we had carried on a trade with them from this civil- 
ized and enlightened country, which, instead of diffusing knowledge, had been 
a check to every laudable pursuit. We had carried a poison into their coun- 
try which spread its contagious effects from one end of it to the other, and 
which penetrated to its very centre, corrupting every part to which it reached. 
We had there subverted the whole order of nature ; we had aggravated every 
natural barbarity, and furnished to every man motives for committing, under 
the name of trade, acts of perpetual hostility and perfidy against his neighbor. 
Thus had the perversion of British commerce carried misery instead of happi- 
ness to one whole quarter of the globe. False to the very principles of trade, 
misguided in our policy, unmindful of our duty, what almost irreparable mis- 
chief had we done to that continent 1 How shall we hope to obtain forgiveness 
from heaven if we refused to use those means which the mercy of Providence 
had still reserved to us for wiping away the guilt and shame with which we 
were now covered ? If we refused even this degree of compensation, how ag- 
gravated would be our guilt 1 Should we delay, then, to repair these incalcu- 
lable injuries? We ought to count the days, nay, the very hours which 
intervened to delay the accomplishment of such a work. 

On this great subject, the civilization of Africa, which, he confessed, was 
near his heart, he would yet add a few observations. And first he would say, 
that the present deplorable state of the country, especially when he reflected 
that her chief calamities were to be ascribed to us, called for a generous aid, 
rather than justified any despair, on our part, of her recovery, and still less a 
repetition of our injuries. On what ground of theory or history did we act, 
when we supposed that she was never to be reclaimed ? There was a time, 
which it now might be fit to call to remembrance, when human sacrifices, and 
even this very practice of the slave-trade, existed in our own island. Slaves, as 
we may read in Henry's history of Great Britain, were formerly an established 
article of our exports. " Great numbers," he says, " were exported, like cattle, 
from the British coast, and were to be seen exposed for sale in the Boman 
market." "Adultery, witchcraft, and debt," says the same historian, "were 
probably some of the chief sources of supplying the Boman market with Brit- 
ish slaves ; prisoners taken in war were added to the number ; there might be 
also among them some unfortunate gamesters, who, after having lost all their 



SPEECH OF MR. PITT. 235 

goods, at length staked themselves, their wives, and their children." Now 
every one of these sources of slavery had been stated to be at this hour a 
source of slavery in Africa. If these practices, therefore, were to be admitted 
as proofs of the natural incapacity of its inhabitants, why might they not have 
been applied to ancient Britain ? Why might not then some Roman senator, 
pointing to British barbarians, have predicted with equal boldness, that these 
were a people who were destined never to be free ; who were without the un- 
derstanding necessary for the attainment of useful arts ; depressed by the hand 
of nature below the level of the human species, and created to form a supply 
of slaves for the rest of the world ? But happily, since that time, notwith- 
standing what would then have been the justness of these predictions, we had 
emerged from barbarism. We were now raised to a situation which exhibited 
a striking contrast to every circumstance by which a Roman might have char- 
acterized us, and by which we now characterized Africa. There was, indeed, 
one thing wanting to complete the contrast, and to clear us altogether from the 
imputation of acting even to this hour as barbarians ; for we continued to this 
hour a barbarous traffic in slaves. We continued it even yet, in spite of all 
our great pretensions. We were once as obscure among the nations of the 
earth, as savage in our manners, as debased in our morals, as degraded in our 
understandings as these unhappy Africans. But in the lapse of a long series 
of years, by a progression slow, and for a time almost imperceptible, we had 
become rich in a variety of acquirements. We were favored above measure in 
the gifts of Providence, we were unrivaled in commerce, preeminent in arts, 
foremost in the pursuits of philosophy and science, and established in all the 
blessings of civil society ; we were in the possession of peace, of liberty, and 
of happiness ; we were under the guidance of a mild and a beneficent religion ; 
and we were protected by impartial laws, and the purest administration of jus- 
tice ; we were living under a system of government, which our own happy 
experience led us to pronounce the best and wisest, and which had become the 
admiration of the world. From all these blessings we must forever have been 
excluded had there been any truth in those principles which some had not hes- 
itated to lay down as applicable to the case of Africa ; and we should have 
beeu, at this moment, little superior, either in morals, knowledge, or refinement, 
to the rude inhabitants of that continent. 

If, then, we felt that this perpetual confinement in the fetters of brutal ig- 
norance would have been the greatest calamity which could have befallen us ; 
if we viewed with gratitude the contrast between our present and our former 
situation ; if we shuddered to think of the misery which would still have over- 
whelmed us, had our country continued to the present times, through some 
cruel policy, to be the mart for slaves to the more civilized nations of the world ; 
God forbid that we should any longer subject Africa to the same dreadful 
scourge, and exclude that light of knowledge from her coasts which had reach- 
ed every other quarter of the globe I 

He trusted we should no longer continue this commerce ; and that we should 
no longer consider ourselves as conferrinc too great a boon on the natives of 



236 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 

Africa, in restoring them to the rank of human beings. He trusted we should 
not think ourselves too liberal, if, by abolishing the slave-trade, we gave them 
the same common chance of civilization with other parts of the world. If we 
listened to the voice of reason and duty this night, some of us might live to see 
a reverse of that picture, from which we now turn our eyes with shame. "We 
might live to behold the natives engaged in the calm occupations of industry, 
and in the pursuit of a just commerce. We might behold the beams of science 
and philosophy breaking in upon their land, which at some happy period in 
some later times might blaze with full lustre ; and joining their influence to that 
of pure religion, might illuminate and invigorate the most distant extremities of 
that immense continent. Then might we hope that even Africa, though last 
of all the quarters of the globe, should enjoy at length, in the evening of her 
days, those blessings which had descended so plentifully upon us in a much ear- 
lier period of the world. Then also would Europe, participating in her 
improvement and prosperity, receive an ample recompense for the tardy kind- 
ness (if kindness it could be called) of no longer hindering her from extricat- 
ing herself out of the darkness, which, in other more fortunate regions, had 
been so much more speedily dispelled. 

It was in this view, it was as an atonement for our long and cruel injustice 
towards Africa that the measure proposed by his honorable friend, Mr. Wilber- 
force, most forcibly recommended itself to his mind. The great and happy 
change to be expected in the state of her inhabitants was, of all the various 
benefits of the abolition, in his estimation the most extensive and important. 
He should vote against the adjournment, and he should also oppose every 
proposition which tended to prevent or even to postpone for an hour the total 
abolition of the slave-trade. 

Two divisions took place. In the first there were 193 votes for gradual 
abolition, and 125 for immediate ; and in the second there we're 230 for grad- 
ual, and 85 for no abolition at all. On the 25th of April, Mr. Dundas brought 
forward a plan conformable with the resolutions of the house above mentioned. 
He considered that eight years ought to be allowed the planters to stock them- 
selves with negroes, and therefore moved that the year 1800 should be the 
epoch, after which no more slaves should be imported from Africa h British 
vessels to the West Indies. Sir Edward Knatchbull proposed the year 179<?, 
which motion was carried by 151 to 132. 

After the debate, the committee for the abolition of the slave-trade held a 
meeting and voted their thanks to Mr. Wilberforce for his motion, and to Mr. 
Pitt, Mr. Fox, and those other members of the house who had so eloquently 
supported it. They resolved, also, that a gradual abolition of the slave-trade 
was not an adequate remedy for its injustice and cruelty ; neither could it be 
deemed a compliance with the general wishes of the people, as expressed in 
their numerous and urgent petitions to parliament ; and they resolved, lastly, 
to use all constitutional means to obtain its immediate abolition. 



AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 237 

CHAPTER XV. 

Parliamentary History. — Slave Trade Rendered Illegal. 

Action of the House of Lords in 1792. — Clarkson retires from the field from ill health, 
in 1794. — Mr. Wilberforce's annual motion. — Session of 1799. — Speech of Canning. — 
Sessions of 1804 and 1805. — Clarkson resumes his labors. — Death of Mr. Pitt, January, 
XS06. — Administration of Grenville and Fox. — Session of 180G. — Debate in the House 
of Lords. — Speeches of Lord Grenville, Erskine, Dr. Porteus, Earls Stanhope and Spen- 
cer, Lords Holland and Ellenborough.— Death of Fox, October, 1S06. — Contest and 
triumph in 1807. — Final passage of the Bill for the Abolition of the African Slave 
Trade. — Slave trade declared felony in 1811, and declared piracy in 1824, by England. 
England abolishes slavery in her colonies, 1833. — Prohibition of Slave Trade by Eu- 
ropean governments. — Slavery abolished in Mexico, 1829 — In Guatemala and Colombia. 

_L HE gradual abolition having been thus agreed upon for 1796, by the house 
of commons, a committee carried the resolution to the house of lords. On 
the 8th of May, 1792, the lords met to consider it, when a motion was made 
by Lord Stormont, on the part of the planters, merchants, and other interested 
persons, to hear new evidence. On the 5th of June, when only seven witnesses 
had been examined, all further proceedings were postponed to the next session. 
Nothing could be more distressing to the friends of the measure than this 
determination of the lords ; first, because there was no knowing how many 
years they might prolong the hearing of evidence ; and secondly, it involved 
the necessity of finding out and keeping up a respectable body of witnesses on 
the side of the opponents of the trade. Mr. Clarkson, therefore, set out again 
in the month of July on his old errand, aud returned in February, 1793. The 
house of commons was then sitting. The only step to be taken was to bring 
forward its own vote of the former year, by which the slave-trade was to be 
abolished in 1796, in order that this vote might be reconsidered and renew- 
ed. This motion, made by Mr. Wilberforce, was furiously opposed, and lost 
by a majority of 61 to 53. By this determination the commons actually re- 
fused to sanction their own vote. In the house of lords, but seven witnesses 
were examined during this session. 

Mr. Clarkson once more traversed the kingdom in search of witnesses. He 
returned in February, 1794, but in such a wretched state of health as to be 
unable to lend any farther assistance to the committee. The incessant labor of 
body and mind for so many years, aggravated by anxiety and disappointments, 
had made a serious inroad upon his constitution. His nervous system had been 
shattered, — his hearing, voice, and memory were nearly gone. He was there- 
fore obliged, very reluctantly, to be borne out of the field, where he had placed 
the great honor and glory of his life. Mr. Clarkson says : " These disorders 
had been brqvght on by degrees in consequence of the severe labors necessa- 
rily attached to the promotion of the cause. For seven years I had a corres- 
pondence to maintain with four hundred persons with my own land. I had 
some book or other annually to write in behalf of the cause. In this time I 
had traveled more than thirty-five thousand miles in search of evidence, and a 



238 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

great part of these journeys in the night. All this time my mind had been on 
the stretch. It had been bent, too, to this one subject ; for I had not even leis- 
ure to attend to my own concerns. The various instances of barbarity which 
had come successively to my knowledge, within this period, had vexed, harassed, 
and afflicted it. The wound which these had produced was rendered still deeper 
by those cruel disappointments before related, which arose from the reiterated 
refusal of persons to give their testimony, after I had traveled hundreds of 
miles in quest of them. But the severest stroke was that inflicted by the per- 
secution begun and pursued by persons interested in the continuance of the 
trade, of such witnesses as had been examined against them ; and whom, on 
account of their dependent situations in life, it was most easy to oppress. As 
I had been the means of bringing these forward on these occasions, they natu- 
rally came to me, when thus persecuted, as the author of their miseries and 
their ruin. From their supplications and wants it would have been ungener- 
ous and ungrateful to have fled. The late Mr. Whitbread, to whom one day 
in deep affliction on this account I related accidentally a circumstance of this 
kind, generously undertook, in order to make my mind easy upon the subject, 
to make good all injuries which should in future arise to individuals from such 
persecution ; and he repaired these, at different times, at a considerable ex- 
pense. I feel it a duty to divulge this circumstance, out of respect to the 
memory of one of the best of men, and of one whom, if the history of his life 
were written, it would appear to have been an extraordinary honor to the coun- 
try to have produced." 

In the session of 1795, Mr. Wilberforce moved for leave to bring in a bill 
for the abolition of the slave-trade. The motion was lost by a small majority. 
In 179G, Mr. Wilberforce resolved to try the question in a new shape. He 
moved that the trade be abolished in a limited time, but without assigning to 
its duration any specific date. He wished the house to agree to this as a gen- 
eral principle. After much opposition, the principle was acknowledged ; but 
when, in consequence of this acknowledgment of it, he brought in a bill and 
attempted to introduce into one of its clauses, the year 1797, as the period 
when the trade should cease, he lost it by a majority of 74 to 70. He allowed 
the next session to pass without any parliamentary notice of the subject, but in 
1798 ho renewed his motion for a limited time, which was lost. 

In the year 1799, undismayed by these different disappointments, he again 
renewed his motion. Colonel M. Wood, Mr. Petrie, and others, among whom 
were Mr. Windham and Mr. Dundas, opposed it. Messrs. Pitt, Fox, W. 
Smith, Sir William Dolben, Sir R. Milbank, Mr. Hobhonse, and Mr. Canning, 
supported it. Sir R. Milbank contended that modifications of a system fun- 
damentally wrong ought not to be tolerated by the legislature of a free nation. 
Mr. Hobhouse said that nothing could be so nefarious as this '.raffle in blood. 
It was unjust in its principle. It was cruel in its practice. It admitted of no 
regulation whatever. The abolition of it was called for equally by morality 
and sound policy. 

Mr. Canning exposed the folly of Mr. Dun las, who had said that as pavlia- 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRAlfc. 239 

ment had in the year 1787 left the abolition to the colonial assemblies, it ought 
not to be taken out of their hands. This great event, he observed, could only 
be accomplished in two ways ; either by these assemblies, or by the parliament 
of England. Now the members of the assembly of Jamaica had professed 
that they would never abolish the trade. Was it not therefore idle to rely up- 
on them for the accomplishment of it ? He then took a very comprehensive 
view of the arguments which had been offered in the course of the debate, and 
was severe upon the planters in the house, who, he said, had brought into fa- 
miliar use certain expressions with no other view than to throw a veil over 
their odious system. Among these was their right to import laborers. But 
never was the word " laborers " so prostituted as when it was used for slaves. 
Never was the word " right " so prostituted, not even when The Rights of 
Man were talked of, as when the right to trade in man's blood was asserted by 
the members of an enlightened assembly. Never was the right of importing 
these laborers worse defended than when the antiquity of the slave-trade, and 
its foundation on ancient acts of parliament, were brought forward in its sup- 
port. We had been cautioned not to lay our unhallowed hands on the ancient 
institution of the slave-trade ; nor to subvert a fabric raised by the wisdom of 
our ancestors, and consecrated by a lapse of ages. But on what principles did 
we usually respect the institutions of antiquity ? We respected them when 
we saw some shadow of departed worth and usefulness, or some memorial of 
what had been creditable to mankind. But was this the case with the slave- 
trade ? Had it begun in principles of justice or national honor, which the 
changes of the world alone had impaired? Had it to plead former services 
and glories in behalf of its present disgrace ? In looking at it we saw noth- 
ing but crimes and sufferings from the beginning ; nothing but what wounded 
and convulsed our feelings ; nothing but what excited indignation and horror. 
It had not even to plead what conld often be said in favor of the most unjus- 
tifiable wars. Though conquest had sometimes originated in ambition, and in 
the worst of motives, yet the conquerors and the conquered were sometimes 
blended afterwards into one people ; so that a system of common interest arose 
out of former differences. But where was the analogy of the cases ? Was it 
only at the outset that we could trace violence and injustice on the part of the 
slave-trade ? Were the oppressors and the oppressed so reconciled that enmi- 
ties ultimately ceased ? No. Was it reasonable, then, to urge a prescriptive 
right, not to the fruits of an ancient and forgotten evil, but to a series of new 
violences ; to a chain of fresh enormities ; to cruelties continually repeated ; 
and of which every instance inflicted a fresh calamity, and constituted a sepa- 
rate and substantial crime ? 

The debate being over, the house divided ; when it appeared that there were 
for Mr. Wilberforce's motion seventy-four, but against it eighty-two. 

The question had now been tried and lost in almost every possible shape, 
but Mr. Wilberforce and the committee resolved to hold themselves in readi- 
ness to seize the first favorable opportunity which should present itself of fur- 
thering the cause. Fai* years passed over without action, but tte year 180-t 



240 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION" 

was fixed upon for renewed exertion. Among the reasons for fixing upon this 
year, one may be assigned, namely, that the Irish members, in consecmeuce of 
the union which had taken place between the two countries, had then all taken 
their scats in the house of commons ; and that most of them were friendly to 
the cause. 

This being the situation of things, Mr. Wilberforce, on the 30th of March, 
asked leave to renew his bill for the abolition of the slave-trade within a lim- 
ited time. Mr. Fuller opposed it. A debate ensued. 

An amendment having been proposed by Mr. Manning, a division took place 
upon it, when leave was given to bring in the bill, by a majority of one hun- 
dred and twenty-four to forty-nine. 

On the 7th of June, the second reading of the bill was moved. Upon a di- 
vision, there appeared for the second reading one hundred, and against it 
forty-two. 

On the 27th of June, the bill, though opposed in its last stage, was earned 
by a majority of sixty-nine to thirty-six. It was then taken up to the lords ; 
but on a motion of Lord Hawkesbury, then a member of that house, the discus- 
sion of it was postponed to the next year. 

The session being ended, the committee for the abolition of the slave-trade 
increased its number by the election of the Ilight Honorable Lord Teignmouth, 
Dr. Dickson, and Wilson Birkbeck, as members. 

In the year 1805, Mr. Wilberforce renewed his motion of the former year. 
Colonel Tarletou, Sir William Yonge, Mr. Fuller, and Mr. Gascoyne opposed 
it. Leave was given to introduce his bill. 

On the second reading of it a serious opposition took place ; .and an amend- 
ment was moved for postponing it till that day six months. The amendment 
was opposed by Mr. Fox and Mr. Huddlestone. The latter could not help 
lifting his voice against this monstrous traffic in the sinews and blood of man, 
the toleration of which had so long been the disgrace of the British legislature. 
He did not charge the enormous guilt resulting from it upon the nation at 
large ; for the nation had washed its hands of it by the numerous petitions it 
had sent against it ; and it had since been a matter of astonishment to all Chris- 
tendom how the constitutional guardians of British freedom should have sanc- 
tioned elsewhere the greatest system of cruelty and oppression in the world. 

He said that a curse attended this trade even in the mode of defending it. 
By a certain fatality, none but the vilest arguments were brought forward, which 
corrupted the very persons who used them. Every one of these were built on 
the narrow ground of interest ; of pecuniary profit ; of sordid gain ; in oppo- 
sition to every higher consideration ; to every motive that had reference to hu- 
manity, justice, and religion ; or to that great principle which comprehended 
them all. Place only before the most determined advocate of this odious traf- 
fic the exact image of himself in the garb and harness of a slave, dragged and 
whipped about like a beast ; place this image also before him, and paint it as 
that of one without a ray of hope to cheer him ; and you would extort from 
him the reluctant confession that he woul'l not endure for an hour the misery 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 241 

to which he condemned his fellow-man for life. How dared he, then, to use 
this selfish plea of interest against the voice of the generous sympathies of his 
nature ? But even upon this narrow ground the advocates for the traffic had 
been defeated. If the unhallowed argument of expediency was worth any 
thing when opposed to moral rectitude, or if it were to supercede the precepts 
of Christianity, where was a man to stop, or what line was he to draw ? For 
any thing he knew, it might be physically true that human blood was the best 
manure for the land ; but who ought to shed it on that account ? True expe- 
diency, however, was, where it ever would be found, on the side of that system 
which was most merciful and just. He asked how it happened that sugar 
could be imported cheaper from the East Indies than from the "West, notwith- 
standing the vast difference of the length of the voyages, but on account of the 
impolicy of slavery, or that it was made in the former case by the industry of 
free men, and in the latter by the languid drudgery of slaves. 

As he had had occasion to advert to the eastern part of the world, he would 
make an observation upon an argument which had been collected from that 
quarter. The condition of the negroes in the West Indies had been lately 
compared with that of the Hindoos. But he would observe that the Hindoo, 
miserable as his hovel was, had sources of pride and happiness to which not 
only the West Indian slave, but even his master was a stranger. He was, to 
be sure, a peasant, and his industry was subservient to the gratifications of an 
European lord. But he was, in his own belief, vastly superior to him. He 
viewed him as one of the lowest cast. He would not, on any consideration, 
eat from the same plate. He would not suffer his son to marry the daughter 
of his master, even if she could bring him all the West Indies as her portion. 
He would observe, too, that the Hindoo peasant drank his water from his 
native well ; that if his meal were scanty, he received it from the hand of her 
who was most dear to him ; that when he labored, he labored for her and his 
offspring. His daily task being finished, he reposed with his family. No re- 
trospect of the happiness of former days, compared with existing misery, dis- 
turbed his slumber ; nor horrid dreams occasioned him to wake in agony at 
the dawn of day. No barbarous sounds of cracking whips reminded him that, 
with the form and image of a man, his destiny was that of the beast of the 
field. Let the advocates for the bloody traffic state what they had to set off 
on their side of the question against the comforts and independence of the man 
with whom they compared the slave. 

The amendment was supported by Sir William Tonge, Sir William Pulteny, 
Colonel Tarleton, Mr. Gascoyne, C. Brook, and Hiley Addington. On divid- 
ing the house upon it, there appeared for it seventy-seven, but against it only 
seventy. 

This defeat occasioned the severest disappointment. The committee in- 
stantly met, when sorrow was seen in the countenances of all present, but they 
determined to renew the contest with redoubled vigor at the next session. 
Just at this moment Mr. Clarkson joined them. Eight years of retirement 
had nearly restored him, and the first moment he found himself able to embark 
16 



242 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

in the cause, he returned to his post. As it was probable the bill would be 
passed the next year, by the commons, and if so, that it would go to the lords, 
and that they might require further evidence, it was judged proper that evi- 
dence should be prepared. The band of witnesses which had been last col- 
lected were broken by death and dispersion, and a new one was to be formed. 
This Herculean task Mr. Clarkson undertook. He left London immediately, 
and returned in January, 1806, after having traveled in pursuit of his object 
5000 miles. In this month died Mr. Pitt, who had been one of the great sup- 
porters of the cause. 

Mr. Clarkson says : " The way in which Mr. Pitt became acquainted with 
this question, has already been explained. A few doubts having been removed, 
when it was first started, he professed himself a friend to the abolition. The 
first proof which he gave of his friendship to it is known to but few ; but it is 
nevertheless true, that so early as in 1788, he occasioned a communication to 
be made to the French grvernment, in which he recommended a union of the 
two countries for the promotion of the great measure. This proposition 
seemed to be then new and strange to the court of France, and the answer was 
not favorable. 

"From this time his efforts were reduced within the boundaries of his own 
powers. As far, however, as he had scope, he exerted them. If we look at 
him in his parliamentary capacity, it must be acknowledged by all that he took 
an active, strenuous and consistent part, and this, year after year, by which he 
realized his professions. In my own private communications with him, which 
were frequent, he never failed to give proof of a similar disposition. I had 
always free access to him. I had no previous note or letter to write for admis- 
sion. "Whatever papers I wanted he ordered. He exhibited also in his con- 
versation with me on these occasions marks of more than ordinary interest in 
the welfare of the cause. Among the subjects which were started, there was 
one which was always near his heart. This was the civilization of Africa. He 
looked upon this great work as a debt due to that continent for the many inju- 
ries we had inflicted upon it : and had the abolition succeeded sooner, as in the 
infancy of his exertions he had hoped, I know he had a plan, suited no doubt 
to the capaciousness of his own mind, for such establishments in Africa as he 
conceived would promote in due time this important end." 

On the 31st March, 1806, the question was ushered again into parliament, 
but under new auspices, namely, under the administration of Lord Grenville 
and Mr. Fox. It was thought proper that Mr. Wilberforce should be, as it 
were, in the back ground on this occasion, and that the attorney general, as a 
conspicuous officer of the government, should introduce it. The latter accord- 
ingly brought in a bill, one of the objects of which was to prevent British 
merchants and British capital from being employed in the foreign slave-trade. 
This bill passed both houses of parliament, and was therefore the first that 
dismembered the traffic. In the debate it was declared, in substance, both by 
Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, in their respective houses, that they would do 
ever" thing to effect the abolition, and should they succeed in such a noble 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 243 

work, they would regard their success as entailing ^ore true glory on their 
administration, and more honor and advantage on the country than any other 
measure in which they could be engaged. 

On the 10th of June, Mr. Fox, in a speech most luminous and pathetic, fol- 
lowed up the victory which had been just gained, by moving a resolution "that 
this house, considering the African slave-trade to be contrary to the principles 
of humanity, justice and policy, will, with all practical expedition, take effectual 
measures for the abolition of it in such manner and at such a period as inr.y 
be deemed most advisable." This motion produced a strong opposition, and 
an interesting debate. It was supported by Milbank, Francis, Sir Samuel 
Romilly, Wilberforce, Petty, Newport, Canning and Smith. It was carried 
by a majority of 114 to 15. Mr. Wilberforce directly moved an address to the 
king " praying him to direct a negotiation to be entered into by which foreign 
powers should be invited to cooperate with his majesty in measures to be adopt- 
ed for the abolition of the African slave-trade." This was carried, but with- 
out a division. On the 24th June, the lords met to consider both the resolution 
and address. In order to create delay, a proposition was directly made that 
counsel and evidence should be heard. This was overruled. Lord Grenville 
then rose up and introduced the subject. His speech was among the master- 
pieces of eloquence. 

Lord Grenville read the resolution of the commons. This resolution, he 
said, stated first, that the slave-trade was contrary to humanity, justice, and 
sound policy. That it was contrary to humanity, was obvious ; for humanity 
might be said to be sympathy for the distress of others, or a desire to accom- 
plish benevolent ends by good means. But did not the slave-trade convey 
ideas the very reverse of this definition ? It deprived men of all those com- 
forts in which it pleased the Creator to make the happiness of his creatures to 
consist, of the blessings of society, of the charities of the dear relationships of 
husband, wife, father, son, and kindred ; of the due discharge of the relative 
duties of these, and of that freedom which in its pure and natural sense was 
one of the greatest gifts of God to man. 

Having shown the inhumanity, he would proceed to the second point in the 
resolution, or the injustice of the trade. We had two ideas of justice, first, as 
it belonged to society by virtue of a social compact ; and, secondly, as it be- 
longed to men, not as citizens of a community, but as beings of one common 
nature. In a state of nature, man had a right to the fruit of his own labor 
absolutely to himself ; and one of the main purposes for which he entered into 
society was, that he might be better protected in the possession of his rights. 
In both cases, therefore, it was manifestly unjust that a man should be made 
to labor during the whole of his life, and yet have no benefit from his labor. 
Hence, the slave-trade and the colonial slavery were a violation of the very 
principal upon which all law for the protection of property was founded. 
Whatever benefit was derived from that trade to an individual, it was derived 
from dishonor and dishonesty. He forced from the unhappy victim of it, that 
which the latter did not wish to give him ; and he gave to the same victim, 



244 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

that which he in vain attempted to show was an equivalent to the thing he 
took, it being a thing for which there was no equivalent ; and which, if he had 
not obtained by force, he would not have possessed at all. Nor could there be 
any answer to this reasoning, unless it could be proved that it had pleased God 
to give to the inhabitants of Britain a property in the liberty and life of the 
natives of Africa. But he would go further on this subject. The injustice 
complained of was not confined to the bare circumstance of robbing them of 
the right to their own labor. It was conspicuous throughout the system. They 
who bought them, became guilty of all the crimes which had been committed 
in procuring them ; and, when they possessed them, of all the crimes which 
belonged to their inhuman treatment. The injustice, in the latter case, amount- 
ed frequently to murder. For what was it but murder to pursue a practice 
which produced untimely death to thousands of innocent and helpless beings ? 
It was a duty which their lordships owed to their Creator, if they hoped for 
mercy, to do away this monstrous oppression. 

With respect to the impolicy of the trade (the third point in the resolution) 
he would say at once, that whatever was inhuman and unjust must be impolitic. 
He had, however, no objection to argue the point upon its own particular 
merits ; and, first, he would observe that a great man, Mr. Pitt, now no mere, 
had exerted his vast powers on many subjects to the admiration of his hearers ; 
but on none more successfully than on the subject of the abolition of the slave- 
trade. He proved, after making an allowance for the price paid for the slaves in 
the West Indies, for the loss of them in the seasoning, and for the expense of 
maintaining them afterwards, and comparing these particulars with the amount 
in value of their labor there, that the evils endured by the victims of the traffic 
were no gain to the master in whose service they took place. Indeed, Mr. 
Long had laid it down in his history of Jamaica, that the best way to secure 
the planters from ruin would be to do that which the resolution recommended. 
It was notorious that when any planter was in distress and sought to relieve 
himself by increasing the labor on his estate by means of the purchase of new 
slaves, the measure invariably tended to his destruction. What, then, was the 
importation of fresh Africans but a system tending to the general ruin of the 
islands ? 

To expose the impolicy of the trade further, he would observe that it was 
an allowed axiom, that as the condition of man was improved, he became more 
useful. The history of our own country, in very early times, exhibited in- 
stances of internal slavery, and this to a considerable extent. But we should 
find that precisely in proportion as that slavery was ameliorated, the power 
and prosperity of the country flourished. This was exactly applicable to the 
case in question. There could be no general amelioration of slavery in the 
West Indies while the slave-trade lasted ; but, if we were to abolish it, we 
should make it the interest of every owner of slaves to do that which would 
improve their condition ; and which, indeed, would lead, ultimately, to the an- 
nihilation of slavery itself. This great event, however, could not be accom- 
plished at orico. It could only be effected in a course of time. 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 245 

It would be endless, he said, to go into all the cases which would manifest 
the impolicy of this odious traffic. Inhuman as it was, unjust as it was, he 
believed it to be equally impolitic ; and if their lordships should be of this 
opinion also, he hoped they would agree to that part of the resolution in which 
these truths were expressed. With respect to the other part of it, or that they 
would proceed to abolish the trade, he observed, that neither the time nor the 
manner of doing it were specified. Hence, if any of them should differ as to 
these particulars, they might yet vote for the resolution, as they were not 
pledged to anything definite in these respects, provided they thought that the 
trade should be abolished at some time or other ; and he did not believe that 
there was any one of them who would sanction its continuance forever. 

Lord Hawkesbury said that he did not mean to discuss the question on the 
ground of justice and humanity, as contradistinguished from sound policy. If 
it could fairly be made out that the African slave-trade was contrary to justice 
and humanity, it ought to be abolished. It did not, however, follow because 
a great evil existed, that therefore it should be removed ; for it might be 
comparatively a less evil than that which would accompany the attempt to re- 
move it. The noble lord who had just spoken, had exemplified this; for, 
though slavery was a great evil in itself, he was of opinion that it could not be 
done away but in a course of time. 

The Bishop of London (Dr. Porteus) began by noticing the concession of 
the last speaker, namely, that if the trade was contrary to humanity and justice, 
it ought to be abolished. He expected, he said, that the noble lord would 
have proved that it was not contrary to these great principles, before he had 
supported its continuance ; but not a word had he said to show that the basis 
of the resolution in these respects was false. It followed, then, he thought, 
that as the noble lord had not disproved the premises, he was bound to abide 
by the conclusion. 

The lord chancellor (Erskine) confessed that he was not satisfied with his 
own conduct on this subject. He acknowledged, with deep contrition, that 
during the time he was a member of the other house, he had not once attended 
when this great question was discussed. 

In the West Indies he could say personally, that the slaves were well treated, 
where he had an opportunity of seeing them. But no judgment was to be 
formed there with respect to the evils complained of. They must be appreci- 
ated as they existed in the trade. Of these he had also been an eye-witness. 
It was on this account that he felt contrition for not having attended the house 
on this subject ; for there were some cruelties in this traffic which the human 
imagination could not aggravate. He had witnessed such scenes over the 
whole coast of Africa ; and he could say, that if their lordships could only 
have a sudden glimpse of them, they would be struck with horror, and would 
be astonished that they could ever have been permitted to exist. What, then, 
would they say to their continuance year after year, and from age to age? 

From information which he could not dispute, he was warranted in saying 
that on this continent husbands were fraudulently and forcibly severed from 



246 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

their wives, aud parents from their childran ; and that all the ties of blood and 
affection were torn up by the roots. He had himself seen the unhappy natives 
put together in heaps in the hold of a ship, where, with every possible atten- 
tion to them, their situation must have been intolerable. He had also heard 
proved, in courts of justice, facts still more dreadful than those which he had 
seen. One of these he would just mention. The slaves on board a certain 
ship rose in a mass to liberate themselves ; and having advanced far in the pur- 
suit of their object, it became necessary to repel them by force. Some of them 
yielded ; some of them were killed in the scuffle ; but many of them actually 
jumped into the sea and were drowned ; thus preferring death to the misery of 
their situation ; while others hung to the ship, repenting of their rashness, and 
bewailing with frightful noises their horrid fate. Thus the whole vessel exhib- 
ited but one hideous scene of wretchedness. They who were subdued and se- 
cured in chains were seized with the flux, which carried many of them off. 
These things were proved in a trial before a British jury, which had to consider 
whether this was a loss which fell within the policy of insurance, the slaves be- 
ing regarded as if they had been only a cargo of dead matter. He could men- 
tion other instances, but they were much too shocking to be described. Surely 
their lordships could never consider such a traffic to be consistent with human- 
ity or justice. It was impossible. 

That the trade had long existed there was no doubt ; but this was no ar- 
gument for its continuance. Many evils of much longer standing had been 
done away ; and it was always our duty to attempt to remove them. Should 
we not exult in the consideration that we, the inhabitants of a small island, at 
the extremity of the globe, almost at its north pole, were become the morning- 
star to enlighten the nations of the earth, and to conduct them out of the shades 
of darkness into the realms of light; thus exhibiting to an astonished and an 
admiring world the blessings of a free constitution ? Let us, then, not allow 
such a glorious opportunity to escape us. 

It had been urged that we should suffer by the abolition of the slave-trade. 
He believed we should not suffer. He believed that our duty and our interest 
were inseparable : and he had no difficulty in saying, in the face of the world, 
that his own opinion was that the interests of a nation would be best preserved 
by its adherence to the principles of humanity, justice, and religion. 

The Earl of Westmoreland said that the African slave-trade might be con- 
trary to humanity and justice, and yet it might be politic ; at least, it might 
be inconsistent with humanity, and yet be not inconsistent with justice : this 
was the case when we executed a criminal or engaged in war. 

Lord Holland, in reply, said that the noble earl had made a difference be- 
weon humanity, justice, and sound policy. God forbid that we should ever 
admit such distinctions in this country ! But he had gone further, and said 
that a thing might be inhuman and yet not unjust ; and he put the case of the 
execution of a criminal in support of it. Did he not by this position confound 
all notions of right and wrong in human institutions ? When a criminal was 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TKADE. 247 

justly executed, was not the execution justice to him who suffered and human- 
ity to the body of the people at large ? 

He wished most heartily for the total abolition of the trade. He was con- 
vinced that it was both inhuman, unjust, and impolitic. This had always been 
his opinion as au individual since he was capable of forming one. It was his 
opinion then as a legislator. It was his opinion as a colonial proprietor ; and 
it was his opinion as an Englishman, wishing for the prosperity of the British 
empire. 

The Earl of Suffolk contended that the population of the slaves in the is- 
lands could be kept up by good treatment, so as to be sufficient for their culti- 
vation. He entered into a detail of calculations from the year 1172 down- 
wards in support of this statement. He believed all the miseries of St. Do- 
mingo arose from the vast importation of Africans. He had such a deep sense 
of the inhumanity and injustice of the slave-trade, that if he ever wished any 
action of his life to be recorded, it would be that of the vote he should then 
give in support of the resolution. 

Lord Sidmouth said that he agreed to the substance of the resolution, but 
yet he could not support it. Could he be convinced that the trade would be 
injurious to the cause of humanity and justice, the question with him would 
be decided ; for policy could not be opposed to humanity and justice. He had 
been of the opinion for the last twenty years that the interests of the country 
and those of numerous individuals were so deeply blended with this traffic that 
we should be very cautious how we proceeded. With respect to the cultiva- 
tion of new lands, he would not allow a single negro to be imported for such 
a purpose ; but he must have a regard for the old plantations. When he found 
a sufficient increase in the black population to continue the cultivation already 
established there, then, but not till then, he would agree to an abolition of the 
trade. 

Earl Stanhope said he would not detain their lordships long. He could not, 
however, help expressing his astonishment at what had fallen from the last 
speaker ; for he had evidently coniessed that the slave-trade was inhuman and 
unjust, and then he had insinuated that it was neither inhuman nor unjust to 
continue it. A more paradoxical or whimsical opinion, he believed, was never 
entertained, or more whimsically expressed in that house. The noble viscount 
had talked of the interests of the planters ; but this was but a part of the sub- 
ject, for surely the people of Africa were not to be forgotten. He did not 
understand the practice of complimenting the planters with the lives of men, 
women, and helpless children by thousands for the sake of their pecuniary ad- 
vantage ; and they who adopted it, whatever they might think of the consis- 
tency of their own conduct, offered an insult to the sacred names of humanity 
and justice. 

Earl Grosvenor could not but express the joy he felt at the hope, after all 
his disappointments, that this wicked trade would be done away. He hoped 
that his majesty's ministers were in earnest, and that they would, early in the 
next session, take this great question up with a determination to go through 



248 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION 

with it ; so that another year should not pass before we extended the justice 
and humanity of the country to the helpless and unhappy inhabitants of Africa. 

Earl Fitzwilliam said he was fearful lest the calamities of St. Domingo 
should be brought home to our own islands. We ought not, he thought, too 
hastily to adopt the resolution on that account. He should therefore support 
the previous question. 

Lord Elleuborough said he was sorry to differ from his noble friend, (lord 
Sidmouth,) and yet he could not help saying that if after twenty years, during 
which this question had been discussed by both houses of parliament, their 
lordships' judgments were not ripe for its determination, he could not look with 
any confidence to a time when they would be ready to decide it. 

The question then before them was short and plain. It was, whether the 
African slave-trade was inhuman, unjust, and impolitic. If the premises were 
true, we could not too speedily bring it to a conclusiou. 

Earl Spencer agreed with the noble viscount (Sidmouth) that the ameliora- 
tion of the condition of the slaves was an object which might be effected in the 
West Indies; but he was certain that the most effectual way of improving it 
would be by the total and immediate abolition of the slave-trade ; and for that 
reason he would support the resolution. Had the resolution held out emanci- 
pation to them, it would not have had his assent ; for it would have ill become 
the character of this country, if it had been once promised, to have withheld 
it from them. It was to such deception that the horrors of St. Domingo were 
to be attributed. He would not enter into the discussion of the general sub- 
ject at present. He was convinced that the trade was what the resolution 
stated it to be, inhuman, unjust, and impolitic. He wished, therefore, most 
earnestly indeed, for its abolition. As to the mode of effecting it, it should be 
such as would be attended with the least inconvenience to all parties. At the 
same time he would not allow small inconveniences to stand in the way of the 
great claims of humanity, justice, and religion. 

The resolution and address were both carried by a majority of 41 to 20. 
After this a belief was generally prevalent that the slave-trade would fall at 
the next session ; but for fear that it should be carried on in the interior, being 
as it were the last harvest of the merchants, to a tenfold extent, and with ten- 
fold murder and desolation, a law was passed that no new vessel should be 
permitted to go to the coast of Africa for slaves. In the month of October 
after these victories, died Charles James Fox, one of the noblest champions of 
this noble cause. He had lived to put it in a train for final triumph — this 
triumph he enjoyed in anticipation — the prospect of it soothed his pains and 
cheered his spirit in the hours of his last sickness. The hope of it quivered 
on his lips in the hour of dissolution. 

The contest was renewed in January, 1807. Lord Grenville brought the 
question first before the house of lords in the shape of a bill, which he called 
"An act for the abolition of the the slave-trade." On the 4th four counsel 
were heard against it. On the 5th the debate commenced. The bill was car- 
ried at 4 o'clock in the morning by a vote of 100 to 36. On the 10th of Feb- 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 249 

nuii'v it went to the commons. On the 20th counsel were heard against it. On 
the 23d a debate ensued; and it was finally carried by the vast majority of 283 
to 16. On the 6th of March the blanks were filled up. It provided that no 
vessel should clear out for slaves from any port in the British dominions after 
May 1, 1807, and that no slave should be landed in the British colonies after 
March 1, 1808. The bill was sent back to the lords, with the blanks filled up ; 
and in consequence of various amendments, it passed and repassed from one 
house to the other. On the 24th it passed both houses, and on the 25th it re- 
ceived the royal assent, 

Thus passed, after twenty years' hard struggle, during which the field had 
been disputed inch by inch, this " magna charta for Africa in Britain." The 
news of the event was received with demonstrations of joy throughout the 
kingdom, and this joy was heightened by authentic news from the United 
States that a similar law had been passed by congress. 

At first the only punishment for continuing the traffic, now declared illegal, 
was a penalty in money ; but this was found so utterly insufficient, that in 
1811 an act was carried by Lord Brougham, making slave-dealing felony, pun- 
ishable by transportation for fourteen years, or imprisonment with hard labor. 
Even this was found inadequate, and in 1824 the slave-trade was declared to 
be piracy, and the punishment death. In 1837, when the number of capital 
offenses was diminished, the punishment was changed to transportation for life. 

On the 28th of August, 1833, England abolished slavery throughout 
the British colonies, (3 and 4 William IV.) and £20,000,000 were granted 
by parliament as indemnification to the slave proprietors and other pecuniary 
sufferers by the act, By this act 770,280 slaves became free. 

Although the United States have never relieved themselves from the burden 
of slavery, they were the first to prohibit the prosecution of the slave-trade. 
In the year 1794, it was enacted that no person in the United States should 
fit out any vessel there for the purpose of carrying on any traffic in slaves to 
any foreign country, or for procuring from any foreign country the inhabitants 
thereof, to be disposed of as slaves. In 1800 it was enacted that it should be 
unlawful for any citizen of the United States to have any property in any ves- 
sel employed in transporting slaves from one foreign country to another, or to 
serve on board any vessel so employed. Any of the commissioned vessels of 
the United States were authorized to seize and take any vessel employed in the 
slave-trade, to be proceeded against in any of the circuit or district courts, and 
to be condemned for the use of the officers and crew of the vessel making the 
capture. In 1807, it was enacted, that after the first of January, 1808, it 
should not be lawful to bring into the United States, or the territories thereof, 
from any foreign place, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, with intent to 
hold or sell him as a slave ; and heavy penalties are imposed on the violators 
of these acts, and others of similar import. In 1820, it was enacted, that if 
any citizen of the United States, belonging to the company of any foreign 
vessel engaged in the slave-trade, or any person whatever belonging to the 
company of any vessel, owned in whole or in part by, or navigated for any 



250 SLAVE-TRADE ABOLISHED. 

citizen of the United States, should land on any foreign shore, to seize any 
negro, or mulatto, not held to service by the laws of either of the states or ter- 
ritories of the United States, with intent to make him a slave, or should decoy 
or forcibly carry off such negro, or mulatto, or receive him on board any such 
vessel, with the intent aforesaid, he should be adjudged a pirate, and, on con- 
viction, should suffer death. The same penalty was extended to those of the 
ship's company who should aid in confining such negro, or mulatto, on board 
of such vessel, or transfer him, on the sea or tide-water, to any other ship or 
vessel, or land him, with intent to sell, or having previously sold him. 

In Denmark, king Christian VII., in 1794, declared the slave-trade unlawful 
after January 1, 1804 ; and Frederic VI. promised, at the peace of Tilsit, to 
prohibit his subjects from taking pare in the foreign slave-trade. In France, 
Napoleon, when first consul, promised the continuance of their liberty to the 
inhabitants of St. Domingo, whilst he praised the inhabitants of Isle de France 
for not having freed their slaves, and promised that France would never again 
decree the slavery of the whites by the liberation of the negroes. After the 
successes of the French on St. Domingo, the slave-trade was once more estab- 
lished. In 1814, Lord Castlereagh obtained from Louis XVIII. a promise 
that France would abolish the slave-trade; but, by the influence of the cham- 
ber of commerce at Nantes, this traffic was permitted for five years more. 
Public opinion obliged Lord Castlereagh to press upon the congress of Vienna 
the adoption of general measures for the abolition of the slave-trade ; but all 
that he could effect was that Spain and Portugal promised to give up the slave- 
trade north of the line. — See the treaty between England and Portugal, Vi- 
enna, January 22, 1815. But a paper was drawn up and signed by Castlereagh, 
Stewart, Wellington, Nesselrode, Lowenhielm, Gomez Labrador, Palladia, 
Saldanha, Lobo, Humboldt, Metternich and Talleyrand, (Vienna, February 8, 
1815,) stating that the great powers would make arrangements to fix a term 
for the general abolition of the slave-trade, since public opinion condemned it 
as a stain on European civilization. February 6, 1815, Portugal provided for 
the total abolition of the slave-trade on January 21, 1823, and England prom- 
ised to pay £300,000 as an indemnification to Portuguese subjects. Louis 
XVIII., by the treaty of Paris, November 20, 1815, consented to its immedi- 
ate abolition, for which Napoleon had declared himself prepared, in April, 
1815. Spain promised, by the treaty of September 30, 1817, to abolish the 
slave-trade entirely, October 31, 1820, in all the Spanish territories, even 
south of the line; and England, February 9, 1818, paid £400,000 as an in- 
demnification to Spanish subjects. The king of the Netherlands prohibited 
his subjects from taking part in the slave-trade after the provisions of the 
treaty of August 13, 1814, had been rendered more precise and extensive by 
the treaty concluded with England, at the Hague, May 4, 1818. Sweden had 
already done the same, according to the treaty of March 3, 1813. The United 
States engaged, in the treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, to do all in their 
power for the entire suppression of the slave-trade. November 23, 182G, » 



SLAVER 1" ABOLISHED IN MEXICO. 251 

treaty was concluded by England with Brazil, for the abolition of the slave- 
trade, and it was accordingly prohibited after March, 1830. 

The emperor of Austria issued a decree utterly abolishing slavery through- 
out the Austrian dominions. "Every man," said his imperial majesty, u by 
the right of nature, sanctioned by reason, must be considered a free person." 
Every slave becomes free the moment he touches the Austrian soil, or even an 
Austrian ship. 

The rising republics of South America took a stand against slavery and the 
slave-trade. One of the first acts of the constitutional assembly of Guate- 
mala was the abolition of slarary. The 13th article of their constitution de- 
clared every man in the republic free ; that no one who took refuge under its 
laws should be a slave ; and that no one should be accounted a citizen who was 
engaged in the slave-trade. 

In 1829, Guerrero, the President of Mexico, issued the following decree : 

" Desiring to signalize the year 1829, the anniversary of our independence, 
by an act of national justice and beneficence that may turn to the benefit and 
support of such a valuable good ; that may consolidate more and more public 
tranquility ; that may cooperate to the aggrandizement of the republic, and 
return to an unfortunate portion of its inhabitants those rights which they hold 
from nature, and that the people protect by wise and equitable laws, in con- 
formity with the 30th article of the constitutive act, 

" Making use of the extraordinary faculties which have been granted to the 
executive, I thus decree : 

" 1st. Slavery is forever abolished in the republic. 

" 2d. Consequently all those individuals who until this day looked upon 
themselves as slaves, are free. 

" 3d. When the financial situation of the republic admits, the proprietors of 
slaves shall be indemnified, and the indemnification regulated by a law. 

" And in order that the present decree may have its full and entire execu- 
tion, I order it to be printed, published and circulated to all those whose obli- 
gation it is to have it fulfilled. 

" Given in the federal palace of Mexico, on the 15th of September, 1829." 

In Colombia, slave children born after the revolution were to be free at 
eighteen. In South America, except Brazil, slavery is either abolished or 
drawing to a close. 

The action of the United States government in abolishing the slave-trade, 
and its efforts to suppress the illegal traffic, are referred to in subsequent chap- 
ters. The treaties and conventions of England with foreign nations for the 
suppression of the slave-trade will also be found in another part of the vol- 
ume. The practical results of all these labors are exhibited in the chapters re- 
lating to the slave-trade after its nominal abolition. 



252 SLAVERT W ST. DOMINGO. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Indian and African Slavery in St. Domingo. — The Insurrections. 

Discovery and settlement of the island by the Spaniards. — The natives reduced to slavery. 
Cruelty of the Spaniards towards them. — Great mortality in consequence. — Their 
numbers replenished from the Bahamas. — The Dominicans become interested for them. 
Las Casas appeals to Cardinal Xiniines, who sends commissioners. — They set the 
natives at liberty. — The colonists remonstrate against the measure, and the Indians 
again reduced to slavery. — Las Casas seeks a remedy. — The Emperor allows the intro- 
duction of Africans. — Guinea slave-trade established. — The buccaneers. — The French 
Colony. — Its condition in 1789. — Enormous slave^opulation.- — The Mulattoes. — The 
French Revolution — its effect on the Colonists. — First Insurrection — terrible execution 
of the leaders. — Second Insurrection- — massacre and conflagration — unparallelled hor- 
rors. — Burning Port au Prince. — L'Ouverture appears, the spirit and ruler of the 
storm. — French expedition of 25,000 men sent to suppress the Insurrection. — Toussaint 
sent prisoner to France — dies in prison. — The slaves establish their freedom. — Inde- 
pendence of Hayti acknowledged by France. 



a 



.ISPANIOLA, St. Domingo, or Hayti, is not only one of the largest but 
also one of the most beautiful and productive of the West India islands. It 
is 390 miles long, its breadth is from 60 to 150 miles, and its scenery is 
diversified by lofty mountains, deep valleys and extensive plains, or savannas, 
dotted with the luxuriant vegetation of a tropical climate. The sea sweeps 
boldly into the land, here and there forming commodious harbors and extensive 
bays. The air on the plains is warm and laden with the perfume of flowers ; 
and the sudden changes from drouth to rain, though trying to an unacclimated 
constitution, are favorable to the growth of the rich products of the soil. 

Columbus and his successors having founded a settlement on the island, it 
became -one of the Spanish colonial possessions, to the great misfortune of the 
unhappy natives, who were almost annihilated by the labor which the colonists 
imposed upon them. They soon dwindled away to a mere remnant. Of a 
population of a million found on the island by Columbus, scarcely twenty-four 
thousand remained at the time of the governorship of the island by his son, 
Don Diego Columbus, and these were fast sinking into the grave under the de- 
structive influence of cruelty and hardship. In this emergency expeditions 
were fitted out to the Bahama islands in order to decoy from their homes the 
gentle and confiding race which inhabited them, to be sold as slaves in His- 
paniola. They were but too successful. Availing themselves of the fond su- 
perstition of the natives, that the departed spirits of their friends, after an 
expiation of their sins by a purgatory of cold in the mountains of the north, 
passed to more sunny realms, under a more tropical sky, where they enjoyed 
an indolent paradise forever, the crafty Spaniards alleged that they came from 
this land of their departed relatives, and invited them to go thither and rejoin 
them.* The simple Indians trusted to the tale and went to inevitable and 
deadly servitude. Like their predecessors of Hispaniola, they died at their 



♦Peter Martyr. 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 253 

tasks, or in despair put an end to their own existence, while new cargoes of 
their race were arriving daily to the same wretchedness and death. 

To the honor of the ecclesiastics of the colony, their exertions were unre- 
mitted to ameliorate the condition and retard the ultimate fate of the natives. 
Of the two orders of clergy to whom the spiritual interests of the colony had 
been committed, the Dominicans had ever manifested a zeal and unyielding 
ardor that left their brethren, the Franciscans, far behind. In the ranks of the 
former was Las Casas, the celebrated bishop of Chiapa. To save the inter- 
esting and gentle race of natives from the destructiveness of slavery, was with 
him more than a passion — it seemed the ruling and guiding principle of his 
soul. In consequence of his pious appeals to Cardinal Ximines, the regent of 
Spain, three commissioners were sent out with full powers to adjust the condi- 
tion of the Indians. There were two parties in the colony. The Dominicans, 
acting in accordance with what they esteemed a law of Heaven, denounced the 
right and impugned the justice of enslaving the Indians. The interested col- 
onists, and the Franciscans, who were for a modified servitude, sustained them- 
selves against their opponents on grounds of expediency and the right of con- 
quest. To the deputation appointed by Cardinal Ximines were added a law- 
yer of distinguished probity, whose name was Zuazo, and Las Casas, upon 
whom had been conferred the title of Protector of the Indians. The first act 
of the commissioners was to set at liberty all the Indians that had been granted 
to the Spanish courtiers, or to any person not residing in the island. 

This achievement of the commissioners spread anger and consternation 
among the colonists. The Spaniards were exasperated or discouraged. The 
lands could not be cultivated without laborers, and panic, discontent and dis- 
couragement were general. The commissioners soon began to doubt the solidi- 
ty of their policy, and yielded to the storm of passion that was beating on 
them. The subject was maturely reconsidered, and the question and the colony 
set at rest by the final decision of the commissioners, that the state of the 
colony rendered the slavery of the Indians necessary. 

The enthusiastic philanthropy of Las Casas had not been turned from its 
object by the decision of the commissioners. Not discouraged at the obstacles 
he had to encounter, he now ranged his eye through the whole horizon of pos- 
sibilities to seek in some quarter for a gleam of hope to illumine the dark 
destiny of that unhappy people which occupied all his sympathies. A small 
number of a hardier race, the negroes of Guinea, had been imported into the 
island. They were found stronger than the Indians, and more capable of en- 
during labor under the burning heats of the climate ; so much so, that it was 
computed that the labor of one negro was worth that of four Indians. " The 
Africans," says Herrera, " prospered so much in the colony, that it was the 
opinion that unless a negro should happen to be hung he would never die, for 
as yet none had been known to perish from infirmity." Las Casas proposed 
the substitution of African for Indian laborers in the new world. His repre- 
sentations were listened to with a favorable ear by the emperor, and a patent 
was granted allowing the introduction of four thousand negroes into Hispaniola 



254 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

and a regular traffic between the Guinea coast and the colony was soon estab- 
lished.* 

This statement, however, has been contradicted by the abbe" Grtgoire, in his 
Apologie de B. de Las Casas, in the memoirs of the French institute ; also 
by the writer of the article Casas, in the Biographie Universelle, after an ex- 
amination of all the Spanish and Portuguese historians of that period. This 
charge, he says, rests solely on the authority of Herrera, an elegant but inac- 
curate writer. " Negro slavery," says another writer, " was a device struck 
out in a bold and unconscientious age to meet a great emergency, — the age of 
Cortes and Pizarro." But by it an evil of fearful magnitude has been entailed 
upon our hemisphere. 

The true sources of wealth in the island were now ascertained, not to con- 
sist in digging for gold among the barren mountains, but in cultivating the 
rich soil of the plains. The sugar-cane was introduced and extensively culti- 
vated. In the hard labor necessary in rearing and manipulating it, the hardi- 
ness of the negro was shown infinitely superior to the fragile Indian. Planta- 
tion after plantation was brought under cultivation, and yielded a handsome 
profit. Both Indians and negroes were tasked beyond all reasonable bounds, 
and the consequence was that the former died and the latter rebelled. 

As Spain, however, extended her conquests on the main land, the import- 
ance of Hispaniola as a colony began to decline ; and at the beginning of the 
seventeenth century the island had become nearly a desert, the natives having 
been all but extirpated, and the Spanish residents being few, and congregated 
in several widely-separated stations round the coast. At this time the "West 
Indian seas swarmed with buccaneers, adventurers without homes, families, or 
country, the refuse of all nations and climes. These men, the majority of whom 
were French, English, and Dutch, being prevented by the Spaniards from hold- 
ing any permanent settlement in the new world, banded together in self-defense, 
and roved the seas in quest of subsistence, seizing vessels, and occasionally 
landing on the coast of one of the Spanish possessions, and committing terri- 
ble ravages. A party of these buccaneers had, about the year 1629, occupied 
the small island of Tortuga, on the northwest coast of St. Domingo. From 
this island they used to make frequent incursions into St. Domingo, 
for the purpose of hunting ; ' the forests of that island abounding with 
wild cattle, horses and swine, the progeny of the tame animals which the Span- 
iards had introduced into the island. At length, after various struggles with 
the Spanish occupants, these adventurers made good their footing in the island 
of St. Domingo, drove the Spaniards to its eastern extremity, and became 
masters of its western parts. As most of them were of French origin, they 
were desirous of placing themselves under the protection of France; and 
Louis XrV. and his government being flattered with the prospect of thus ac- 
quiring a rich possession in the new world, a friendly intercourse between 



*Browu's History St. Domingo. 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 255 

France and St. Domingo began, and the western part of the island assumed 
the character of a flourishing French colony, while the Spanish colony in the 
other end of the island correspondingly declined. 

From 1776 to 1789, the French colony was at the height of its prosperity. 
To use the words of a French historian, every thing had received a prodigious 
improvement. The torrents had been arrested in their course, the marshes 
drained, the forests cleared ; the soil had been enriched with foreign plants ; 
roads had been opened across the asperities of the mouutaius ; safe pathways 
had been constructed over chasms ; bridges had been built over rivers which 
had formerly been passed with danger by means of ox-skin boats ; the winds, 
the tides, the currents had been studied, so as to secure to ships safe sailing 
and convenient harborage. Yillas of pretty but simple architecture had risen 
along the borders of the sea, while mansions of greater magnificence embel- 
lished the interior. Public buildings, hospitals, acqueducts, fountains, and 
baths rendered life agreeable and healthy ; all the comforts of the old world 
had been transported into the new. In 1789 the population of the colony was 
665,000 ; and of its staple products, it exported in that year 68,000,000 
pounds of coffee, and 163,000,000 pounds of sugar. The French had some 
reason to be proud of St. Domingo ; it was their best colony, and it promised, 
as they thought, to remain for ages in their possession. Many French families 
of note had emigrated to the island, and settled in it as planters ; and both by 
means of commerce and the passing to and fro of families, a constant inter- 
course was maintained between the colony and the mother country. 

Circumstances eventually proved that the expectation of keeping permanent 
possession of St. Domingo was likely to be fallacious. The constitution of 
society was unsound. In this, as in all the European colonies in the new 
world, negro slavery prevailed. To supply the demand for labor, an importa- 
tion of slaves from Africa had been going on for some time at the rate of 
about 20,000 a year ; and thus, at the time at which we are now arrived, there 
was a black population of between 500,000 and 600,000. These negroes con- 
stituted an overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of the colony, for the 
whites did not amount to more than 40,000. But besides the whites and the 
negroes, there was a third class in the population, arising from the intermix- 
ture-of the white and negro races. These were the people of color, includ- 
ing persons of all varieties of hue, from the perfect sable of the freed negro, 
to the most delicate tinge marking remote negro ancestry in a white man. Of 
these various classes of mulattoes, at the time of which we are now speaking, 
there were about 30,000 in the colony. 

Although perhaps less cruelly treated than others in a state of hopeless ser- 
vitude, the negroes of St. Domingo were not exempt from the miseries which 
usually accompany slavery ; yet they were not so ignorant as not to know their 
Tights as members of the human family. Receiving occasional instruction in 
the doctrines of Christianity, and allowed by their masters to enjoy the holi- 
days of the church, they were accustomed to ponder on the principles thus 
presented to their notice, and these they perceived were at variance with their 



25G SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

condition. This dawning of intelligence among the negroes caused no alarm 
to the planters generally. The French have always been noted for making the 
kindest slave-owners. Imitating the conduct of many of the old nobility of 
France in their intercourse with the peasantry, a number of the planters of St. 
Domingo were attentive to the wants and feelings of their negro dependents — 
encouraging their sports, taking care of them in sickness, and cherishing them 
in old age. In the year 1685, likewise, Louis XIV. had published a code 
noir, or black code, containing a number of regulations for the humane treat- 
ment of the negroes in the colonies. Still, there were miseries inseparable 
from the system, and which could not be mitigated ; and in St. Domingo, as 
in all other colonies of the new world, slavery was maintained by the cruelties 
of the whip and the branding-iron. It was only, we may easily suppose, by a 
judicious blending of kindness and severity, that a population of upwards of 
500,000 negroes could be kept in subjection by 40,000 whites. 

The condition of the mulatto population deserves particular attention. 
Although nominally free, and belonging to no individual master, these niulat- 
toes occupied a very degraded social position. Regarded as public property, 
they were obliged to serve in the colonial militia without any pay. They 
could hold no public trust or employment, nor fill any of the liberal profess- 
sions — law, medicine, divinity, &c. They were not allowed to sit at table 
with a white, to occupy the same place at church, to bear the same name, or 
to be buried in the same spot. Offenses which in a white man were visited 
with scarcely any punishment, were punished with great severity when com- 
mitted by a mulatto. There was one circumstance, however, in the condition 
of the mulattoes, which operated as a balance to all those indignities, and en- 
abled them to become formidable in the colony — they were allowed to acquire 
and to hold property to any amount. Able, energetic, and rendered doubly 
intent upon the acquisition of wealth by the power it gave them, many of 
these mulattoes or people of color became rich, purchased estates, and equaled 
the whites as planters. Not only so, but, possessing the tastes of Europeans 
and gentlemen, they used to quit St. Domingo and pay occasional visits to 
what they as well as the whites regarded as the mother country. It was cus- 
tomary for wealthy mulattoes to send their children to Paris for their educa- 
tion. It ought to be remarked also respecting the mulatto part of the popu- 
lation of St. Domingo, that they kept aloof both from the pure whites and the 
pure negroes. Such was the state of society in the colony of St. Domingo 
in the year 1189-90, when the French Revolution broke out. 

Although situated at the distance of 3500 miles from the mother country, St. 
Domingo was not long in responding to the political agitations which broke 
out in Paris in 1789. "When the news reached the colony that the king had 
summoned the States-general, all the French part of the island was in a fer- 
ment. Considering themselves entitled to share in the national commotion, the 
colonists held meetings, passed resolutions, and elected eighteen deputies to 
be sent home to sit in the States-general as representatives. The eighteen 
deputies reached Versailles a considerable time after the States-general had 



the bevolottons. 257 

commenced their sittings, and constituted themselves the National Assembly ; 
and their arrival not a little surprised that body, who probably never expected 
deputies from St. Domingo, or who at all events thought eighteen deputies too 
many for one colony. Accordingly, it was with some difficulty that six of 
them were allowed to take their seats. At that time colonial gentlemen 
were not held in great favor at Paris. Among the many feelings which 
then simultaneously stirred and agitated that great metropolis, there had 
sprung up a strong feeling against negro slavery. "Whether the enthusiasm 
was kindled by the recent proceedings of Clarkson and Wilberforce in London, 
or whether it was derived by the French themselves from the political maxims 
then afloat, the writers and speakers of the revolution made the iniquity of 
negro slavery one of their most frequent and favorite topics ; and there had 
just been founded in Paris a society called Amis des Noirs, or friends of the 
blacks, of which the leading revolutionists were members. 

The intelligence of what was occurring at Paris gave great alarm in St. Do- 
mingo. When the celebrated declaration of rights, asserting all men to be 
"free and equal," reached the island along with the uews of the proceedings of 
the Amis des Noirs, the whites, almost all of whom were interested in the 
preservation of slavery, looked upon their ruin as predetermined. They had no 
objection to freedom in the abstract, freedom which should apply only to them- 
selves, but they considered it a violation of all decency to speak of black men, 
mere property, having political rights. What disheartened the whites gave 
encouragement to the mulattoes. Rejoicing in the idea that the French peo- 
ple were their friends, they became turbulent, and rose in arms in several 
places, but were without much difficulty put down. Two or three whites, who 
were enthusiastic revolutionists, sided with the insurgents ; and one of them, 
M. de Beaudierre, fell a victim to the fury of the colonists. The negro popu- 
lation of the island remained quiet ; the contagion of revolutionary sentiments 
had not yet reached them. 

When the national assembly heard of the alarm which the new constitution 
had excited in the colonies, they saw the necessity for adopting some measures 
to allay the storm; and accordingly, on the 8th of March, 1790, they passed 
a resolution disclaiming all intention to legislate sweepingly for the internal 
affairs of the colonies, and authorizing each colony to mature a plan for itself 
in its own legislative assembly, (the revolution having superseded the old sys- 
tem of colonial government by royal officials, and given to each colony a legis- 
lative assembly consisting of representatives elected by the colonists,) and 
submit the same to the national assembly. This resolution, which gave great 
dissatisfaction to the Amis des Noirs in Paris, produced a temporary calm in 
St. Domingo. For some time nothing was to be heard but the bustle of elec- 
tions throughout the colony ; and at length, on the 16th of April, 1790, the 
general assembly met, consisting of 213 representatives. All eyes were upon 
the proceedings of the assembly ; and at length, on the 28th of May, it pub- 
lished the results of its deliberations in the form of a new constitution, consist- 
ing of ten articles. The provisions of this new constitution, and the language 
17 



258 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO* 

in which they were expressed, were astounding ; they amounted, in fact, to the 
throwing off of allegiance to the mother country. This very unforeseen result 
created great commotion in the island. The cry rose every where that the 
assembly was rebelling against the mother country ; some districts recalled 
their deputies, declaring they would have no concern with such presumptuous 
proceedings; the governor-general, M. Peynier, was bent on dissolving the 
assembly altogether ; riots were breaking out in various parts of the island, 
and a civil war seemed impending, when in one of its sittings the assembly, 
utterly bewildered and terrified, adopted the extraordinary resolution of going 
on board a ship of war then in the harbor, and sailing bodily to France to 
consult with the national assembly. 

In the meantime, the news of the proceedings of the colonial assembly had 
reached France, and all parties, royalists as well as revolutionists, were indig- 
nant at what they called the impudence of these colonial legislators. The 
Amis des Noirs of course took an extreme interest in what was going on ; 
and under their auspices, an attempt was made to take advantage of the dis- 
turbances prevailing in the island for the purpose of meliorating the condition 
of the colored population. A young mulatto named James Oge' was then re- 
siding in Paris, whither he had been sent by his mother, a woman of color, the 
proprietrix of a plantation in St. Domingo. Og6 had formed the acquaint- 
ance of the Abbe 5 Gregoire, Brissot, Robespierre, Lafayette, and other leading 
revolutionists connected with the society of the Amis des Noirs, and fired by 
the ideas which he derived from them, he resolved to return to St. Domingo, 
and, rousing the spirit of insurrection, become the deliverer of his enslaved 
race. Accordingly, paying a visit to America first, he landed in his native is- 
land on the 12th of October, 1790, and announced himself as the redresser of 
all wrongs. Matters, however, were not yet ripe for an insurrection ; and after 
committing some outrages with a force of 200 mulattoes, which was all he was. 
able to raise, Og6 was defeated, and obliged, with one or two associates, to 
take refuge in the Spanish part of the island. M. Blanchelande succeeding 
M. Peynier as governor-general of the colony, demanded Og6 from the Span- 
iards ; and in March, 1791, the wretched young man was broken alive upon 
the wheel. 

The court convicted Vincent Oge and Jean Baptiste Chevanne, his associ- 
ate, of the intent to cause an insurrection of the people of color, and it con- 
demned them to be conducted by the public executioner to the church of Cape 
Francois, and there, bare-headed, and en chemise, with a rope about their necks — 
upon their knees, and holding in their hands a wax candle of two pounds 
weight, to declare that they had wickedly, rashly, and by evil instigation, com- 
mitted the crimes of which they had been accused and convicted ; and then and 
there they repented of them, and asked forgiveness of God, of the king, and 
the violated justice of the realm ; that they should then be conducted to the 
Place dAruies of the said town, and in the place opposite to that appropriated 
to the execution of white men, to have their arms, legs, hips, and thighs bro- 
ken alive; that they should be placed upon a wheel, with their faces towards 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 259 

heaven, and there remain so long as God should preserve their lives. After 
their death, their heads were to be severed from their bodies and placed upon 
poles — that of Oge on the road to Dondon, and that of Chevanne on the road 
to Grand Riviere, and the property of both to be confiscated to the king.* 

Chevanne died as he had lived, the stern, unyielding enemy of the whites ; 
but Oge in that terrible moment lost all his firmness. He implored the pity 
of his judges, and offered to reveal important secrets if they would spare his 
life. Twenty-four hours were granted him, and he revealed the existence of a 
wide-laid conspiracy among the mulattoes and negroes of the island ; but as 
not much importance was attached to his communications, he was ordered back 
to punishment. Twenty-one of his associates, among whom was his brother, 
were condemned to be hung, and thirteen others were sent to the galleys for 
life — the rest were pardoned. 

Although the insurrection of Oge" was ill-timed and rash, and his death that 
of the most degraded criminal, his name and sufferings have ever been hallowed 
in the memory of his race ; and the martyrdom of Og^ was ever afterwards 
the rallying signal to encourage and unite the mulattoes in deadly hostility 
against the. whites. By this barbarous massacre the breach between these two 
races was made irreconcilable and eternal. However they were united by the 
sympathy of relationship, or the ties of interest and property, all these bands 
were sundered by a hatred, deep, rankling, and inexpiable, f 

All this occurred while the eighty-five members of the assembly were absent 
in France. They had reached that country in September, 1790, and been well 
received at first ; but when they appeared before the national assembly, that 
body treated them with marked insult and contempt. On the 11th of October, 
Barnave proposed and carried a decree annulling all the acts of the colonial 
assembly, dissolving it, declaring its members ineligible again for the same of- 
fice, and detaining the eighty-five unfortunate gentlemen prisoners in France. 
Barnave, however, was averse to any attempt on the part of the national as- 
sembly to force a constitution upon the colony against its will ; and especially 
he was averse to any direct interference between the whites and the people of 
color. These matters of internal regulation, he said, should be left to the col- 
onists themselves ; all that the national assembly should require of the colonists 
was, that they should act in the general spirit of the revolution. ' Others, how- 
ever, among whom were Gregoire, Brissot, Robespierre, and Lafayette, were 
for the home government dictating the leading articles of a new constitution 
for the colony; and especially they were for some sweeping assertion by the 
national assembly of the equal citizenship of the colored inhabitants of the col- 
ony. For some time the debate was carried on between these two parties ; but 
the latter gradually gained strength, and the storm of public indignation which 
was excited by the news of the cruel death of Oge gave them the complete 
victory. Tragedies and dramas fonnded on the story of Oge were acted in the 
theatres of Paris, and the popular feeling against the planters and in favor of 

* Lacroix. f Brown's Hist. St. Domingo. 



260 SLAVERY IS ST. DOMINGO. 

the negroes grew vehement and ungovernable. " Perish the colonies," said 
Robespierre, " rather than depart, in the ease of our colored brethren, from 
those universal principles of liberty aud equality which it is our glory to have 
laid down. " Hurried on by a tide of enthusiasm, the national assembly, on 
the 15th of May, passed a decree declaring all the people of colorin the French 
colonies born of free parents entitled to vote for members of the colonial judi- 
catures, as well as to be elected to seats themselves. This decree of admission 
to citizenship concerned, it will be observed, the mulattoes and free blacks only; 
it did not affect the condition of the slave population. 

In little more than a month this decree, along with the intelligence of all 
that had been said and done when it was passed, reached St. Domingo. The 
colony was thrown into convulsions. The white colonists stormed and raged, 
and there was no extremity to which, in the first outburst of their anger, they 
were not ready to go. The national cockade was trampled under foot. It 
was proposed to forswear allegiance to the mother country, seize the French 
ships in the harbors, and the goods of French merchants, and hoist the British 
flag instead of the French. The governor-general, M. Blanchelande, trembled 
for the results. But at length the fury of the colonists somewhat subsided ; a 
new colonial assembly was convened ; hopes began to be entertained that some- 
thing might be effected by its labors, when lo ! the news ran through the island 
like the tremor of an earthquake — " The blacks have risen 1" The appalling 
news was too true. The conspiracy, the existence of which had been divulged 
by Oge before his execution, had burst into explosion. The outbreak had been 
fixed for the 25th of August, 1791 ; but the negroes, impatient as the time 
drew near, had commenced it on the night of the 22d. 

The insurrection now burst forth in all its terror and calamity. The slaves 
of the plantation Turpin, headed by an English negro, set out at 10 o'clock at 
night, in their way drawing into their ranks the slaves of four or five other 
plantations, and commenced the horrors of a wide-spread insurrection. They 
proved to be the veriest tigers in rage and cruelty. The plain of Cape Fran- 
cois, that might have rivaled the fabled garden of the Hesperides, both in rich- 
ness and beauty, was soon in one universal conflagration, the gleams of which 
painted the sky in lurid horror, while the smoke enveloped the whole country 
in uncertain gloom. The ranks of the rebels were increased at every step of 
their progress, and along their march of devastation they murdered every 
white who fell into their power, without distinction of age or sex, viewing with 
fiendish delight the agonies and groans of those whom so lately they had not 
dared to look in the face. 

These scenes of destruction were continued through the night, and on the 
following day the inhabitants of Cape Francois knew nothing of the disasters 
around them, but of the smoke that obscured the horizon and the fugitives 
that were pouring into their gates. Petrified with horror and panic, they 
quickly fastened themselves in their houses, and locked up their slaves. The 
troops of the garrison were the only living objects seen in the streets, as they 
were hurrying to their different posts. An alarm gun soon called the whole 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 2G1 

population to arms. The people came out of their houses, accosted and ques- 
tioned each other, and catching courage from the effect of numbers, their 
former fear was soon changed to an inspiriting cry for vengeance, which, in 
their determined infatuation, was principally directed against the mulattoes. 
These were accused of having instigated the blacks to revolt, and on them it 
was thought immediate and summary vengeance should fall. In the delirium 
of the moment, a few of that unfortunate race expiated with their lives the 
suspicion of their being accomplices with the rebels in the plain. To stop this 
wicked injustice of murdering the innocent for the crimes of the guilty, the 
provincial assembly hastened to assign places of refuge for this proscribed 
caste, who ran thither to put themselves under the protection of the military. 
They demanded arms, especially the mulatto planters, and expressed an eager- 
ness to march against the common enemy ; and such was the blindness of Cre- 
ole prejudice that even the assembly hesitated at first to accept their offer.* 

The insurrection spread like a stream of electricity, and within four days 
one-third part of the plain of Cape Francois was but a heap of ashes. Many 
members of the new colonial assembly, in their journey from Leogane to the 
Cape, were surprised and killed by the rebels, and a detachment of troops was 
found necessary to guard the route of the president, secretaries and archives 
of this body. M. Tousard was dispatched against the rebels with a detach- 
ment of troops of the line and national guards, together with some grenadiers 
and chasseurs of the regiment of the Cape ; but nothing, without the courage 
and veteran skill of this able officer, could have kept the troops in an imposing 
attitude in such fearful circumstances. On every side, and in every direction, 
they were beset by swarms of the rebels, who seemed to despise danger and 
defy the utmost that could be done against them. An order from the governor 
general, however, recalled the forces of M. Tousard in haste to Cape Francois, 
where, from the advance of the negroes on that town, the consternation was 
heart-rending. The place was now entirely surrounded with blazing planta- 
tions, and even the hideous outcries could be heard of those fiends, who were 
every where triumphant in their march of desolation and massacre. The ad- 
vance guard established on the plantation Bongars, had been affrighted from 
its defense of that post, and thus the two most beautiful quarters of the colony, 
those of Morin and Limonade, were given to the torches of the rebels. They 
even advanced to the Haut de Cap, and the cannon brought to play upon their 
huddled masses was scarcely sufficient to check them in their headlong march. 
The return of Tousard upon their rear dispersed them, but by his retreat they 
were left in undisputed possession of the country. They immediately extended 
their ravages from the sea-shore to the mountains, and when nothing more was 
left for them to destroy, their headlong tumultuousness began to give place in 
their leisure to a regular organization and a more systematic warfare. Their 
continuance in the field, notwithstanding the vast amount of plunder to tempt 
them from their course, and the celerity and skilfulness of their movements, 



2G2 SLAVERY LN ST. DOMINGO. 

had already given rise to the suspicion that they were guided in their enter- 
prise by some being superior to themselves. They no longer exposed them- 
selves in masses to the destructive sweep of cannon and small arms, but by 
scattering their detachments, by suddenly dispersing to the shelter of hedges 
and thickets, when occasion required, they often succeeded in surprising or 
surrounding their enemy, and when ueither could be done, in crushing them by 
a vast superiority in numbers. While the preparations for the attack were in 
progress, their obies performed the Ouangah, or mysterious rite to their de- 
mons, by which the imaginations of the multitude were heated and strained to 
the utmost degree of tension, and the women and children danced an accompa- 
niment to the ceremony with bowlings and outcries that savored of Pandemo- 
nium. Amid the excitement of this wild uproar, the attack began with yells 
and terrific gesticulations. If they met with a firm and effective resistance, 
the energy of their attack soon slackened; but if the defense was weak aud 
faltering, their boldness and audacity became extreme. They rushed forward 
to the cannon's mouth, and thrusting in their arms and bodies, purchased the 
retreat of the enemy by this self-immolation. Contortions and bowlings were 
not the only means they used to intimidate their adversaries — the flames which 
they applied to the highly inflammable fields of cane, to the houses and mills 
of the plantations, and to their own cabins, covered the heavens with clouds of 
smoke by day, aud illuminated the horizon by night with gleams that gave to 
every object the color of blood. After a silence the most profound, there 
would arise an outcry from their camp the most appalling ; this would again 
be followed by the plaintive cries of their prisoners, whom the savages made it 
their sport to sacrifice at their advance posts. 

The insurgents, in full possession of the plain of Cape Francois, were revel- 
ing amidst the spoils of the vanquished. The colonists, to intimidate them, 
changed the sluggish and inefiScient war they were carrying on to one of ex- 
termination. This was ill-timed and impolitic, for the insurrection had growD 
too strong to yield to fear, and the negroes repaid the cruelty by augmenting 
the tortures of their own captives. The negro chiefs would have no neutrals 
among those of their race, and the more faithful slaves, who were found con- 
cealing themselves from the rebels, were immediately put to death by their 
own countrymen. On the other hand, parties of enraged whites were travers- 
ing the country, and, with an undiscriminating vengeance, killing every living 
thing that was black. The faithful slave, who, in this reciprocal destruction, 
came to claim the protection of his master against those who on either side 
sought his life, was iu many instances put to death by that very master himself. 
This blind severity served no purpose but to swell the ranks of the rebels, for 
the peaceable negro could find no security for his life but by assuming arms in 
the ranks of his countrymen. 

In the first moments of the rebellion, the negroes had murdered all their pris- 
oners, but as success increased, the complacency of triumph taught them more 
clemency, or perhaps they had become glutted with cruelty and crime. They 
no longer massacred the women and children, aud only showed themselves 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 263 

cruel to their prisoners taken in battle, whom they put to death with such 
studied tortures as cannot be named without a thrill of horror. They tore 
them with red-hot pincers — sawed them asunder between planks — roasted 
them by a slow fire — or tore out their eyes with red-hot cork-screws. Their 
principal leader, Jean Fraucois, assumed the title of grand admiral of France, 
and his lieuteuant, Biassou, called himself generalissimo of the conquered coun- 
try. They were evidently under the guidance and instruction of demons higher 
in intelligence than they. The rebels stated that they were in arms for their 
king, whom their enemies and his had cast into prison; but at other times 
they asserted that their sole object was to save themselves from their tyrants, 
the planters. 

Te Deum was daily sung by both belligerents, iu impious thanksgiving to 
God for what was nothing but a continued massacre. The heads of murdered 
whites, stuck on poles, surrounded the camp of the rebels, and the hedges that 
bordered the way conducting to the posts of the whites were filled with the 
dead bodies of negroes swinging in the wind. 

After a long succession of skirmishes which had resulted in nothing but to 
drive the rebels from the plain to the mountains, whence after the withdrawal 
of the troops they rushed back again to the plain, the negroes were nearly sub- 
dued by a combined movement, which had been ordered by M. Blanchelande, 
and executed by M. Tousard. Camp Lecoque and Acul were taken by the 
whites, and a large body of negroes were surrounded upon the plantation 
Alquier, who were surprised by night, and all who were unable to effect an 
escape were cut in pieces. M. Tousard was fortunate enough in this expedi- 
tion to save from the hands of the negroes a great number of white children, 
and eighty white females, who were found shut up in the church at Limbe. 

The rebels ascribed their late disasters to treason in their camp. A negro 
named Jeannot was of all their chieftains the most ferocious. Suspecting the 
fidelity of a negro under his orders, who was also accused of having saved his 
master from the knives of the insurgents, this monster ordered that he should 
be cut in pieces and thrown into the fire, on the charge that he had drawn the 
balls from the cartridges of the blacks in their late unsuccessful conflicts with 
M. Tousard. Other acts of cruelty still more revolting are related of this rebel 
chief. The plantation of M. Paradole, situated on Grande Riviere, suffered 
an attack from the insurgents, in which the proprietor himself was made a 
prisoner. Four of his children, who in the first moments of their panic had 
fled to places of concealment, came to implore the negro chief to liberate their 
father. This filial devotion, which was interpreted as defiance by the unfeel- 
ing black, irritated him to fury. He ordered that the four young men should 
be slain separately before the eyes of their parent, who was then himself put 
to death, the last victim in this domestic tragedy. The atrocity of this action 
was even too much for Jean Francois, who had already become jealous of 
Jeannot's growing ascendency. The latter affected the state and bearing of a 
monarch, never proceeding to mass but in a chariot drawn by six horses. The 
envy of Jean Francois was soon imbodied iu action. He attacked his associ- 



2G4 SLAVERY m ST. DOMINGO. 

ale chief and overcame him, and the monster was shot at the foot of a tree 
that had been fitted up with iron hooks upon which to hang his living victims 
by the middle of the body. Buckman, also, the original leader in the insur- 
rection, fell a sacrifice to the vengeance of the whites during this expedition of 
M. Tousard, and his head was brought into Cape Francois and exposed on the 
gates of the town. 

While ruin was thus universal in the north, the mulattoes of the south were 
seizing the present conjuncture to establish their rights by force. Their leaders 
showed themselves more skillful than Oge. Instead of remaining in Port-au- 
Prince, they made their rendezvous at Croix des Bouquets, and made no de- 
monstration of their design till their organization had been made complete. 
Port-au-Prince considered itself strong enough to punish this schism, and the 
military force of the place took up their march immediately for the encamp- 
ment of the mulattoes. Some detachments of cavalry from both sides had 
already met in the plain of Cul de Sac, and the advantage was clearly on the 
side of the mulattoes. On the night of the 1st of September, a body of ad- 
venturers and sailors, joined to a force of two hundred troops of the line and 
a detachment of the national guard, and furnished with a small train of artil- 
lery, set off from Port-au-Prince to attack the post of Croix des Bouquets. 
They continued their march until the break of day, when they found themselves 
in the grounds of the plantation Pernier, and the fields of cane in flames on 
every side of their column. A brisk fire of musketry from an ambuscade of 
mulattoes immediately followed, and the field was strewed with killed and 
wounded. The whites were thrown into disorder, and their rout soon became 
complete. The mulattoes, with admirable tact, followed up their advantage 
by making immediate offers to negotiate, which their defeated oppouents ac- 
cepted without a moment's hesitation. A treaty was made, called a concordat, 
in which the whites promised to make no farther opposition to the late decree 
of the national assembly, as well as to recognize the political equality of 
mulattoes with themselves, aud to secure the complete indemnification of all 
those who had suffered for political offenses, either in property, person or life. 
The mulattoes demanded that the garrison of Port-au-Prince should be com- 
posed of whites and mulattoes in equal numbers — that the judges who had 
condemned Oge should be consigned to infamy — that the future legislature of 
the colony should be composed of members chosen conformably to the late de- 
cree, and that whenever the principles of this decree were not recognized in 
the elections, both contracting parties should unite to enforce their execution. 
The discussions being all finished on the several articles of this treaty, which 
secured to the mulattoes all that they had ever demanded, it was signed on the 
23d of October, 1791. 

Meantime the war continued in the plain of Cape Francois with unmitigated 
fierceness, and human blood still flowed in torrents amid the cruelty practiced 
on both sides. It was estimated that within the space of two months, more 
than two thousand whites had fallen victims to the insurrection — that one 
hundred and eighty sugar plantations, and nearly nine hundred plantations of 



THE KEVOLUTIONS. 265 

coffee, cotton and indigo bad been laid waste, and tbeir mills and bouses con- 
sumed to asbes. Tbe negroes, in tbe wantonness of their fury, left nothing 
undestroyed that was not in itself indestructible. The thick walls of edifices, 
which remained standing after the fire had consumed all enclosed within them, 
were by painful manual effort razed to the ground. The iron kettles of the 
boiling houses, and the bells which called them to their labors, were crushed into 
atoms, as if to destroy from the very face of the earth all memorials of former 
servitude. Twelve hundred families, once opulent and happy, were reduced to 
utter poverty, and driven in their destitution to subsist on public charity or 
private hospitality in tbeir own or foreign countries. More than ten thousand 
of the rebels also had perished by the sword or by famine, and many hundreds 
of them had met their fate from the hands of the public executioner. 

Meanwhile strange proceedings relative to the colonies were occurring in 
the mother country. The news of the insurrection of the blacks had not had 
time to reach Paris ; but the intelligence of the manner in which the decree of 
the 15th of May had been received by the whites in St. Domingo, had created 
great alarm. " We are afraid we have been too hasty with that decree of ours 
about the rights of the mulattoes ; it is likely, by all accounts, to occasion a 
civil war between them and the whites ; and if so, we run the risk of losing 
tbe colony altogether." This was the common talk of the politicians of Paris. 
Accordingly, they hastened to undo what they had done four months before, 
and on the 24th of September the national assembly actually repealed the 
decree of the 15th of May by a large majority. Thus the mother country 
and the colony were at cross purposes ; for at the very moment that the colony 
was admitting the decree, the mother country was repealing it. 

The flames of war were immediately rekindled in the colony. " The decree 
is repealed," said the whites ; " we need not have been in such a hurry in making 
concessions to the mulattoes." " The decree is repealed," said the mulattoes; 
" the people in Paris are playing false with us ; we must depend on ourselves 
in future. There is no possibility of coming to terms with the whites ; either 
they must exterminate us, or we must exterminate them." 

Hostilities were renewed in the streets of Port-au-Prince. A battery of 
twenty cannons opened its fire upon the ranks of the armed mulattoes, who re- 
treated from the city and gained the road to the mountains. Scarcely had 
they departed, when both the north and south portions of the city were dis- 
covered to be on fire, and in an incredibly short space of time the whole city 
was wrapt in conflagration. The fire made such progress that no exertions 
could arrest it, and it continued to rage for forty-eight hours, when it began 
to abate for want of further materials to minister to its fury, and twenty-seven 
out of thirty squares of the town were utterly destroyed. 

Affright, disorder and pillage augmented the horrors of the calamity. The 
fire was of course attributed to the mulattoes ; and their wives and children, 
two thousand in number, found themselves obliged to fly, not only from their 
burning habitations, but from the sword with which, in the blindness of ven- 
geance, the whites were pursuing them. Driven by this two-fold terror, they 



266 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

fled to the country or rushed toward the sea shore, where, not finding boats 
enough to contain them, and in their anxiety to. escape the death that was follow- 
ing ou their footsteps, pressing in crowds upon each other, great numbers of them 
were forced into the sea, there to find a death as dreadful as that they were 
escaping. The accusation was afterwards transferred to the merchants, who 
were charged with having recourse to this means of destroying all documents 
and securities, as an easy method of ridding themselves from such liabilities. 
Suspicion was immediately taken for evidence, and executions followed ; the 
mercantile establishments which had escaped the fire, were given up to be pil- 
laged by the mob. A simpler explanation, says Lacroix, is easy. In a town 
built entirely of wood, and upon a soil where a burning sun dries up every 
thing not endowed with life, the wadding of a single cartridge would be suf- 
ficient to kindle a fire upon the roofs of houses as inflammable as tinder ; and 
that a battle could be fought in such a place without causing a conflagration 
would be a matter of astonishment. The loss has been estimated at fifty 
million francs. 

The year It 91 was concluded amid scenes of war, pestilence and bloodshed. 
The whites, collected in forts and cities, bade defiance to the insurgents. The 
mulattoes and blacks fought on the same side, sometimes under one standard, 
sometimes in separate bands. A large colony of blacks, consisting of slaves 
broken loose from the plantations, settled in the mountains under the two lead- 
ers, Jean Francois and Biassou. They planted provisions for their subsis- 
tence, and watched for opportunities to make irruptions into the plains. 

The national assembly had sent three commissioners to the island to restore 
peace and subordination to the distracted colony. At the time of their depar- 
ture they had not been informed of the slave insurrection, nor the vast extent 
of the calamity that was then desolating the country. On their arrival, the 
commissioners were struck with horror and astonishment at what they saw. 
At Cape Francois they found two wheels and five gibbets in constant employ, 
to execute the numerous victims that were daily adjudged to death. Horror 
and loathing made them insensible to the civilities which were proffered them, 
and despairing of effecting any beneficial measure, they returned to France. 
Meanwhile the revolution in the mother country was proceeding ; the republi- 
can party and the Amis des Noirs were rising into power ; and on the 4th of 
April, 1792, a new decree was passed, declaring more emphatically than before 
the rights of the people of color, and appointing three new commissioners, who 
were to proceed to St. Domingo and exercise sovereign power in the colony. 
These commissioners arrived on the 13th of September, dissolved the colonial 
assembly and sent the governor, M. Blanchelande, home to be guillotined. 
With great appearance of activity, the commissioners commenced their duties ; 
and as the mother country was too busy about its own affairs to attend to their 
proceedings, they acted as they pleased, and contrived, out of the general 
wreck, to amass large sums of money for their own use ; till at length, in the 
beginning of 1793, the revolutionary government at home, having a little more 
leisure to attend to colonial affairs, revoked the powers of the commissioners, 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 2G7 

and appointed a new governor, M. Galbaud. When M. Galbaud arrived in 
the island, there ensued a struggle between hiin and the commissioners, he 
being empowered to supersede them, and they refusing to submit. At length 
the commissioners calling in the assistance of the revolted negroes, M. Galbaud 
was expelled from the island, and forced to take refuge in the United States. 
While this strange struggle for the governorship of the colony lasted, the con- 
dition of the colony itself was growing worse and worse. The plantations re- 
mained uncultivated, the whites and the mulattoes were still at war, masses of 
savage negroes were quartered in the hills, in fastnesses from which they could 
not be dislodged, and from which they could rush down unexpectedly to com- 
mit outrages in the plains. 

In daily jeopardy of their lives, and seeing no prospect of a return of pros- 
perity, immense numbers of the white colonists were quitting the island. Many 
families had emigrated to the neighboring island of Jamaica, many to the 
United States, and some even had sought refuge, like the royalists of the mother 
country, in Great Britain. Through these persons, as well as through the refu- 
gees from the mother country, overtures had been made to the British govern- 
ment for the purpose of inducing it to take possession of the island of St. 
Domingo and convert it into a British colony ; and in 1793, the British gov- 
ernment, against which the French republic had now declared war, began to 
listen favorably to the proposals. General Williamson, the lieutenant-governor 
of Jamaica, was instructed to send troops from that island to St. Domingo, 
and attempt to wrest it out of the hands of the French. Accordingly, on the 
20th of September, 1793, about 870 British soldiers, under Colonel Whitelocke, 
landed in St. Domingo — a force miserably defective for such an enterprise. The 
number of troops was afteward increased, and the British were able to effect 
the capture of Port-au-Prince, and also some ships which were in the harbor. 
Alarmed by this success, the French commissioners, Santhonax and Polverel, 
issued a decree abolishing negro slavery, at the same time inviting the blacks 
to join them against the British invaders. Several thousand did so ; but the 
great majority fled to the hills, swelling the army of the negro chiefs, Francois 
and Biassou, and luxuriating in the liberty which they had so suddenly acquired. 

It was at this moment of utter confusion and disorganization, when British, 
French, mulattoes, and blacks, were all acting their respective parts in the tur- 
moil, and all inextricably intermingled in a bewildering war, which was neither 
a foreign war nor a civil war, nor a war of races, bnt a composition of all 
three — it was at this moment that Toussaint L'Ouverture appeared the spirit 
and the ruler of the storm. 

He was one of the most extraordinary men of a period when extraordinary 
men were numerous, and beyond all question, the highest specimen of negro 
genius the world has yet seen. He was born in St. Domingo, on the plantation 
of the count de No6, a few miles distant from Cape Francois, in the year 1743. 
His father and mother were African slaves on the count's estate. On the plan- 
tation there was a black of the name of Pierre-Baptiste, a shrewd, intelligent 
man, who had acquired much information, besides having been taught the ele- 



268 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

ments of what would be termed a plain education by some benevolent mission- 
aries. Between Pierre and young Toussaint an intimacy sprung up, and all 
that Pierre had learned from the missionaries, Toussaint learned from him. 
His acquisitions, says our French authority, amounted to reading, writing, 
arithmetic, a little Latin, and an idea of geometry. It was a fortunate cir- 
cumstance that the greatest natural genius among the negroes of St. Domingo 
was thus singled out to receive the unusual gift of a little instruction. Tous- 
saint's qualifications gained him promotion ; he was made the coachman of 
M. Bayou, the overseer of the count de Noe — a situation as high as a negro 
could hope to fill. In this, and in other still higher situations to which he was 
subsequently advanced, his conduct was irreproachable, so that while he gained 
the confidence of his master, every negro in the plantation held him in respect. 
Three particulars are authentically known respecting his character at this pe- 
riod of his life, and it is somewhat remarkable that all are points more pecu- 
liarly of moral than of intellectual superiority. He was noted, it is said, foi 
an exceedingly patient temper, for great affection for brute animals, and for a 
strong, unswerving attachment to one female whom he had chosen for his wife. 
It is also said that he manifested singular strength of religious sentiment. In 
person, he was above the middle size, with a striking countenance, and a robust 
constitution, capable of enduring any amount of fatigue, and requiring little 
sleep. 

Toussaint was about forty-eight years of age when the insurrection of the 
blacks took place in August, l"r91. Great exertions were made by the insur- 
gents to induce a negro of his respectability and reputation to join them in 
their first outbreak, but he steadily refused. It is also known that it was owing 
to Toussaint's care and ingenuity that his master, M. Bayou, and his family 
escaped being massacred. He hid them in the woods for several days, visited 
them at the risk of his own life, secured the means of their escape from the 
island, and, after they were settled in the United States, sent them such remit- 
tances as he could manage to snatch from the wreck of their property. Such 
conduct, in the midst of such barbarities as were then enacting, indicates great 
originality and moral independence of character. After his master's escape, 
Toussaint, who had no tie to retain him longer in servitude, and who, besides, 
saw reason and justice in the struggle which his race was making for liberty, 
attached himself to the bands of negroes then occupying the hills, commanded 
by Francois and Biassou. In the negro army Toussaint at once assumed a 
leading rank ; and a certaiu amount of medical knowledge, which he had picked 
up in the course of his reading, enabled him to unite the functions of army 
physician with those of military officer. Such was Toussaint's position in the 
end of the year 1793, when the British landed in the island. 

It is necessary here to describe, as exactly as the confusion will permit, the 
true state of parties in the island. The British, as we already know, were 
attempting to take the colony out of the hands of the French republic, and 
annex it to the crown of Great Britain ; and in this design they wore favored 
by the few French royalists still resident in the island. The French commis- 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 209 

sioners, SaLthonax and Polverel, on the other hand, men of the republican 
school, were attempting, with a motley army of French, mulattoes and blacks, 
to beat back the British. The greater part of the mulattoes of the island, 
grateful for the exertions which the republicans and the Amis des Noirs had 
made on their behalf, attached themselves to the side of the commissioners 
and the republic which they represented. It may naturally be supposed that 
the blacks would attach themselves to the same party — to the party of those 
whose watchwords were liberty and equality, and who consequently were the 
sworn enemies of slavery ; but such was not the case. Considerable numbers 
of the negroes, it is true, were gained over to the cause of the French repub- 
lic by the manifesto the commissioners had published abolishing slavery ; but 
the bulk of them kept aloof, and constituted a separate negro army. Strangely 
enough, this army declared itself anti-republican. Before the death of Louis 
XVI., the blacks had come to entertain a strong sympathy with the king, 
and a violent dislike to the republicans. This may have been owing either to 
the policy of their leaders, Francois and Biassou, or to the simple fact that the 
blocks had suffered much at the hands of republican whites. At all events, the 
negro armies called themselves the armies of the king while he was alive ; and 
after he was dead, they refused to consider themselves subjects of the republic. 
In these circumstances, one would at first be apt to fancy they would side with 
the British when they landed on the island. But it must be remembered that, 
along with the blind and unintelligent royalism of the negroes, they were ani- 
mated by a far stronger and far more real feeling, namely, the desire of free- 
dom and the horror of again being subjected to slavery ; and this would very 
effectually prevent their assisting the British. If they did so, they would be 
only changing their masters; St. Domingo would become a British colony, 
and they, like the negroes of Jamaica, would become slaves of British planters. 
No, it was liberty they wanted, and the British would not give them that. 
They hung aloof, therefore, not acting consistently with the French, much less 
with the British, but watching the course of events, and ready, at any given 
moment, to precipitate themselves into the contest and strike a blow for negro 
independence. 

The negroes, however, in the meantime had the fancy to call themselves roy- 
alists, Francois having assumed the title of grand admiral of France, and Bi- 
assou that of generalissimo of the conquered districts. Toussaiut held a mili- 
tary command under them, and acted also as army physician. Every day his 
influence over the negroes was extending ; and Francois became so envious of 
Toussaint's growing reputation as to cast him into prison, apparently with the 
further purpose of destroying him. Toussaint, however, was released by Bi- 
assou, who, although described as a monster of cruelty, appears to have had 
some sparks of generous feeling. Shortly after this, Biassou's drunken ferocity 
rendered it necessary to deprive him of all command, and Francois and Tous- 
saint became joint leaders, Toussaint acting in the capacity of lieutenant-gen- 
eral, and Francois in that of general-in-chief. The negro army at this time 
judged it expedient to enter the service of Spain, acting in cooperation with 



270 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO 

the governor of the Spanish colony in the other end of the island, who had 
been directed by his government at home to carry on war against the French 
commissioners. Toussaint was for some time an officer in the Spanish service, 
acting under the directions of Joachim Garcia, the president of the Spanish 
colonial council. In this capacity he distinguished himself greatly. With 
600 men, he beat a body of 1500 French out of a strong post which they had 
occupied near the Spanish town of St. Raphael ; and afterwards he took in 
succession the villages of Marmelade, Henneri, Plaisance, and Gonaives. He 
was appointed lieutenant-general of the army, and presented at the same time 
with a sword and a badge of honor in the name of his Catholic majesty. But 
the Marquis D'Hermona having been succeeded in the command by another, 
Toussaint began to find his services less appreciated. His old rival, Francois, 
did his best to undermine his influence among the Spaniards; nay, it is said, 
laid a plot for his assassination, which Toussaint narrowly escaped. He had 
to complain also of the bad treatment which certain French officers, who had 
surrendered to him, and whom he had persuaded to accept a command under 
him, had received at the hands of the Spaniards. All these circumstances op- 
erated on the mind of Toussaint, and shook the principles on which he had 
hitherto acted. While hesitating with respect to his next movements, intelli- 
gence of the decree of the French convention of the 4th of February, 1794, 
by which the abolition of negro slavery was confirmed, reached St. Domingo ; 
and this immediately decided the step he should take. Quitting the Spanish 
service, he joined the French general Laveaux, who — the commissioners San- 
thonax and Polverel having been recalled — was now invested with the sole 
governorship of the colony ; took the oath of fidelity to the French republic ; 
and being elevated to the rank of brigadier-general, assisted Laveaux in his 
efforts to drive the English troops out of the island. 

In his new capacity, Toussaint was no less successful than he had been while 
fighting under the Spanish colors. In many engagements, both with the Brit- 
ish and the Spaniards, he rendered signal services to the cause of the French. 
At first, however, the French commander Laveaux showed little disposition to 
place confidence in him. It is highly creditable, therefore, to this French offi- 
cer, that when he came to have more experience of Toussaint L'Ouverture, he 
discerned his extraordinary abilities, and esteemed him as much as if he had 
been a French gentleman educated in the schools of Paris. The immediate 
occasion of the change of the sentiments of Laveaux towards Toussaint was 
as follows : In the month of March, IT 95, an insurrection of mulattoes oc- 
curred at the town of the Cape, and Laveaux was seized and placed in confine- 
ment. On hearing this, Toussaint marched at the head of 10,000 blacks to 
the town, obliged the inhabitants to open the gates by the threat of a siege, 
entered in triumph, released the French commander, and reinstated him in his 
office. In gratitude for this act of loyalty, Laveaux appointed Toussaint lieu- 
tenant-governor of the colony, declaring his resolution at the same time to act 
by his advice in all matters, whether military or civil — a resolution the wisdom 
of which will appear when we reflect that Toussaint was the only man in the 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 271 

island who could govern the blacks. A saying of Laveaux is also recorded, 
which shows what a decided opinion he had formed of Toussaint's abilities : — 
" It is this black," said he, " this Spartacus, predicted by Raynal, who is des- 
tined to avenge the wrongs done to his race." 

A wonderful improvement soon followed the appointment of L'Ouverture as 
lieutenant-governor of the colony. The blacks, obedient to their champion, 
were reduced under strict military discipline, and submitted to all the regula- 
tions of orderly civil government. 

Since the departure of the commissioners Santhonax and Polverel, the whole 
authority of the colony, both civil and military, had been in the hands of La- 
veaux; but in the end of the year 1795, a new commission arrived from the 
mother country. At the head of this commission was Santhonax, and his col- 
leagues were Giraud, Raymond, and Leblanc. The new commissioners, ac- 
cording to their instructions, overwhelmed Toussaint with thanks and compli- 
ments ; told him he had made the French republic his everlasting debtor, and 
encouraged him to persevere in his efforts to rid the island of the British. 
Shortly afterwards, Laveaux, being nominated a member of the legislature, 
was obliged to return to France ; and in the month of April, 1796, Toussaint 
L'Ouverture was appointed his successor, as commander-in-chief of the French 
forces in St. Domingo. Thus, by a remarkable succession of circumstances, 
was this negro, at the age of fifty-three years, fifty of which had been passed 
in a state of slavery, placed in the most important position in the island. 

Toussaint now began to see his way more clearly, and to become conscious 
of the duty which Providence had assigned him. Taking all things into con- 
sideration, he resolved on being no longer a tool of foreign governments, but 
to strike a grand blow for the permanent independence of his race. To ac- 
complish this object, he felt that it was necessary to assume and retain, at least 
for a time, the supreme civil as well as military command. Immediately, there- 
fore, on becoming commander-in-chief in St. Domingo, he adopted measures 
for removing all obstructions to the exercise of his authority. General Ro- 
chambeau had been sent from France with a military command similar to that 
which Laveaux had held ; but finding himself a mere cipher, he became un- 
ruly, and Toussaint instantly sent him home. Santhonax, the commissioner, 
too, was an obstacle in the way ; and Toussaint, after taking the precaution of 
ascertaining that he would be able to enforce obedience, got rid of him by the 
delicate pretext of making him the bearer of dispatches to the Directory 
Along with Santhonax, several other officious personages were sent to France; 
the only person of any official consequence who was retained being the com- 
missioner Raymond, who was a mulatto, and might be useful. As these meas- 
ures, however, might draw down the vengeance of the Directory, if not accom- 
panied by some proofs of good-will to France, Toussaint sent two of his sons 
to Paris to be educated, assuring the Directory at the same time that, in re- 
moving Santhonax and his coadjutors, he had been acting for the best interests 
of the colony. "I guarantee," he wrote to the Directory, "on my own per- 
sonal responsibility, the orderly behavior and the good-will to France of my 



272 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

brethren the blacks. You may depend, citizen directors, on happy results ; 
and you shall soon see whether I engage in vain my credit and your hopes." 

The people of Paris received with a generous astonishment the intelligence 
of the doings of the negro prodigy, and the interest they took in the novelty 
of the case prevented them from being angry. The Directory, however, judged 
it prudent to send out General Hedouville, an able and moderate man, to su- 
perintend Toussaint's proceedings, and restrain his boldness. 

The evacuation of St. Domingo by the English in 1*798, did not remove all 
Toussaint's difficulties. The mulattoes, influenced partly by a rumor that the 
French Directory meditated the reestablishment of the exploded distinction of 
color, partly by a jealous dislike to the ascendency which a pure negro had 
gained in the colony, rose in insurrection under the leadership of Rigaud and 
Petion, two able and educated mulattoes. The insurrection was formidable ; 
but, by a judicious mingling of severity with caution, Toussaint quelled it, re- 
ducing Rigaud and Petion to extremities ; and the arrival of a deputation from 
France in the year 1799, bringing a confirmation of his authority as comman- 
der-in-chief in St. Domingo by the man who, under the title of first consul, 
had superseded the Directory, and now swayed the destinies of France, ren- 
dered his triumph complete. Petion and Rigaud, deserted by their adherents, 
and despairing of any further attempt to shake Toussaint's power, embarked 
for France. 

Confirmed by Bonaparte in the powers which he had for some time been 
wielding in the colony with such good effect, Toussaint now paid exclusive at- 
tention to the internal affairs of the island. In the words of a French biog- 
rapher, " he laid the foundation of a new state with the foresight of a mind 
that could discern what would decay and what would endure. St. Domingo 
rose from its ashes ; the reign of law and justice was established ; those who 
had been slaves were now citizens. Religion again reared her altars ; and on 
the sites of ruins were built new edifices." Certain interesting particulars are 
also recorded, which give us a better idea of his habits and the nature of his 
government than these general descriptions. To establish discipline among his 
black troops, he gave all his superior officers the power of life and death over 
the subalterns : every superior officer "commanded with a pistol in his hand." 
In all cases where the original possessors of estates which had fallen vacant in 
the course of the troubles of the past nine years could be traced, they were in- 
vited to return and resume their property. Toussaint's great aim was to ac- 
:ustom the negroes to industrial habits. It was only by diligent agriculture, 
In' said, that the blacks could ever raise themselves. Accordingly, while every 
trace of personal slavery was abolished, he took means to compel the negroes 
to work as diligently as ever they had done under the whip of their overseers. 
All those plantations the proprietors of which did not reappear, were lotted 
out among the negroes, who, as a remuneration for their labor, received one- 
third of the produce, the rest going to the public revenue. There were as yet 
no civil or police courts which could punish idleness or vagrancy, but the same 
purpose was served by courts-martial. The ports of the island were opened 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 27o 

to foreign vessels, and every encouragement held out to traffic. In consequence 
of these arrangements, a most surprising change took place : the plantations 
were again covered with crops ; the sugar-houses and distilleries were re-built ; 
the export trade began to revive ; and the population, orderly and well-behaved, 
began to increase. In addition to these external evidences of good govern- 
ment, the island exhibited those finer evidences which consist in mental culture 
and the civilization of manners. Schools were established, and books became 
common articles in the cottages of the negro laborers. Music and the theatr 
were encouraged ; and public worship was conducted with all the usual pomp 
of the Romish church. The whites, the mulattoes, and the blacks mingled in 
the same society, and exchanged with each other all the courtesies of civilized 
intercourse. The commander-in-chief himself set the example by holding pub- 
lic levees, at which, surrounded by his officers, he received the visits of the 
principal colonists ; and his private parties, it is said, " might have vied with 
the best regulated societies of Paris." 

Successful in all his schemes of improvement, Toussaint had only one serious 
cause for dread. While he admired, and, it may be, imitated Napeoleon Bo- 
naparte, he entertained a secret fear of the projects of that great general. Al- 
though Bonaparte, as first consul, had confirmed him in his command, several 
circumstances had occurred to excite alarm. He had sent two letters to Bo- 
naparte, both headed, "The First of the Blacks to the First of the Whites," 
one of which announced the complete pacification of the island, and requested 
the ratification of certain appointments which he had made, and the other ex- 
plained hisTeasons for cashiering a French official ; but to these letters Bona- 
parte had not deigned to return an answer. Moreover, the representatives 
from St. Domingo had been excluded from the French senate ; and rumors had 
reached the island that the first consul meditated the reestablishment of slavery. 
Toussaint thought it advisable in this state of matters to be beforehand with 
the French consul in forming a constitution for the island, to supersede the mil- 
itary government with which it had hitherto been content. A draft of a con- 
stitution was accordingly drawn up by his directions, and with the assistance 
of the ablest Frenchmen in the island ; and after being submitted to an assem- 
bly of representatives from all parts of St. Domingo, it was formally published 
on the 1st of July, 1801 By this constitution, the whole executive of the 
island, with the command of the forces, was to be intrusted to a governor-gen- 
eral. Toussaint was appointed governor-general for life ; his successors were 
to hold office for five years each ; and he was to have the power of nominating 
the first of them. Various other provisions were contained in the constitu- 
tion, and its general effect was to give St. Domingo a virtual independence, 
under the guardianship of France. 

Not disheartened by the taciturnity of Bonaparte, Toussaint again addressed 
him in respectful terms, and intreated his ratification of the new constitution. 
The first consul, however, had already formed the resolution of extinguishing 
Toussaint and taking possession of St. Domingo ; and the conclusion of a 
treaty of peace with England (1st October, 1801,) increased his haste to effec' 
18 



274 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

the execution of his deceitful purpose. The expedition was equipped. It 
consisted of twenty-six ships of war and a number of transports, carrying an 
army of 25,000 men, the flower of the French troops, who embarked reluctant- 
ly. The command of the army was given to General Leclerc, the husband of 
Pauline Bonaparte, the consul's sister. 

The French scpiadron reached St. Domingo on the 29th of January, 1802. 
"We are lost," said Toussaint, when he saw the ships approach; "all France 
is coming to St. Domingo." The invading army was divided into four bodies. 
General Kervesau, with one, was to take possession of the Spanish town of 
St. Domingo ; General Rochambeau, with another, was to march on Fort 
Dauphin ; General Boudet, with a third, on Port-au-Prince ; and Leclerc 
himself, with the remainder, on Cape Francois. In all quarters the French 
were successful in effecting a landing. Rochambeau, in landing with his divis- 
ion, came to an engagement with the blacks who had gathered on the beach, 
and slaughtered a great number of them. At Cape Francois, Leclerc sent an 
intimidating message to Christophe, the negro whom Toussaint had stationed 
there as commander ; but the negro replied that he was responsible only to 
Toussaint, his commander-in-chief. Perceiving, however, that his post was 
untenable, owing to the inclination of the white inhabitants of the town to 
admit Leclerc, Christophe set fire to the houses at night, and retreated to the 
hills by the light of the conflagration, carrying 2000 whites with him as 
hostages. 

Although the French had effected a landing, the object of the invasion was 
yet far from being attained. Toussaint and the blacks had retirecfto the inte- 
rior, and in fastnesses where no military force could reach them, they were 
preparing for future attacks. 

The correspondence which Toussaint entered into with Leclerc produced no 
good result, and the war began in earnest. Toussaint and Christophe were 
declared outlaws, and battle after battle was fought with varying success. The 
mountainous nature of the interior greatly impeded the progress of the French. 
The Alps themselves, Leclerc said, were not nearly so troublesome to a mili- 
tary man as the hills of St Domingo. On the whole, however, the advantage 
was decidedly on the side of the French ; and the blacks were driven by de- 
grees out of their principal positions. The success of the French was not 
entirely the consequence of their military skill and valor ; it was partly owing 
also to the effect which the proclamations of Leclerc had on the minds of the 
negroes and their commanders. If they were to enjoy the perfect liberty 
which these proclamations promised them, if they were to continue free 
men as they were now, what mattered it whether the French were in pos- 
session of the island or not? Such was the general feeling; and accordingly 
many of Toussaint 's most eminent officers, among whom were Laplume and 
Maurepas, went over to the French. Deserted thus by many of his officers 
and by the great mass of the negro population, Toussaint, supported by his 
two bravest and ablest generals, Dessalines and Christophe, still held out, and 
protracted the war. Dessalines, besieged in the fort of Crete a Pierrot by 



TIIE REVOLUTION?. 275 

Leclerc and nearly the whole of the French army, did not give up the defense 
until he had caused the loss to his besiegers of about 3000 men, includiug sev- 
eral distinguished officers ; and even then, rushing out, he fought his way 
through the enemy, and made good his retreat. 

The reduction of the fortress of Crete a Pierrot was considered decisive of 
the fate of the war ; and Leclerc, deeming dissimulation no longer necessary, 
permitted many negroes to be massacred, and issued an order virtually rees- 
tablishing the power of the old French colonists over their slaves. This rash 
step opened the eyes of the negroes who had joined the French ; they deserted 
in masses ; Tdussaint was again at the head of an army ; and Leclerc was in 
danger of losing all the fruits of his past labors, and being obliged to begin 
his enterprise over again. This was a very disagreeable prospect; for 
although strong reinforcements were arriving from France, the disorders inci- 
dent to military life in a new climate were making large incisions into his 
army. He resolved, therefore, to fall back on his former policy ; and on the 
25th of April, 1802, he issued a proclamation directly opposite in its spirit to 
his former order, asserting the equality of the various races, and holding out 
the prospect of full citizenship to the blacks. The negroes were again de- 
ceived, and again deserted Toussaint. Christophe, too, despairing of any 
farther success against the French, entered into negotiation with Leclerc, 
securing as honorable terms as could be desired. The example of Christophe 
was imitated by Dessalines, and by Paul L'Ouverture, Toussaint's brother. 
Toussaint, iJius left alone, was obliged to submit ; and Christophe, in securing 
good terms Tor himself, had not neglected the opportunity of obtaining similar 
advantages for his commander-in-chief. On the 1st of May, 1802, a treaty 
was concluded between Leclerc and Toussaint L'Ouverture, the conditions of 
which were, that Toussaint should continue to govern St. Domingo as hitherto. 
Leclerc acting only in the capacity of French deputy, and that all the officers 
in Toussaint's army should be allowed to retain their respective ranks. " I 
swear," added Leclerc, "before the Supreme Being, to respect the liberty of 
the people of St. Domingo." Thus the war appeared to have reached a happy 
close ; the whites and blacks mingled with each other once more as friends ; 
and Toussaint retired to one of his estates near Gonaives, to lead a life of quiet 
domestic enjoyment. 

The instructions of the first consul, however, had been precise, that the ne- 
gro chief should be sent as a prisoner to France. Many reasons recommended 
such a step as more likely than any other to break the spirit of independence 
among the blacks, and rivet the French power on the island. The expedition 
had been one of the most disastrous that France had ever undertaken. A 
pestilence resembling the yellow fever, but more fatal and terrible than even 
that dreadful distemper, had swept many thousands of the French to their graves. 
What with the ravages of the plague, and the losses in war, it was calculated 
that 30,000 men, 1,500 officers of various ranks, among whom were fourteen 
generals, and 100 physicians and surgeons, perished in the expedition. 

Jt is our melancholy duty now to record one of the blackest acts committed 



276 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

by Napoleon. Agreeably to his orders, the person of Toussaint was treacher- 
ously arrested, while residing peacefully in his house near Gonaives. Two ne- 
gro chiefs who endeavored to rescue him were killed on the spot, and a large num- 
ber of his friends were at the same time made prisoners. The fate of many 
of these was never known ; but Toussaint himself, his wife, and all his family, 
were carried at midnight on board the Hero man-of-war, then in the harbor, 
which immediately set sail for France. After a short passage of twenty-five 
days, the vessel arrived at Brest (June 1802); and here Toussaint took his 
last leave of his wife and family. They were sent to Bayonne ; but by the 
orders of the first consul, he was carried to the chateau of Joux", in the east of 
Prance, among the Jura mountains. Placed in this bleak and dismal region, 
so different from the tropical climate to which he had been accustomed, his suffer- 
ings may easily be imagined. Not satisfied, however, with confining his un- 
happy prisoner to the fortress generally, Bonaparte enjoined that he should be 
secluded in a dungeon, and denied anything beyond the plainest necessaries of 
existence. For the first few months of his captivity, Toussaint was allowed 
to be attended by a faithful negro servant ; but at length this single attendant 
was removed, and he was left alone in his misery and despair. It appears a 
rumor had gone abroad that Toussaint, during the war in St. Domingo, had 
buried a large amount of treasure in the earth ; and during his captivity at 
Joux, an officer was sent by the first consul to interrogate him respecting the 
place where he had concealed it. " The treasures I have lost," said Toussaint, 
"are not those which you seek." After an imprisonment of tea months he 
was found dead in his dungeon on the 27th of April, 1803. H? was sitting 
at the side of the fire-place, with his hands resting on his legs, and his head 
drooping. The account given at the time was, that he had died of apoplexy; 
but some authors have not hesitated to ascribe it to less natural circumstances. 
" The governor of the fort," observes one French writer, " made two excur- 
sions to Neufchatel, in Switzerland. The first time, he left the keys of the 
dungeons with a captain whom he chose to act for him during his absence. 
The captain accordingly had occasion to visit Toussaint, who conversed with 
him about his past life, and expressed his indignation at the design imputed to 
him by the first consul, of having wished to betray St. Domingo to the Eng- 
lish. As Toussaint, reduced to a scanty farinaceous diet, suffered greatly from 
the want of coffee, to which he had been accustomed, the captain generously 
procured it for him. The first absence of the governor of the fort, however, 
was only an experiment. It was not long before he left the fort again, and 
this time said, with a mysterious, unquiet air to the captain, ' I leave you in 
charge of the fort, but I do not give you the keys of the dungeons ; the pris- 
oners do not require anything.' Four days after he returned, and Toussaint 
was dead — starved." According to another account, this miserable victim of 
despotism, and against whom there was no formal or reasonable charge, was 
poisoned ; but this rests on no credible testimony, and there is reason to believe 
that Toussaint died a victim only to the severities of confinement in this inhos- 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 277 

pitable prison. This melancholy termination to his sufferings took place when 
he was sixty years of age. 

The forcible suppression of Toussaint's government, and his treacherous re- 
moval from the island, did not prove a happy stroke of policy ; and it would 
have been preferable for France to have at once established the independence 
of St. Domingo, than to have entered on the project of resuming it as a de- 
pendency ou the old terms. Leclerc, with all the force committed to his care 
by Bonaparte, signally failed in his designs. The contemptuous and cruel 
manner in which the blacks were generally treated, and the attempts made to 
restore them as a class to slavery, provoked a wide-spread insurrection. Tous- 
sant's old friends and generals, Dessalines, Christophe, Clerveaux, and others, 
rose in arms. Battle after battle was fought, and all the resources of Euro- 
pean military skill were opposed to the furious onsets of the negro masses. 
All was in vain : before October, the negroes, under the command of Dessa- 
lines and Christophe, had driven the French out of Fort Dauphin, Port de 
Paix, and other important positions. In the midst of these calamities, that 
is, on the 1st of November, 1802, Leclerc died, and Pauline Bonaparte re- 
turned to France with his body. Leclerc was succeeded in the command by 
Rochambeau, a determined enemy of the blacks. Cruelties such as Leclerc 
shrunk from were now employed to assist the French arms ; unoffending negroes 
were slaughtered ; and bloodhounds were imported from Cuba to chase the ne- 
gro fugitives through the forests. Rochambeau, however, had a person to deal 
with who was capable of repaying cruelty with cruelty. Dessalines, who had 
assumed the chief command of the insurgents, was a man who, to great mili- 
tary talents and great personal courage, added a ferocious and sanguinary dis- 
position. Hearing that Rochambeau had ordered 500 blacks to be shot at 
the Cape, he selected 500 French officers and soldiers from among his prison- 
ers, and had them shot by way of reprisal. To complete the miseries of the 
French, the mulattoes of the south now joined the insurrection, and the war 
between France and England having recommenced, the island was blockaded 
by English ships, and provisions began to fail. In this desperate condition, 
after demanding assistance from the mother country, which could not be grant- 
ed, Rochambeau negotiated with the negroes and the English for the evacua- 
tion of the island ; and towards the end of November, 1803, all the French 
troops left St. Domingo. 

On the departure of the French, Dessalines, Christophe, and the other gen- 
erals proclaimed the independence of the island " in the name of the blacks 
and the people of color." At the same time they invited the return of all 
whites who had taken no part in the war ; but, added they, " if any of those 
who imagined they would restore slavery return hither, they shall meet with 
nothing but chains and deportation." On the first of January, 1804, at an 
assembly of the generals and chiefs of the army, the independence of the 
island was again solemnly declared, and all present bound themselves by an 
oath to defend it. At the same time, to mark their formal renunciation of 
all connection with France, it was resolved that the name of the island be 



278 SLAVERY IN ST. DOMINGO. 

changed from St. Domingo to Hayti, the name given to it by its original In- 
diau inhabitants. Jean Jacques Dessalines was appointed governor-general 
for life, with the privilege of nominating his successor. 

The rule of Dessalines was a sanguinary, but, on the whole, a salutary one. 
He began his government by a treacherous massacre of nearly all the French 
who remained in the island trusting to his false promises of protection. All 
other Europeans, however, except the French, were treated with respect. 
Dessalines encouraged the importation of Africans into Hayti, saying that 
since they were torn from their country, it was certainly better that they should 
be employed to recruit the strength of a rising nation of blacks, than to serve 
the whites of all countries as slaves. On the 8th of October, 1804, Dessa- 
lines exchanged his plain title of governor-general for the more pompous one 
of emperor. He was solemnly inaugurated under the name of James I., em- 
peror of Hayti ; and the ceremony of his coronation was accompanied by the 
proclamation of a new constitution, the main provisions of which were exceed- 
ingly judicious. All Haytian subjects, of whatever color, were to be called 
blacks, entire religious toleration was decreed, schools were established, pub- 
lic worship encouraged, and measures adopted similar to those which Toussaint 
had employed for creating and fostering an industrial spirit among the negroes. 
As a preparation for any future war, the interior of the island was extensively 
planted with yams, bananas, and other articles of food, and many forts built 
in advantageous situations. Under these regulations the island again began 
to show symptoms of prosperity. Dessalines was a man in many respects 
fitted to be the first sovereign of a people rising out of barbarism. Born the 
slave of a negro mechauic, he was cpiite illiterate, but had great natural abil- 
ities, united to a very ferocious temper. His wife was one of the most beau- 
tiful and best educated negro women in Hayti. A pleasant trait of his char- 
acter is his seeking out his old master after he became emperor, and making 
him his butler. It was, he said, exactly the situation the old man wished to 
fill, as it afforded him the means of being always drunk. Dessalines himself 
drank nothing but water. For two years this negro continued to govern the 
island ; but at length his ferocity provoked his mulatto subjects to form a con- 
spiracy against him, and on the 17th of October, 1806, he was assassinated by 
the soldiers of Petion, who was his third in command. 

On the death of Dessalines, a schism took place in the island. Christophe, 
who had been second in command, assumed the government of the northern 
division of the island, the capital of which was Cape Francois ; and Petion, 
the mulatto general, assumed the government of the southern division, the 
capital of which was Port-au-Prince. For several years a war was carried on 
between the two rivals, each endeavoring to depose the other, and become 
chief of the whole of Hayti ; but at length hostilities ceased, and by a tacit 
agreement, Petion came to be regarded as legitimate governor of the south 
and west, where the mulattoes were most numerous ; and Christophe as legit- 
imate governor in the north, where the population consisted chiefly of blacks. 
Christophe, trained, like Dessalines, in the school of Toussaint L'Ouverture 



THE REVOLUTIONS. 279 

was a slave born, and an able as well as a benevolent man ; but, like most of 
the negroes who had arrived at his period of life, he had not had the benefit 
of any systematic education. Petion, on the other hand, had been educated 
in the military academy of Paris, and was accordingly as accomplished and 
well-instructed as any European officer. The title with which Petion was in- 
vested, was that of president of the republic of Hayti; the southern and 
western districts preferring the republican form of government. For some 
time Christophe bore the simple title of chief magistrate, and was in all re- 
spects the president of a republic like Petion ; but the blacks have always 
shown a liking for the monarchical form of government ; and accordingly, on 
the 2d of June, 1811, Christophe, by the desire of his subjects, assumed the 
regal title of Henry I., king of Hayti. The coronation was celebrated in the 
most gorgeous manner ; and at the same time the creation of an aristocracy 
took place, the first act of the new sovereign being to name four princes, seven 
dukes, twenty-two counts, thirty barons, and ten knights. 

Both parts of the island were well governed, and rapidly advanced in pros- 
perity and civilization. On the restoration of the Bourbons to the French 
throne, some hope seems to have been entertained in France that it might be 
possible yet to obtain a footing in the island, and commissioners were sent out 
to collect information respecting its condition ; but the conduct both of Chris- 
tophe and Petion was so firm, that the impossibility of subverting the inde 
pendence of Hayti became manifest. The island was therefore left in the 
undisturbed possession of the blacks and mulattoes. In 1818 Petion died, 
and was succeeded by General Boyer, a mulatto who had been in France, and 
had accompanied Leclerc in his expedition. In 1820, Christophe having 
become involved in differences with his subjects, shot himself; and the two 
parts of the island were then reunited under the general name of the republic 
of Hayti, General Boyer being the first president. In the following year, the 
Spanish portion of the island, which for a long time had been in a languishing 
condition, voluntarily placed itself under the government of Boyer, who thus 
became the head of a republic including the entire island of St. Domingo. In 
1825, a treaty was concluded between President Boyer and Charles X. of 
France, by which France acknowledged the independence of Hayti, in consid- 
ertion of 150 millions of francs (£6,000,000 sterling,) to be paid by the island 
in five annual instalments, as a compensation for the losses sustained by the 
French colonists during the revolution. The first instalment was paid in 1836; 
but as it was found impossible to pay the remainder, the terms of the agree- 
' menfc were changed in 1838, and France consented to accept 60 millions of 
francs (£2,400,000,) to be liquidated in six instalments before the year 1867 
As the engagements which Boyer had entered into with the French in- 
creased the taxation and bore hard upon the population, an insurrection broke 
out against his authority in May, 1838. This was suppressed, but was fol- 
lowed by repeated collisions between the president and the representative body. 
In 1842 a revolution broke out and President Boyer was compelled to flee to 
Jamaica; and in 1844 the inhabitants of the Spanish portion rose, overpow- 



280 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

ered their Haytian oppressors, and formed themselves into a republic, under 
the name of Santo Domingo. After various individuals had, for a short 
period, occupied the presidential chair of the Haytian republic, the election 
fell upon General Soulouque, who, in 1849, made an unsuccessful attempt to 
subjugate the Dominican republic. In the latter part of the same year, how- 
ever, he ascended the throne of the Haytian republic, under the title of Em- 
peror Faustin I. The independence of the Dominican republic was virtually 
recognized by Great Britain, by the appointment of a consul to it, in 1849 ; 
and it was formally recognized by a treaty of amity and commerce, ratified 
September 10, 1850. It has also been recognized by France and Denmark; 
but the Emperor Faustin I. (Souloucpie) still refused to recognize its inde- 
pendence. 

The present population of the whole island is estimated at 950,000. The 
effective force of the Haytian army is estimated at 40,000 men, and that of the 
navy 15 small vessels and 1000 men. Hayti now possesses an established 
system of government, an established system of education, a literature, com- 
merce, manufactures, a rich and cultivated class in society. In the short space 
of half a century, it has raised itself from the depths and degradation of ser- 
vitude to the condition of a flourishing and respectable state. Slavery has 
been eradicated in the new world from the very spot of its origin. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

African Slave Trade after its Nominal Abolition. 

State of the slave-trade since its nominal abolition. — Numbers imported and losses on 
the passage. — Increased horrors of the trade. — Scenes on board a captured slaver in 
Sierra Leone. — The Progresso. — Walsh's description of a slaver in 1829. — The trade 
in 1S20. — The slave-trade in Cuba — officers of government interested in it. — Efforts of 
Spain insincere. — Slave barracoons near Governor's palace — conduct of the inmates. 
The Bozals. — Bryan Edwards' description of natives of Gold Coast — their courage and 
endurance. — Number of slaves landed at Rio in 1S38 — barracoons at Rio — government 
tax.- — Slave-trade Insurance — Courts of Mixed Commission — their proceedings at Sierra 
Leone in 1838. — Joint stock slave-trade companies at Rio. — The Cruisers — intercepted • 
letters. — Mortality of the trade. — Abuses of the American flag. — Consul Trist and 
British commissioners. — Correspondence of American Ministers to Brazil, Mr. Todd, 
Mr. Proffit, Mr. Wise. — Extracts from Parliamentary papers. — Full list of Conventions 
and Treaties made by England for suppression of Slave-trade. 



T 



O import negroes as slaves from Africa is now illegal, according to the laws 
of civilized nations. Those nations which keep up slavery, such as Brazil, 
Cuba and the United States, are supposed to breed all the slaves they require, 
within their own territories. But such is not the fact. The slave-trade is not 
yet suppressed ; and the immese labors of philanthropists and statesmen, the 
struggles and negotiations of half a century, have not been crowned with per 



THE ILLEGAL TEAFFIC. 281 

feet success. It is stated, upon good authority, that in 1844, more slaves were 
carrid away from Africa in ships than in 1744, when the trade was legal and 
in full vigor. The legal trade, pursued openly, has been changed into a con- 
traband trade, pursued secretly; and the profits, determined from a number of 
random cases, have averaged from 180 to 200 per cent. Accordingly, a vigor- 
ous traffic has been carried on by French, Spanish, Portuguese, British and 
American crews. Spaniards and Portuguese, however, predominate, and the 
wages are large. They carry their cargoes to Brazil, Cuba, Porto Rico, &c; 
and it has been charged that some are landed secretly in the United States, as 
there are slaves in the extreme southern States who cannot speak English. 
But Brazil and Cuba are the principal slave-importing countries. Sir Fovvell 
Buxton, in 1835, calculated that "Brazil imports annually about 80,000, and 
Cuba about 60,000 slaves. If we add 10,000 for all other places, the annual 
delivery of negroes into the slave-using countries of America will amount to 
150,000." Africa, however, loses far more than America gains. According 
to his estimates, the whole wastage or tare of the traffic is seven-tenths ; 
that is to say, for every ten negroes whom Africa parts with, America receives 
only three ; the other seven die. This enormous wastage may be divided into 
three portions — the wastage in the journey from the interior of Africa to the 
coast, the wastage in the passage across the Atlantic, and the wastage in the 
process of seasoning after landing. The first is estimated at one-half of the 
original number brought from the interior, the second at one-fourth of the 
number shipped, and the third at one-fifth of the number landed. In other 
words, if 400,000 negroes are collected in the interior of Africa, then of these 
one-half will die before reaching the coast, leaving only 200,000 to be shipped; 
of these one-fourth will die in the passage across the Atlantic, leaving only 
150,000 to be landed ; and of these one-fifth will die in the process of season- 
ing, leaving only 120,000 available for labor in America. 

While the trade was legal, the ships designed for carrying slaves were, in a 
great measure, constructed like other vessels ; though, in order to make the 
cargo as large as possible, the negroes were packed very closely together. The 
number of negroes which a vessel was allowed to carry was fixed by law. 
British vessels of 150 tons and under, were not to carry more than five slaves 
to every three tons of measurement. In 1*789, a parliamentary committee en- 
gaged in inquiries connected with Sir W. Dolben's bill, found, by actual meas- 
urement of a slave ship, that, allowing every man six feet by one foot four 
inches, every woman five feet by one foot four inches, every boy five feet by 
one foot two inches, and every girl four feet six inches by one foot, the ship 
would hold precisely 450 negroes. The actual number carried was 454 ; and 
in previous voyages she had carried more. This calculation, illustrated as it 
was by an engraving, caused an immense sensation at the time, and assisted in 
mitigating the miseries of the passage. In order to escape the cruisers, all 
slave ships now are built on the principle of fast sailing. The risk of being 
captured takes away all inducement, from mere selfish motives, to make the 
cargo moderate ; on the contrary, it is an object now to make the cargo as 



282 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

large as possible, for then the escape of one cargo out of three will amply re- 
pay the dealer. Accordingly, the negroes now are packed in the slave ships 
literally (and this is the comparison always used) like herring in a "barrel. 
They have neither standing room, nor sitting room, nor lying room ; and as 
for change of position during the voyage, the thing is impossible. They are 
cooped up anyhow, squeezed into crevices, or jammed up against the curved 
planks. The following is a brief description given by an eye-witness of the 
unloading of a captured slaver which had been "brought into Sierra Leone : 
"The captives were now counted ; their numbers, sex, and age, written down, 
for the information of the court of mixed commission. The task was repulsive. 
As the hold had been divided for the separation of the men and the women, 
those on deck were first counted ; they were then driven forward, crowded as 
much as possible, and the women were drawn up through the small hatchway 
from their hot, dark confinement. A black boatswain seized them one by one, 
dragging them before us for a moment, when the proper officer, on a glance, 
decided the age, whether above or under fourteen ; and they were instantly 
swung again by their arm into their loathsome cell, where another negro boat- 
swain sat, with a whip or stick, and forced them to resume the bent and pain- 
ful attitude necessary for the stowage of so large a number. The unfortunate 
women and girls, in general, submitted with quiet resignation, when absence of 
disease and the use of their liinbs permitted. A month had made their condi- 
tion familiar to them. One or two were less philosophical, or suffered more 
acutely than the rest. Their shrieks rose faintly from their hidden prison, as 
violent compulsion alone squeezed them into their nook against the curve of 
the ship's side. I attempted to descend in order to see the accommodation. 
The height between the floor and ceiling was about twenty-two inches. The 
agony of the position of the crouching slaves may be imagined, especially (hat 
of the men, whose heads and necks are bent down by the boarding above them. 
Once so fixed, relief, by motion or change of posture, is unattainable. The 
body frequently stiffens in a permanent curve ; and in the streets of Freetown 
I have seen liberated slaves of every conceivable state of distortion. One I 
remember who trailed along his body, with his back to the ground, by means of 
his hands and ankles. Many can never resume the upright posture." 

One item of the enormous mortality during the passage consists of negroes 
thrown overboard when the slaver is chased, or when a storm arises. Many 
thousands perish annually in this way. Very frequently it is decided, upon 
trial, that the capture of the vessel has been illegal ; and then the slaver sails 
away triumphantly, the poor negroes on board having only been tantalized 
with the hope of freedom. A remarkable case of this kind is told by Mr. 
Rankin in his account of a visit to Sierra Leone, in 1834: 

"On the morning after my arrival at Sierra Leone," says Mr. Rankin, "I 
was indulging in the first view of the waters of the estuary glittering in the 
hot sun, and endeavoring to distinguish from the many vessels at anchor the 
bark which had brought me from England. Close in-shore lay a large 
schooner, so remarkable from the low, sharp cot of her black hull, and the 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 283 

excessive rake of her masts, that she seemed amongst the other craft as a swallow 
seems amongst other birds. Her deck was crowded with naked blacks, whose 
woolly heads studded the rail. She was a slaver with a large cargo. In the 
autumn of 1833 this schooner, apparently a Brazilian, and named with the 
liberty-stirring appellation of 'Dona Maria da Gloria,' had left Loando, on 
the slave coast, with a few bales of merchandise, to comply with the formalities 
required by the authorities from vessels engaged in legal traffic ; for the slave- 
trade, under the Brazilian flag, is now piracy. No sooner was she out of port 
than the real object of her voyage declared itself. She hastily received on 
board four hundred and thirty negroes, who had been mustered in readiness, 
and sailed for Rio Janeiro. Off the mouth of that harbor she arrived in No- 
vember, and was captured as a slaver by his majesty's brig Snake. The case 
was brought in December before the court established there ; and the court de- 
cided that, as her Brazilian character had not been fully made out, it was in- 
competent to the final decision of the case. It was necessary to apply to the 
court of mixed commission at Sierra Leone for the purpose of adjudication. 
A second time, therefore, the unfortunate dungeon-ship put to sea with her 
luckless cargo, and again crossed the Atlantic amidst the horrors of a two 
month's voyage. The Dona Maria da Gloria having returned to Africa, cast 
anchor at Freetown in the middle of February, 1834, and on arrival, found the 
number reduced by death from four hundred and thirty to three hundred and 
thirty-five. 

" Continuance of misery for several months in a cramped posture, in a pes- 
tilential atmosphere, had not only destroyed many, but had spread disease 
amongst the survivors. Dropsy, eruptions, abscesses, and dysentery were 
making ravages, and ophthalmia was general. Until formally adjudicated by 
the court, the wretched slaves could not be lauded, nor even relieved from their 
sickening situation. With the green hills and valleys of the colony close to 
them, they must not leave their prison. I saw them in April ; they had been 
in the harbor two months, and no release had been offered them. But the 
most painful circumstance was the final decision of the court. The slaver 
was proved to have been sailing under Portuguese colors, not Brazilian ; and 
the treaty with the Portuguese prohibits slave traffic to the north of a certain 
line only, whereas the Dona Maria had been captured a few degrees to the 
south. No alternative remained. Her capture was decided to have been ille- 
gal. She was formally delivered up to her slave-captain ; and he received 
from the British authorities written orders to the commanders of the British 
cruisers, guaranteeing a safe and free passage back to the Brazils ; and I saw 
the evil ship weigh anchor and leave Sierra Leone, the seat of slave liberation, 
with her large canvas proudly swelling, and her ensign floating as if in con- 
tempt and triumph. Thus, a third time were the dying wretches carried across 
the Atlantic after seven months' confinement ; few probably lived through the 
passage." 

Formerly, the forfeited slave-ships at Sierra Leone used to be sold ; and 
there were frequent instances of a forfeited slaver sold in one year plying the 



284 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

same trade the next. With regard to the crews, Sir Fowell Buxton remarks, 
that the law by which Great Britain, Brazil, and North America have made 
slave-dealing piracy, and liable to capital punishment, is, practically, a dead 
letter, there being no instance of an execution for that crime. 

Perhaps never has the inefficacy of all that has yet been done towards the 
suppression of the slave-trade been more strikingly made out than in the har- 
rowing pamphlet published by the Rev. Pascoe Grenfell Hill, entitled " Fifty 
Days on Board a Slave- Vessel in the Mozambique Channel, in April and May, 
1843." The Progresso, a Braziliau slaver, was captured on the 12th of April, 
on the coast of Madagascar, by the British cruiser Cleopatra, on board of which 
Mr. Hill was chaplain. The slaver was then taken charge of by a British 
crew, who were to navigate her to the Cape of Good Hope. Mr. Hill, at his 
own request, accompanied her ; and his pamphlet is a narrative of what took 
place during the fifty days which elapsed before their arrival at the Cape. We 
cannot here quote the details of the description of the treatment of the negroes 
given by Mr. Hill ; but the following account of the horrors of a single night 
will suffice. Shortly after the Progresso parted company with the Cleopatra, 
a squall arose, and the negroes, who were breathing fresh air on deck, and roll- 
ing themselves about for glee, and kissing the hands and clothes of their de- 
liverers, were all sent below. " The night," says Mr. Hill, " being intensely 
hot, 400 wretched beings thus crammed into a hold 12 yards in length, 7 feet 
in breadth, and only 3| feet in height, speedily began to make an effort to 
re-issue to the open air. Being thrust back, and striving the more to get out, 
the after-hatch was forced down on them. Over the other hatchway, in the 
fore part of the vessel, a wooden grating was fastened. To this, the sole inlet 
for the air, the suffocating heat of the hold, and perhaps panic from the strange- 
ness of their situation, made them press ; and thus a great part of the space 
below was rendered useless. They crowded to the grating, and clinging to it 
for air, completely barred its entrance. They strove to force their way through 
apertures in length 14 inches, and barely 6 inches in breadth, and in some in- 
stances succeeded. The cries, the heat — I may say without exaggeration, 'the 
smoke of their torment ' — which ascended, can be compared to nothing earthly. 
One of the Spaniards gave warning that the consequence would be 'many 
deaths.'" Next day the prediction of the Spaniard "was fearfully verified. 
Fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses lifted up from the slave deck have been 
brought to the gangway and thrown overboard. Some were emaciated from 
disease, many bruised and bloody. Antonio tells me that some were found 
strangled, their hands still grasping each other's throats, and tongues protrud- 
ing from their mouths. The bowels of one were crushed out. They had been 
trampeled to death for the most part, the weaker under the feet of the stronger, 
in the madness and torment of suffocation from crowd and heat. It was a 
horrid sight as they passed one by one — the stiff, distorted limbs smeared with 
blood and filth — to be cast into the sea. Some, still quivering, were laid on 
the deck to die ; salt water thrown on them to revive them, and a little fresh 
water poured into their mouths. Antonio reminded me of his last night's 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 285 

warning. He actively employed himself, with his comrade Sebastian, in atten- 
dance on the wretched living beings now released from their confinement below ; 
distributing to them their morning meal of farina, aud their allowance of 
water, rather more than half a pint to each, which they grasped with incon- 
ceivable eagerness, some bending their knees to the deck, to avoid the risk of 
losing any of the liquid by unsteady footing ; their throats, doubtless, parched 
to the utmost with crying and yelling through the night." 

On the 12th of April, when the Progresso parted company with the Cleopa- 
tra, there were 397 negroes on board. Of these only 222 were landed at the 
Cape on the 22d of May; no fewer than 175, a little short of half, having 
died. Many also died after being landed. The crew escaped, there being no 
court empowered to try them at the Cape. 

Walsh, in his notices of Brazil, in 1828 and 1829, says, in describing a slave- 
ship, examined by the English man-of-war in which he returned from Brazil, 
in May, 1829 : " She had taken in, on the coast of Africa, 336 males and 226 
females, making in all 562, and had been out seventeen days, during which 
she had thrown overboard fifty-five. The slaves were all enclosed under grated 
hatchways, between decks. The space was so low, that they sat between each 
other's legs, and stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their 
lying down, or at all changing their position by night or day. As they be- 
longed to, and were shipped on account of, different individuals, they were all 
branded, like sheep, with the owners' marks, of different forms. These were 
impressed under their breasts, or on their arms, and, as the mate informed me, 
with perfect indifference, ' queimados j)elo ferro quenlo — burnt with the red 
hot iron.' Over the hatchway stood a ferocious looking fellow, with a scourge 
of many twisted thongs in his hand, who was the slave-driver of the ship; and 
whenever he heard the slightest noise below, he shook it over them, and seemed 
eager to exercise it. As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at 
them, their dark and melancholy visages brightened up. They perceived some- 
thing of sympathy and kindness in our looks, which they had not been accus- 
tomed to, and feeling, instinctively, that we were friends, they immediately 
began to shout and clap their hands. One or two had picked up a few Portu- 
guese words, and cried out, 'Viva! viva." The women were particularly ex- 
cited. They all held up their arms ; and when we bent down and shook hands 
with them, they could not contain their delight ; they endeavored to scramble 
upon their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands ; and we understood that they 
knew we had come to liberate them. Some, however, hung down their heads 
in apparently hopeless dejection ; some were greatly emaciated, and some, 
particularly children, seemed dying. But the circumstance which struck us 
most forcibly, was, how it was possible for such a number of human beings to 
exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could cram, in low cells, 
three feet high, the greater part of which, except that immediately under the 
grated hatchways, was shut out from light or air, and this when the thermom- 
eter, exposed to the open sky, was standing in the shade, on our deck, at 89°. 
The space between decks was divided into two compartments, three feet three 



286 TIIE SLAVE TRADE. 

inches high ; the size of one was sixteen feet by eighteen, and of the othe 
forty by twenty-one ; into the first were crammed the women and girls ; into 
the second, the men and boys : 226 fellow creatures were thus thrust into one 
space 288 feet square, and 336 into another space 800 feet square — giving to 
the whole an average of twenty-three inches, and to each of tne women not 
more than thirteen inches, though many of them were pregnant. We also 
fonnd manacles and fetters of different kinds ; but it appears they had all been 
taken off before we boarded. The heat of these horrid places was so great, 
and the odor so offensive, that it was quite impossible to enter them, even had 
there been room. They were measured, as above, when the slaves had left 
them. The officers insisted that the poor suffering creatures should be admitted 
on deck, to get air and water. This was opposed by the mate of the slaver, 
who, from a feeling that they deserved it, declared they would murder them 
all. The officers, however, persisted, and the poor beings were all turned up 
together. It is impossible to conceive the effect of this eruption — 507 fellow 
creatures, of all ages and sexes, some children, some adults, some old men and 
women, all in a state of total nudity, scrambling out together to taste the lux- 
ury of a little fresh air and water. They came swarming up like bees from 
the aperture of a hive, till the whole deck was crowded to suffocation, from 
stem to stern ; so that it was impossible to imagine where they could all have 
come from, or how they could all have been stowed away. On looking into 
the places where they had been crammed, there were found some children next 
the sides of the ship, in the places most remote from light and air ; they were 
lying nearly in a torpid state, after the rest had turned out. The little crea- 
tures seemed indifferent as to life or death ; and when they were carried on 
deck, many of them could not stand. After enjoying, for a short time, (lie 
unusual luxury of air, some water was brought ; it was then that the extent of 
their sufferings was exposed in a fearful manner. They all rushed like maniacs 
towards it. No entreaties, or threats, or blows, could restrain them ; they 
shrieked and struggled, and fought with one another, for a drop of this precious 
liquid, as if they grew rabid at the sight of it. There is nothing which slave , 
in the mid-passage, suffer from so much as want of water. It is sometimes 
usual to take out casks filled with sea- water as ballast, and when the slaves arc 
received on board, to start the casks and refill them with fresh. On one occa- 
sion a ship from Bahia neglected to change the contents of the casks, and on 
the mid-passage found, to their horror, that they were filled with nothing but 
salt water. All the slaves on board perished! "We could judge of the extent 
of their sufferings from the afflicting sight we now saw. When the poor crea- 
tures were ordered down again, several of them came and pressed their heads 
against our knees, with looks of the greatest anguish, at the prospect of return- 
ing to the horrid place of suffering below." 

The English ship, however, was obliged, though with great reluctance, to 
release the slaver, as it could not be proved, after a strict examination, that 
he had exceeded the privilege allowed to Brazilian ships of procuring slaves 
south of the line 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 287 

Admiral Sir George Collier, in bis report to the lords of adniirality, dated 
September 6, 1820, stated, that "in the last twelve months not less than 
60,000 Africans have been forced from their country, principally under the 
colors of France ; most of whom have been distributed between the islands of 
Martinique, Guadaloupe, and Cuba. The confidence under which vessels navi- 
gate, bearing the French flag, has become so great, that I saw at Havana, in 
July last, no fewer than forty vessels fitting avowedly for the slave-trade, pro- 
tected equally by the flags and papers of France and Spain. France has 
certainly issued her decrees against this traffic ; but she has done nothing to 
enforce them. On the contrary, she gives to the trade all countenance short 
of public avowal. 

" On this distressing subject, so revolting to every well regulated mind, I 
will add, that such is the merciless treatment of the slaves, by the persons en- 
gaged in the traffic, that no fancy can picture the horror of the voyage. 
Crowded together so as not to give the power to move ; linked one to the 
other by the leg, never unfettered while life remains, or till the iron shall have 
fretted the flesh almost to the bone, forced under a deck, as I have seen 
them, not thirty inches in height ; breathing an atmosphere the most putrid 
and pestilential possible ; with little food, and less water ; subject also to the 
most severe punishment at the caprice or fancy of the brute who may command 
the vessel ; it is to me a matter of extreme wonder that any of these miserable 
people live the voyage through ; many of them, indeed, perish on the passage, 
and those who remain to meet the shore, present a picture of wretchedness 
language cannot express." 

The following singular and distressing circumstance occurred about the same 
time: The ship Le Rodeur, of 200 tons burthen, left Havre the 24th of Jan- 
uary, 1819, for the coast of Africa, and reached her destination on the 14th of 
March following, auchoring at Bonny, on the river Calabar. The crew, con- 
sisting of twenty-two men, enjoyed good' health during the outward voyage, 
and during their stay at Bonny, where they continued till the 6th of April. 
They had observed no trace of ophthalmia among the natives ; and it was not 
until fifteen days after they had set sail on the return voyage, and the vessel 
was near the equator, that they perceived the first symptoms of this frightful 
malady. It was then remarked that the negroes, who, to the number of one 
hundred and sixty, were crowded together in the hold and between the decks, 
had contracted a considerable redness of the eyes, which spread with singular 
rapidity. No great attention was at first paid to these symptoms, which were 
thought to be caused only by the want of air in the hold, and by the scarcity 
of water which had already begun to be felt. At this time they were limited 
to eight ounces of water a day for each person* which quantity was afterwards 
reduced to the half of a wine glass. By the advice of M. Maignan, the 
surgeon of the ship, the negroes, who had hitherto remained shut up in the 
hold, were brought upon deck in succession, in order that they might breathe a 
purer air. But it became necessary to abandon this expedient, salutary as it 



288 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

was, because many of those negroes, affected with nostalgia, threw themselves 
into the sea, locked in each others arms. 

The disease which had spread itself so rapidly and frightfully among the 
Africans, soon began to infect all on board, and to create alarms for the crew. 
The danger of infection, and perhaps the cause which produced the disease, 
were increased by a violent dysentery, attributed to the use of rain water. 
The first of the crew who caught the infection was a sailor who slept under 
the deck, near the grated hatch which communicated with the hold. The next 
day a landsman was seized with ophthalmia ; and, in three days more the 
captain and almost the whole crew were infected by it. 

The sufferings of the people and the number of the blind augmented every 
day, so that the crew — previously alarmed by the apprehension of a revolt 
among the negroes — were seized with the further dread of not being able to 
make the West Indies, if the only sailor who had hitherto escaped the conta- 
gion, and on whom their whole hope rested, should become blind like the rest. 
This calamity had actually befallen the Leon, a Spanish slaver which the 
Rodeur met with on her passage, and the whole of whose crew, having become 
blind, were under the necessity of altogether abandoning the direction of their 
ship. They entreated the charitable interference of the Rodeur ; but the sea 
men of this vessel could not either quit her to go on board the Leon, on ac- 
count of the cargo of negroes, nor receive the crew in the Rodeur, in which 
there were scarcely room for themselves. The difficulty of taking care of so 
large a number of sick in so confined a space, and the total want of fresh 
meat and of medicines, made them envy the fate of those who were about to 
become the victims of a death which seemed to them inevitable, and the con- 
sternation was general. 

The Rodeur reached Gaudaloupe on the 21st of June, 1819, her crew being 
in a most deplorable condition. Three days after her arrival, the only man 
who, during the voyage, had withstood the influence of the contagion, and 
whom Providence appeared to have preserved as a guide to his unfortunate 
companions, was seized with the same malady. Of the negroes, thirty-nine 
had become perfectly blind, twelve had lost an eye, and fourteen were affected 
with blemishes more or less considerable. Of the crew, twelve lost their sight 
entirely, among whom was the surgeon ; five become blind of one eye, one of 
them being the captain, and four were partially injured. 

Such were the miseries of this voyage of iniquity, but the atrocities of it 
even transcended its miseries. It is stated among other things, that the cap- 
tain caused several of the negroes who were prevented in the attempt to throw 
themselves overboard to be shot and hanged in the hope that the example 
might deter the rest from a sinlilar conduct. Rut even this severity proved 
unavailing, and it became necessary to confine the slaves entirely to the hold 
during the remainder of the voyage. It is further stated, that upwards of 
thirty of the slaves who became blind were thrown into the sea and drowned 
upon the principle that had they been landed at Guadaloupe no one would 
have bought them, and that the proprietors would consequently have incurred 



SLAVE SHOPS. 289 

che expense of maintaining them without the chance of any return; while. In- 
throwing them overboard not only was this certain loss avoided, but ground 
was also laid for a claim on the underwriters by whom the cargo had been in- 
sured, and who are said to have allowed the claim and made good the value 
of the slaves thus destroyed. 

In the memorial of the colonization society presented to congress in 1822, 
it was stated that official documents had been presented to government, from 
which it appeared that in 1821, two hundred thousand had been carried away 
from the coast of Africa. 

The African institution reported that in 1822, 28,246 slaves were imported 
into Rio de Janeiro alone from the coast. The number embarked had been 
31,240 — 3,484 having died on th£ passage. 

In 1824, the same society reported that 120,000 were taken from Africa 
during that year. 

In 1825, "there were," says Commodore Bullen, "in the river Bonny alone 
2007 tons of shipping, 293 persons and 35 guns, under the flag of the French 
nation, employed in the speculation of human flesh." 

In 1822, four slave vessels were taken on the river Bonny by a squadron 
under Sir Robert Mends, stationed by the British government on the coast of 
Africa to prevent the infraction of the laws for the abolition of the slave-trade. 
The vessels were Spanish and French. They had nearly 1300 slaves on board. 
A Spanish schooner, when taken possession of, had a lighted match hanging 
over the open magazine hatch. The match was placed there by the crew, 
before they leaped overboard and swam for the shore ; it was seen by one of 
the seamen, who boldly put his hat under the burning wick and removed it. 
The magazine contained a large quantity of powder. One spark from the 
flaming match would have blown up 325 unfortunate victims lying in irons in 
the hold. These monsters in iniquity expressed their deep regret after the 
action that their diabolical plan had failed. 

On board another of the vessels, Lieutenant Mildmay, the officer who cap- 
tured her, observed a slave girl about twelve or thirteen years of age in irons, 
to which was fastened a thick iron chain, ten feet in length, that was dragged 
along as she moved. He ordered the girl to be instantly released from this 
fetter; and that the captain who had treated her so cruelly might not be 
ignorant of the pain inflicted upon an unprotected and innocent child, the irons 
were ordered to be put upon him. 

The slaves in one of the vessels at the time of the capture, were found in 
the most wretched condition ; some lying on their backs, others sitting on the 
bottom of the ships. They were chained to each other by the arms and legs ; 
iron collars were placed round their necks. In addition to these provisions 
for confinement, they were fastened together by a long chain which connected 
several of the collars for their greater security in that dismal prison. Thumb- 
screws, to he used as instruments of torture, were also found in the vessel. 
From their confinement and sufferings, the slaves often injured themselves by 
beating, and vented their grief upon such as were next to them by biting and 
19 



290 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

tearing their flesh. Some of them were bound by cords, and many had their 
arms grievously lacerated. 

In 1825, on board a schooner's boat of only five tons burthen which was 
taken, were found seventeen slaves, twenty-three had been taken in, six had 
already died. The negroes were in a state of complete starvation and ap- 
proaching dissolution. The space allowed them was no more than eighteen 
inches between the water casks and the deck. 

The Aviso, another captured vessel, had 465 slaves on board ; of whom 34 
died after their capture, notwithstanding every attention. Such was the filth 
and crowd that not half could have reached the Brazils alive. Commodore 
Bullen put the crew on shore in Prince's island. These wretches, as soon as 
they found that they must be boarded, had stove in their boilers, as a last 
malignant effort to add to the misery of those whom a few minutes would 
place beyond their power. 

One Oiseau, commander of a French slave-ship called Le Louis, having 
completed his cargo on the old Calabar, thrust them all between decks, (a 
height of only three feet,) and closed the hatches on them for the night. Fifty 
were found dead in the morning. As a matter of course, he only immediately 
returned on shore to supply their place. Captain Arnaud, of the Louisa, 
arrived at Guadaloupe with 200 negroes, the remainder of an original cargo of 
265. Having by mistake purchased more than he could accommodate, he had 
thrown the odd 65 into the sea. 

A writer in the African Repository, who visited Africa in one of our na- 
tional vessels, states that the steward of the vessel had been to Africa five 
times in a slave-ship. On one occasion, when an insurrection was expected, 
they shot two hundred of the slaves. Out of 400, the number which they car- 
ried at each trip, 40 died on every passage. The African Institution in one 
of their reports publishes the following deed of infernal atrocity: A French 
slaver having landed part of a cargo of 250 slaves at Guadaloupe, was pur- 
sued by an armed French vessel, when, to avoid detection, they threw the re- 
maining sixty-five overboard, all of whom perished. 

A writer in a letter from Rio de Janeiro, dated January 11, 1830, says: "I 
will relate but a single fact at this time to show the dreadful character of the 
slave-trade. The Brazilian government derives a large revenue from the im- 
portation of slaves, by laying a duty of so much per head immediately on 
their arrival without regard to their health or condition. When vessels, there- 
fore, which have slaves on board arrive off the port, a general survey takes 
place by the physician, and those poor wretches whose existence is doubtful 
are thrown overboard in order to save the duty." 

Mr. Robert Baird, in his " Impressions of the West Indies and North Amer- 
ica," in 1840, speaking of the slave-trade, says : "There can be no doubt of 
the fact, that during the last year the importation of slaves into the island of 
Cuba has been carried on in full vigor — so vigorously and extensively that the 
price of slaves had fallen, in consequence of the plentiful supply, from four 
hundred and fifty or five hundred, to from two hundred and fifty to three hun- 



CUBA. 291 

dred dollars. This fact is notorious, and I heard it authenticated by official 
authority. It is equally notorious in the island itself that the agent of the 
queen mother of Spain was and is extensively engaged in the infamous traffic ; 
and it is more than suspected that, directly or indirectly, his royal mistress is 
a large participator in the heavy gains her agent realizes from this trade in hu- 
man flesh. Indeed, the traffic is little short of being a legalized one ; the 
amount of dollars payable to the governor or to the government (for there is 
much difference between these two) being, if not fixed by law or order, at leas 
as well understood as if it were so. All this is, of course, in direct and mani- 
fest violation of the engagements and treaties made by Spain with England ; 
and it is an ascertained fact that fully one-half of the slaves in Cuba are there 
held in abject bondage in violation of these solemn treaties and engagements. 
Indeed, were it otherwise, it were nearly impossible that the Spanish colonists 
of Cuba could And slaves to cultivate their fields. Every one who knows Cu- 
ba, and the brutal manner in which the great mass of the agricultural slaves 
are treated there, will laugh at the idea of the slave population of Cuba being 
self-supporting. They also know that it is much cheaper to import slaves than 
to breed them. The planter in Cuba found this to be the case, even when the 
vigilance of the British and French cruisers had made slaves so scarce in Cuba 
that the price of an able-bodied one was fully five hundred dollars'. Of course, 
now that such vigilance had been, for a time, at least, relaxed, and the price 
of slaves had fallen to from two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars, the 
greater economy of keeping up the breed by importation is too plain to be 
overlooked. Hence it is that the idea of a self-supporting system seems to be 
quite out of the Cuban's calculations, and that in the barracoons on his estates 
there are often to be found numerous bands of males and but a very few fe- 
males, or oftimes none at all. It has been said, and it is generally credited by 
intelligent parties resident in Cuba, that the average duration of the life of a 
Cuban slave, after his arrival in the island, does not exceed seven or eight 
years. In short, that he is worked out in that time. His bodily frame cannot 
stand the excessive toil for a longer period ; and, after that average period, his 
immortal spirit escapes from the tortured tenement of clay. Ye extenuators 
of slavery and of the slave-trade, ponder this ascertained fact. Is it not enough 
to make the flesh creep, and to unite all civilized mankind to put an end at 
least to the traffic in slaves ? ' Nor is it only by treaties that Spain and Bra- 
zil are bound to cease their illegal traffic in human flesh. England has paid 
them large sums of money as the condition of their doing so ; and these sums 
they have received and accepted, under the annexed and expressed condition. 
It has been unjustly said by some writers on the other side of the Atlantic — 
writers evidently in the pay of those who think it for their interest to prevent 
their country from sharing in the glory Great Britain has acquired and will ac- 
quire, by her efforts for suppressing and putting an end to the horrors of the 
slave-trade — that Great Britain has no right to interfere with Spain and Bra- 
zil as regards this trade in their own colonies ; that slavery is a domestic insti- 
tution, with which foreign nations have nothing whatever to do ; and that, in 



292 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

debarring Spain and Brazil from the conduct of this traffic, the British lion is 
doing little more than acting the bully. Such writers forget the contract part 
of the matter. Were England seeking, by threat or force of arms, to promote 
the emancipation of slaves within any country or any colony, large or small, 
there might be some foundation for the argument. As it is, there is none. She 
is only demanding and requiring that Spain and Brazil should do what they 
have promised and engaged to do, what they have been paid for doing, but 
what they have hitherto failed to perform. Happy is it for England that, in 
enforcing these claims, she is fighting in the sacred cause of humanity. 

" It is also said, and universally credited, that the present captain-general 
views the slave-trade with an indulgent eye. At all events, it is indisputable 
that the importation of slaves into the island, which fell off greatly under the 
influence of England and the activity of the English cruisers, during the latter 
years of the dynasty of the late governor, (Count O'Donnel,) has of late years, 
and since the Count of Alcoy assumed the reins of government, received a 
fresh impetus, and is now flourishing in fullest vigor. How far the governor 
is personally concerned in the production of this result, it were next to impos- 
sible to ascertain exactly ; but assuredly his correspondence with the represen- 
tative of Britain in the island, as to the landing of slaves, in the course of 
which the British consul-general offered to give his excellency ocular evidence 
of the truth of his informant's story — that slaves had been lately landed from 
a slaver, and were then in course of sale — does not indicate any desire either 
to suppress the traffic or to keep faith with Britain. Indeed, it is publicly af- 
firmed that a regularly fixed fee (some fifty dollars a-head) is exacted by the 
governor on each slave that is brought in, besides sundry other fees to the cap- 
tain of the port or harbor-master, and other officials, who have the power of 
prevention more or less in their hands. In short, the system is a complete one, 
and completely inoculated, into the principles of Cuban government. No 
doubt a semblance of respect for the solemn treaties made with Britain, and for 
the entering into which Spain has been paid, is kept up in the island. The 
barbarian victims of the inhuman slave-trade are exposed to sale not as slaves, 
but as 'goods' or 'merchandise,' (bultos,) and some such farce is occasionally 
exhibited as this : A few of the imported slaves — such of them as are sick, 
disabled, infirm, or likely to die, and of course are of little or no value — are 
taken possession of by government authority, and an attempt is made to 
'throw dust in the eyes of the English,' by making a noise about the matter, 
and formally delivering up the miserable wretches, thus 'seized,' as slaves im- 
ported into Cuba, in violation of the solemn treaties made by Spain with Eng- 
land — much being vaunted, at the time, of Spanish honor and national good 
faith. If any thing could make matters worse than the real disregard of the 
treaties, it would be conduct such as this — hypocrisy added to dishonesty, and 
the whole veiled in high-sounding words. And yet such pretended seizures 
and deliveries are often taking place. One had occurred only a few days be- 
fore I reached Cuba, the number then seized being under twenty ; while the 
knowr number of slaves actually introduced into the island, during that and 



cuba. 293 

the previous month, had not been less than four thousand, and while the aver- 
age rate of present import is not under two thousand per month." 

In 1840, Turnbull published his work on " Cuba and Porto Rico." He was 
a close observer of every thing connected with slavery and the slave-trade, 
and the greater part of his work is devoted to this subject. From this relia- 
ble source we gather some important facts : " As if to throw ridicule on the 
grave denials of all knowledge of the slave-trade which are forced from suc- 
cessive captains-general of Cuba by the unwearied denunciations of the Brit- 
ish authorities, two extensive depots for the reception and sale of newly im- 
ported Africans have lately been erected at the further end of the Paseo, just 
under the windows of his excellency's residence ; the one capable of holding 
1000 and the other 1500 negroes. These were constantly full during the 
greater part of the time I remained in Havana. As the barracoon, or depot, 
serves the purpose of a slave-market as well as a prison, these two have been 
placed at the point of greatest attraction, where the Paseo ends, and where 
the grounds of the captain-general begin, and where the railroad passes into 
the interior. The passengers on the cars are horrified at the unearthly shouts 
of the thoughtless inmates, who, in their eagerness and astonishment at the 
passing train, push their arms and legs through the bars of the windows, with 
the cries, and grimace, and jesticulation, which might be expected from a horde 
of savages placed in circumstances so totally new and extraordinary. These 
barracoons are considered by the foreign residents as the lions of the place, 
and strangers are carried there as to a sight that cannot well be seen else- 
where. On entering you do not find so much misery as an unreflecting visitor 
might expect. It is the policy of the importer to restore as soon as possible 
among the survivors, the strength that has been wasted, and the health that has 
been lost during the horrors of the middle passage. It is his interest to keep 
up the spirits of his victims, that they may the sooner become marketable, and 
prevent their sinking under that fatal home-sickness which carries off so many 
during the first months of their captivity. With this view they are well fed 
and clothed. Even after leaving the barracoons, the overseer of the planta- 
tion finds it for the interest of his master to treat them with lenity for several 
months, scarcely allowing them to hear the crack of a whip, and breaking 
them in by slow degrees to the hours and weight of labor which are destined 
to break them down long before the period which nature prescribes. 

" The well understood difficulty of breaking in men and women of mature 
age to the labors of the field, has produced a demand at the barracoons for 
younger victims. The range of years in the age of captives appeared to ex- 
tend from twelve to eighteen, and the proportion of males to females was 
nearly three to one, as the demand for males was much greater. One motive 
for the continuation of the slave-trade is the well known fact, that a state of 
hopless servitude h»s the effect of enervating the slave, and reducing the phys- 
ical powers of his descendants far below the average of his African ancestors. 
4. Bozal African commands a price twenty per cent higher than that of a 



294 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

Creole, born in slavery on the island. As applied to negroes, the terms Creole 
and Bozal are nearly antithetical." 

Bryan Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, in describing the charac- 
teristics of the various tribes of Western Africa, speaks of the natives of the 
Gold Coast as constituting the genuine and original unmixed negro, both in 
person and character. He says "the Koromantyn or Gold Coast negroes 
are distinguished for firmness both of body and mind ; a ferociousness of dis- 
position ; but withal activity, courage, and a stubbornness, or what an ancient 
Roman would have deemed an elevation of soul, which prompts them to en- 
terprizes of difficulty and dauger, and enables them to meet death in its most 
horrible forms with fortitude or indifference. They take to labor with great 
promptitude and alacrity, and have constitutions well adapted for it. It is 
not wonderful that such men should endeavor, even by means the most desper- 
ate, to regain the freedom of which they have been deprived." The historian 
describes a rebellion of these negroes which occurred in Jamaica in 1160. A 
baud of about one hundred, newly imported, and led by one of their number 
who had been a chief in Guinea, having revolted and formed themselves into 
a body, about one o'clock in the morning proceeded to the fort at Port Maria, 
killed the sentinel, and provided themselves with arms and ammunition. Here 
they were joined by their countrymen from other plantations, and marched up 
the high road that led to the interior of the island, carrying death and desola- 
tion as they went. They massacred the whites and mulattoes as they went, 
and literally drank their blood mixed with rum. 

Their chief was killed by one of the parties that went in pursuit of them ; 
and three of the ringleaders were taken. One was condemned to be burnt, 
aud the other two to be hung up alive in irons, and left to perish. The one 
that was burnt was made to sit on the ground, and his body being chained to 
an iron stake, the fire was applied to his feet. He uttered not a groan, and 
saw his legs reduced to ashes with the utmost firmness and composure. After 
which, one of his arms by some means getting loose, he snatched a brand from 
the fire that was consuming him, and flung it in the face of the executioner. 
The two that were hung up alive were indulged at their own request with a 
hearty meal before they were suspended on the gibbet, which was erected on 
the Kingston parade. From that time uutil they expired they never uttered 
the least complaint, except only of cold in the night, but diverted themselves 
all day long in discourse with their countrymen, who were permitted to sur- 
round the gibbet. The historian says that he visited the gibbet on the seventh 
day, and while there, he heard them both laugh immoderately at some trifling 
occurrence. The next morning one of them silently expired, as did the other 
on the morning of the ninth day.* 

The British minister at Rio informed Lord Palmerston in 1838, that 36,974 
slaves had been imported into that single harbor during the'year 1827, and that 



*Bryan Edwards' History of the West Indies. 



CUBA AND RIO. 295 

the numVier would have been greater but for the fact that several of the trad- 
ers had discharged their vessels at other ports of the empire. 

" The system pursued at Rio (says Turubull), seems, in many respects, to 
correspond with what I have witnessed at Havana. The receptacles for the 
Bozal negroes, which serve the double purpose of warehousing and exposing 
them for sale, are open in both places to public inspection ; although perhaps 
not so closely under the windows of the imperial palace at Rio, as they are 
under those of the captain-general's residence at Havana. Mr. Ouseley, the 
British minister, states that no less than 6,000 newly imported Africans have 
been exposed for sale at one time in the barracoons at Rio. The Brazilian 
authorities, like those of Cuba, have a direct pecuniary interest in promoting 
the traffic, by the existence of a sort of capitation tax on the imports, which 
is divided among the officers of the government. 

Two insurance companies were in operation in Havana with a capital of 
$850,000, for the purpose of covering slave risks. They exacted premiums 
varying from 25 to 40 per cent., according to the sailing qualities of the ship, 
and the character of the master for sagacity and courage. The business was 
also carried on by private underwriters. 

In 1837, seventy-eight slavers arrived at Havana under the Portuguese flag, 
each vessel averaging 300 slaves, making a total of 23,400. For each one of 
them the captain-general received the usual fee of a doubloon ; the levy on the 
whole yielding $360,000, which sum was divided, as customary, into four equal 
parts : the captain-general, the captain of the coast guard, the harbor masters 
where the landing is effected, and the local chiefs of the customs, receiving 
equal shares. The parties who pay it never obtain any thing in the nature of 
a receipt, or other written acknowledgment for the money. It will be ob- 
served that the captain-general's interest is equal to a whole class of the mi- 
nor functionaries. 

Ninety-three vessels, under the flag of Portugal, are reported to have en- 
tered the harbor of Rio de Janeiro alone in 183T, and as many as eighty-four 
in 1838, from which, in two years, there were landed "78,300 slaves. These 
calculations do not include the number of slavers which resorted to other places 
in Cuba besides Havana, nor to other provinces in Brazil besides Rio de Ja- 
neiro ; neither does it include the number which founder at sea, nor those which 
were captured and condemned at Sierra Leone. In that settlement there were 
at the time four courts of mixed commission — the British and Brazilian, the 
British and Netherlands, the British and Spanish, and the British and Portu- 
guese. In 1838, the number of captured slavers which passed through those 
courts amounted to thirty. The Dutch and Brazilian commissioners enjoyed 
a sinecure ; but although several of the thirty slavers were condemned in the 
Spanish court, as being liable under a new interpretation of the lex mercato- 
ria, to be treated as Spaniards, and so to be subject to the conditions of the 
treaty, it is a remarkable fact that every one of them professed to be Portu- 
guese, and was provided with Portuguese papers. Eighteen were condemned 
in the Portuguese court, because the fact of their being full of slaves at the 



296 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

moment of capture was irresistible ; one escaped condemnation ; the other 
eleven were deprived of the shelter of the Portuguese flag and condemned in 
the Spanish court. Not one of the whole number, however, was really Portu- 
guese : four were Brazilian, and the remaining twenty-six undoubtedly Span- 
ish. Of the eleven condemned in the Spanish court, only one had embarked 
any slaves previous to her capture ; and it was in virtue of the " equipment 
clause " in the Clarendon treaty with Spain that they were subject to be con- 
demned. 

Joint stock companies were organized at Havana and Brazil, with heavy 
capitals, for the purpose of carrying on the slave-trade. Two of the above 
vessels belonged to one of these companies, the head-quarters of which were 
at Pernambuco. From papers found on board one of the vessels, it appeared 
that the company was composed of twenty members, and the capital invested, 
$80,000 ; and that they intended to establish a slave factory in the river Benin, 
and endeavor to secure a monopoly of the trade with the native princes. 

The small number of slavers captured in proportion to the number engaged 
in the trade, may be accounted for from the fact that the cruisers were engaged 
in the hopeless task of blockading and watching 8000 miles of coa?c: — 3000 
miles of the African continent, embracing those portions only from whence 
slaves were obtained, and 5000 miles may be estimated for the shores of Bra- 
zil, Cuba, and Porto Rico. 

From the papers and letters of instruction which occasionally fell into the 
hands of the captors, some curious facts are obtained. One treasurer of a com- 
pany in Brazil writes to his agent on the coast, that among his stock in trade, 
to be sure at all times to have plenty of rum and tobacco, and to estimate all 
his goods at the highest possible prices ; and that as all savages have respect 
for some kind of religion, the agent must be sure to keep up the exercise of 
some external forms, which would give a desirable " moral force " to the estab- 
lishment ! The natives were to be treated with the utmost civility, but not the 
slightest confidence was to be placed in them. Intoxication was to be care- 
fully guarded against by the servants of the company, but the natives were to 
be encouraged in it. All sorts of contrivances were resorted to in order to 
cheat the poor negroes. English calico was cut up the middle in order to 
double its length, and each piece of stripe, or handkerchief, was cut across, 
making two pieces ; the rum was adulterated, and the tobacco packed expressly 
for deception. From the intercepted correspondence we also gather some par- 
ticulars in regard to the mortality of the trade. The Salome" had landed a 
cargo of 253 slaves near Matanzas, of whom seven had died soon after they 
were landed, and twenty-seven others were sick ; seventy-four others had per- 
ished during the voyage, "so that we shall with difficulty," the owners patheti- 
cally observe to their agent in Africa, "get back the cost of our enterprise." 
The captain of another vessel writes back to the agent, " There were about 
100 of those embarked at your port infected with the putrid fever ; all our ex- 
ertions could not stop the mortality, so that only one half have been saved of 
the number that ought to have been yielded by our abundant and well assorted 



CORRESPONDENCE. 297 

barter, calculated to produce more than 400." Another merchant writes, " The 
business wears a most unfavorable aspect ; although the vessel arrived safely, 
we shall scarcely get back our outlay, for out of the small number embarked, 
there died eighty-one during the voyage and shortly after landing. The oth- 
ers were sold at Matanzas, at an average of $306. The twenty who were sick 
brought us $2,304." 

The captains of the slavers were generally instructed to fly on the slightest, 
appearance of danger — "if you hesitate, you are lost." In one of the con- 
tracts for wages between the owners and crew of a captured slaver, it was stip- 
ulated, in order to compel the men to fight, that " wages shall not be due in 
the event of capture by a vessel of equal force, nor even in the event of cap- 
ture by one of superior force, unless after an obstinate defense ; and in that case 
the wages of those who will not fight shall be forfeited, and divided among the 
brave defenders." 

The slavers were generally provided with three sets of papers, Spanish, Por- 
tuguese, and American, and the American flag was frequently made use of to 
shield the miscreants. The Venus, a ship of 460 tons, was built in Baltimore 
in 1838, expressly for a slaver. She arrived at Havana on the 4th of August 
in that year, and sailed shortly afterwards under American colors. She was 
owned by a Spaniard and a Frenchman, and was said to have cost them 
$100,000. She proceeded to the coast of Africa, and embarked the unprece- 
dented number of 1,100 slaves, of whom the survivors, 860 in number, were 
landed on the coast. She had been absent but four months, and returned into 
port under Portuguese colors. It was asserted in Havana that $150,000 had 
been cleared by this single adventure. The arrival of the vessel occasioned a 
correspondence between the British commissioners and the American consul. 
The facts which brought about the correspondence were the notoriety with 
which a large vessel like the Venus, built at Baltimore, had arrived from the 
United States and sailed on a slaving voyage under the American flag, together 
with the belief that several American citizens had embarked in her from Ha- 
vana, and had also returned in her. It was also reported that the Venus had 
been visited on the coast of Africa, still showing her American colors, by the 
officers of a British cruiser. It was even a subject of boast that although one 
of the British cruisers had seen the Venus receive part of her cargo, yet that 
such was her superiority in sailing that it was found impossible to come up 
with her on the attempt being made to give chase. While the Venus remained 
at Havana, she was visited by officers of the British navy. The Portuguese 
papers with which she returned were those of an old slaver, which had sailed 
under many a flag, and finally bore the Portuguese name of the Duquesa de 
Braganza, the name which the Venus assumed in order to have the benefit of 
her Portuguese papers, without the trouble or expense of going to purchase 
them. 

Under these circumstances, the British commissioners who were sent to Ha- 
vana for the express purpose of contributing, as far as lay in their power, to 
the suppression of the slave-trade, felt it their duty to communicate the facts 



298 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

to the consular representative of the American government, and offered some 
friendly suggestions, such as an appeal to the captain-general, or the interven- 
tion of an American sloop of war then lying in Havana. By bringing the 
culprits to punishment, the American people and government would have been 
exculpated from all countenance to the disgraceful abuse which had thus been 
made of the American flag. Mr. Trist, the consul, however, saw the matter 
in a different light. He had once before been appealed to on the occasion of 
a similar abuse of his country's flag. The only notice he took of the commu- 
nication was to return it. On this second occasion he pursued a different 
course. An answer was returned, in which the former communication is spoken 
of as an "insult" and an "outrage;" and he informed them that he "could not 
recognize the right of any agent of any foreign government to interfere in any 
possible mode or degree in the discharge of his duties." 

In afterwards remarking upon this communication, Lord Palmerston desired 
the commissioners to observe to Mr. Trist, "that the two governments having, 
by the tenth article of the treaty of Ghent, mutually engaged to each other 
that they would ' use their utmost endeavors to promote the entire abolition of 
the slave-trade,' it seems to be perfectly consistent with the respect which the 
agents of each country must feel for the other country, that they should not 
only themselves act in strict accordance with the spirit of the engagement 
which their own government has contracted, but that they should furnish to 
the agents of the other government any information which may be calculated 
to enable that other government more effectually to accomplish the common 
purpose." Mr. Trist also alluded, in his letter, to the manufacture of goods 
in Great Britain expressly designed for the African trade. Lord Palmerston 
directed the commissioners to state to that gentleman that "if he can at any 
time furnish her majesty's government, through them, with any information 
which may directly or indirectly enable the government to enforce the penalties 
of the law against British subjects who may be concerned in the slave-trade, 
her majesty's government will feel most sincerely obliged to him." 

Not long after, a similar case occurred with regard to a French vessel, Le 
Havre, which having sailed from Havana under French colors, and with several 
French citizens on board, for the coast of Africa, had reentered the port, after 
having landed 500 negroes on the shores of the island. The owner was a 
Frenchman, and his partners were Englishmen. A communication was ad- 
dressed to the French consul, who applied immediately to the Prince de Join- 
ville, who was then with his ship at Havana. The prince forthwith dispatched 
a French vessel to capture the slaver, which had put to sea. The cruise was 
unsuccessful, however, as the Havre was wrecked, as the most efficacious way 
of silencing further inquiries. 

The object of the slavers in hoisting the American flag, is that it protects 
them from the right of search conceded by other nations to the cruisers en- 
gaged in supporting the trade. The laws of the Union declares the slave- 
trade piracy — the flag of the Union protects the miscreants engaged in it. 

In order to obtain the protection of the American flag, a practice arose of 



AMEICAN SLAVERS. 299 

sending Spanish vessels to Key West, and after a collusive sale had been 
effected, the vessels returned to Havana, to be dispatched to the coast of Africa 
under American colors. In this way, the Spanish schooner which went to Key 
West as the Espartero, came back as the Thomas, with American papers. A 
well known Spanish slaver went to New Orleans as the Conchita, and came 
back as the American schooner Encautadera. 

American vessels were privately sold in Havana, the American registers 
were retained, and the vessels proceded to the coast of Africa under American 
colors. The buyer generally stipulated that the American captain, or some 
American citizen to represent him, should remain on board, and the fact of the 
transfer remain in abeyance until the vessel arrived in Africa. The American 
captain retained the command, to mislead the commanders of the British 
cruisers ; but he gave it up as soon as the slaves were received on board, so as 
not to expose himself to the penalty of piracy in case of capture. The Amer- 
ican flag and papers protected them from the right of search by the British 
cruisers — the Portuguese flag and papers shielded them from the penalties of 
piracy if captured They were provided with double captains, double papers 
and double flags. 

The American flag thus became involved in the slave traffic. In 1849, the 
British consul at Rio, in his public correspondence, says : " One of the most 
notorious slave-dealers in this capital, when speaking of the employment of 
American vessels in the slave-trade, said, a few days ago : ' I am worried by 
the Americans, who insist upon my hiring their vessels for slave-trade. ' " 

Of this there is also abundant and distressing evidence from our own diplo- 
matic officers. Besides a lengthy correspondence from a preceeding mintster 
near the court of Brazil, the President of the United States transmitted a re- 
port from the Secretary of State, in December, 1850, to the Senate of the 
United States, with documents relating to the African slave-trade. A resolu- 
tion had previously passed the Senate, calling upon the Executive for this 
information. 

In these documents it is stated that " the number of American vessels which, 
since the 1st of July, 1844, until the 1st of October last (1849), sailed for the 
coast of Africa from this city, is ninety-three. ... Of these vessels, all, ex- 
cept five, have been sold and delivered on the coast of Africa, and have been 
engaged in bringing over slaves, and many of them have been captured with 
slaves on board. . . . This pretended sale takes place at the moment when the 
slaves are ready to be shipped ; the American captain and his crew going on 
shore, as the slaves are coming off, while the Portuguese or Italian passengers, 
who come out from Rio in her, all at once become master and crew of the ves- 
sel. Those of the American crew who do not die of coast-fever, get back as 
they can, many of them being compelled to come over in slave-vessels, in or- 
der to get back at all. There is evidence in the records of the consulate, of 
slaves having started two or three times from the shore, and the master and 
crew from their vessel in their boat, carrying with them the flag and ship's pa- 
pers ; when, the parties becoming frightened, both retroceded ; the slaves were 



300 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

returned to the shore, and the American master and crew again went on board 
the vessel. The stars and stripes were again hoisted over her, and kept flying 
until the cause of the alarm (an Englisn cruiser) departed from the coast, and 
the embarkation was safely effected." 

On the other hand, we have the following notice from Brazil : "As in 
former years, the slave-dealers have derived the greatest assistance and protec- 
tion for their criminal purposes, from the use of the American flag, I am hap- 
py to add that these lawless and unprincipled traders are at present deprived 
of this valuable protection, by a late determination of the American naval 
commander-in-chief on this station, who has caused three vessels, illegally 
using the flag of the United States, and which were destined for African voy- 
ages, to be seized on their leaving this harbor. This proceeding had caused 
considerable alarm and embarrassment to the slave-dealers ; and, should it be 
continued, will be a severe blow to all slave-trading interests." 

Mr. David Tod, the American Minister at the court of Brazil, in a letter 
to the Secretary of State, says : " As my predecessors had already done, I 
have, from time to time, called the attention of our government to the neces- 
sity of euacting a stringent law, having in vew the entire withdrawal of our 
vessels and citizens from this illegal commerce ; and after so much has been 
already written upon this subject, it may be deemed a work of supererogation 
to discuss it further. The interests at stake, however, are of so high a char- 
acter, the integrity of our flag and the cause of humanity being at once in- 
volved in their consideration, I cannot refrain from bringing the topic afresh to 
the notice of my government, in the hope that the President may esteem it of 
such importance as to be laid before Congress, and that even at this late day, 
legislative action may be secured." 

In this communication, a quotation is made from Mr. Proffit, one of the 
preceding ministers, to the Secretary of State, February, 1844, in which he 
says : " I regret to say this, but it is a fact not to be disguised or denied, that 
the slave-trade is almost entirely carried on under our flag, in American-built 
vessels, sold to slave-traders here, chartered for the coast of Africa, and there 
sold, or sold here — delivered on the coast, And, indeed, the scandalous traffic 
could not be carried on to any great extent, were it not for the use made of 
our flag, and the facilities given for the chartering of American vessels, to 
carry to the coast of Africa the outfit for the trade, and the material for pur- 
chasing slaves." 

Mr. Henry A. Wise, the American Minister, in his dispatch of February 
15th, 1845, said to Mr. Calhoun : 

"It is not to be denied, and I boldly assert it, that the administration of 
the imperial government of Brazil is forcibly constrained by its influences, and 
is deeply inculpated in its guilt. With that it would, at first sight, seem the 
United States have nothing to do ; but an intimate and full knowledge of the 
subject informs us, that the only mode of carrying on that trade between 
Africa and Brazil, at present, involves our laws and our moral responsibilities, 
as directly and fully as it does those of this country itself. Our flag alone 



SLAVE CARGO. 301 

gives requisite protection against the right of visit, search, and seizure ; and 
our citizens, in all the characters of owners, consignees, or agents, and of mas- 
ters and crews of our vessels, are concerned in the business, and partake of the 
profits of the African slave-trade, to and from the ports of Brazil, as fully as 
the Brazilians themselves, and others in conjunction with whom they carry it 
on. In fact, without the aid of our citizens and our flag, it could not be car- 
ried on with success at all." 

To exhibit additional proof of the state of the slave-trade prior to the 
equipment clause, we have the following instances from parliamentary papers, 
and other British authority : 

" La Jeune Estelle, being chased by a British vessel, inclosed twelve negroes 
in casks, and threw them overboard." 

" M. Oiseau, commander of Le Louis, a French vessel, in completing his 
cargo at Calabar, thrust the slaves into a narrow space three feet high, and 
closed the hatches. Next morning fifty were found dead. Oiseau coolly went 
ashore to purchase others to supply their place." 

The following extract is from a report by Captain Hayes to the admiralty, 
of a representation made to him respecting one of these vessels in 1832 : 

" The master having a large cargo of these human beings chained together, 
with more humanity than his fellows, permitted some of them to come on deck, 
but still chained together, for the benefit of the air, when they immediately 
commenced jumping overboard, hand in hand, and drowning in couples ; and 
(continued the person relating the circumstance) without any cause whatever. 
Now these people were just brought from a situation between decks, and to 
which they knew they must return, where the scalding perspiration was running 

from one to the other And men dying by their side, with full in their 

view, living and dead bodies chained together ; and the living, in addition to 
all their other torments, laboring under the most famishing thirst (being in 
very few instances allowed more than a pint of water a day); and let it not 
be forgotten that these unfortunate people had just been torn from their coun- 
try, their families, their all ! Men dragged from their wives, women from 
their husbands and children, girls from their mothers, and boys from their 
fathers ; and yet in this man's eye (for heart and soul he could have none,) 
there was no cause whatever for jumping overboard and drowning. This, in 
truth, is a rough picture, but it is not highly colored. The men are chained in 
pairs, and as a proof they are intended so to remain to the end of the voyage, 
their fetters are not locked, but riveted by the blacksmith ; and as deaths are 
frequently occurring, living men are often for a length of time confined In 
dead bodies : the living man cannot be released till the blacksmith has per- 
formed the operation of cutting the clinch of the rivet with his chisel ; and I 
have now an officer on board the Dryad, who, on examining one of these slave- 
vessels, found not only living men chained to dead bodies, but the latter in a 
putrid slate."* 

* Parliamentary papers presented 1832. 



302 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

The following Treaties and Conventions for the suppression of the slave- 
trade were made by England during the period of thirty years, from 1814 to 
1845. Some of these treaties have already been referred to. 

In 1814 with the United States, the treaty of Ghent, in wliich the United States agree 
to do all in their power for the suppression of the slave-trade. 

In 1814 with France, engaging that the slave-trade should he abolished by the French 
government in the course of five years. 

In 1814 with the Netherlands, by treaty of London on the 14th of August. 

In 1814 with Denmark, treaty of Kiel, stipulating for its abolition. 

In 1815 with France, by additional article to Definitive Treaty of Peace. 

In 1815 with Portugal, by treaty signed at Vienna. 

In 1817 with Portugal, by convention signed at London, prohibiting universally the 
carrying on of the slave-trade by Portuguese vessels bound to any port not in the do- 
minions of Portugal ; also referring to arrangements to be adopted ' ' as soon as the total 
abolition of the slave-trade, for the subjects of the crown of Portugal, shall have taken 
place." 

In 1817 with Spain, by treaty of Madrid, engaging that the slave-trade shall be abol- 
ished throughout the entire dominions of Spain on the 30th of May, 1820 ; restricting 
the Spanish trade in the meantime to the south of the equator ; and also confining it to 
the Spanish dominions. 

In 1817 with Radama, king of Madagascar and its dependencies, by treaty signed at 
Tamatave. 

In 1818 with the Netherlands, by treaty signed at the Hague, specifying restrictions 
under which the reciprocal right of search is to be exercised. 

In 1820 with Madagascar, by additional articles. 

In 1822 with Irnauni, of Muscat, by treaty signed at Muscat. 

In 1822 with the Netherlands, with explanatory and additional articles. Also with 
Spain, by explanatory articles. 

In 1823 with the Netherlands, by additional article ; with Portugal by additional arti- 
cle, and with Madagascar by additional article. 

In 1824 with Sweden, by treaty of Stockholm, arranging reciprocal right of search. 

In 1826 with Brazil, by treaty of Rio, renewing, on the separation of that empire from 
Portugal, the stipulations of subsisting treaties with the latter power. 

In 1831 with France, by convention at Paris, stipulating mutual right of search with- 
in certain seas by a number of ships of war, to be fixed every year by mutual agree- 
ment. Also in 1833, further regulating the right of search and visitation. 

In 1834 with Denmark, by treaty of Copenhagen, containing the accession of his 
Danish Majesty to the conventions between Great Britain and France of 1831 and 1833, 
regulating the mutual right of search. 

In 1834 with Sardinia, by additional article respecting place of landing negroes found 
in vessels with Sardinian flag. 

In 1835 with Spain, treaty of Madrid, abolishing slave-trade henceforward on part of 
Spain totally and finally, in all parts of the world ; and regulating right of search recip- 
rocally. 

In 1835 with Sweden, by additional article. 

In 1837 with Tuscany, containing accession of the Grand Duke to the French conven- 
tions of 1831 and 1S33. 

In 1S37 with Hanse Towns, to the same effect. 

In 1S38 with kingdom of the Two Sicilies, to the same effect. 

In 1839 with Republic of Venezuela, by treaty signed at Caracas, abolishing forever 
the African slave-trade ; expressing the determination of Venezuela to enforce the pro 
visions of a law passed in 1825, declaring Venezuelans found engaged in that trade to be 



TREATIES. 303 

pirates, and punishable with death ; also regulating the mutual right of visitation and 
search. 

In 1839 with Chili, by treaty signed at Santiago ; with Uruguay, by treaty signed a 
Montevideo ; with the Argentine Confederation, by treaty signed at Buenos Ayres ; and 
with Hayti, by convention signed at Port-au-Prince. 

In 1840 with Bolivia, by treaty signed at Sucre ; and with Texas, by treaty signed at 
London. 

In 1S41 with Mexico, by treaty signed at Mexico ; and with Austria, Russia and Prus- 
sia, by treaty signed at London, 16th November. 

In 1842 with United States, by treaty signed at Washington, stipulating that each 
party shall maintain on the coast of Africa a naval force of not less than 80 guns, "to 
enforce, separately and respectively, the laws, rights, and obligations of each of the 
two countries for the suppression of the slave-trade ; the said squadrons to be indepen- 
dent of each other, but to act in concert and co-operation, upon mutual consultation, as 
exigencies may arise." 

In 1842 with Portugal, by treaty signed at Lisbon. Also, same year, with Argentine 
Republic and Hayti. 

In 1845 with Brazil. 

In 1845 with France, by a convention signed at London, by which each power is to 
keep up an equal naval force on the western coast of Africa, and the right of visitation 
is to be exercised only by cruisers of the nation whose flag is carried by the suspected 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Efforts to Suppress the Slave-Trade. — Operations of the Cruisers 

Treaty between England and the United States, signed at Washington in 1842. — U. S. 
African Squadron under the treaty. — The Truxton captures an American slaver, 
the Spitfire, of New Orleans. — The Yorktown captures the Am. bark Pons, with 896 
slaves on board. — Commander Bell's description of the sufferings of the slaves — they 
are landed at Monrovia and taken care of. — Squadron of 184G. — Capture of the Chan- 
cellor. — Slave establishment destroyed by the English and natives. — A slaver's history 
■ — embarkation and treatment of slaves. — How disposed of in Cuba. — Natural scenery 
of Africa. — Excursion to procixre 'slaves — their horror at the prospect of slavery. — 
Passage from Mozambique — the small-pox on board. — More horrors of the Middle Pas- 
sage. — The Estrella — revolt of negroes on board. 



T 



HE question of the abuse of the American flag was discussed by the 
British and American diplomatists in 1842. In the same year a treaty be- 
tween the two governments was signed at Washington. The treaty stipulates 
that each nation shall maintain on the coast of Africa a force of naval vessels 
" of suitable numbers and description to carry in all not less than eighty guns, 
to enforce separately aud respectively the laws, rights, and obligations of each 
of the two countries for the suppression of the slave-trade." This stipulation 
was limited to the term of five years from the date of the exchange of the rat- 
ifications of the treaty, "and afterwards, until one or the other party shall 
signify a wish to terminate it." The United States have continued to main- 



304 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

tain a squadron on that coast for the protection of its commerce, and for the 
suppression of the slave-trade, so far as it may be carried on in American ves- 
sels, or by American citizens. 

Great Britain conceded, during the discussion referred to, as the slave-trade 
by the United States had only been declared piracy in a municipal sense, that 
although a vessel was fully equipped for the trade, and even had slaves on 
board, if American, she was not amenable to British cruisers. 

The question is still open, How is a vessel to be ascertained to be Ameri- 
can ? The United States do not claim that their flag shall give immunity to 
those who are not American ; but any vessel which claims to be American, and 
hoists the American flag, may be boarded and examined by an American 
cruiser ; but the right is not conceded to any other cruiser ; and if such vessel 
be really an American, the boarding officer will be regarded in the light of a 
trespasser, and the vessel will have all the protection which that flag supplies. 
If the vessel proves to be not an American, the flag affords no protection. A 
foreign officer boarding a vessel under the American flag does it upon his own 
responsibility for all consequences.* 

These principles not being clearly understood, led to some mistakes on the 
part of the British cruisers ; and occasionally a genuine American slaver was 
captured and condemned by an English admiralty court, which had no legal 
jurisdiction over her. In commenting on these proceedings, Dr. Hall, of the 
Maryland colony at Cape P'almas, says: "No stronger incentive could be 
given to the commission of outrageous acts on the part of the British cruisers, 
than the course pursued by the United States government in declaring the 
slave-trade piracy, and then taking no effective steps to prevent its prosecu- 
tion under their own flag " Again he says : " If our force is not increased, 
and we continue to disregard the prostitution of our flag, annoyances to our 
merchantmen will more frequently occur. We shall no longer receive the pro- 
tection of British cruisers, which has ever been rendered to American vessels, 
and without which the whole coast would be lined with robbers and pirates." 

In 1843 the United States African squadron was established under the 
treaty, and placed under the command of Commodore Perry. It consisted of 
the Macedonian frigate, the sloops of war Saratoga and Decatur, aud the brig 
Porpoise! The squadron was actively employed in protecting legal commerce 
and checking the slave-trade carried on in American vessels. It was relieved 
in 1845 by the arrival of Commodore Skinner with the sloops of war James- 
town, Yorktown, and Preble, and the brig Truxton. An officer of the Trux- 
ton, under date of March 29, 1845, off Sierra Leone, says : 

"Here we are in tow of her Britannic Majesty's steamer Ardent, with an 
American schooner, our prize, and a Spanish brigantine, prize to the steamer, 
captured in the Rio Pongas, one. hundred miles to the northward. We had 
good information when we left Monrovia, that there was a vessel in the Pongas, 
waiting a cargo ; and on our arrival off the river, finding an English man-of- 

* A. H. Foote, Commander, U. S. Navy. 



THE CRUISERS. 305 

war steamer, arrangements were made to send a combined boat expedition to 
make captures for both vessels." The American boats were in charge of lieu- 
tenant Blunt. 

" On coming in sight, our little schooner ran up American colors to protect 
herself from any suspicion, when our boats, after running alongside of her, 
produced the stripes and stars, much to the astonishment of those on board. 
She proved to be the Spitfire, of New Orleans, and ran a cargo of slaves from 
the same place last year. Of only about one hundred tons ; but though of so 
small a size, she stowed three hundred and forty-six negroes, and landed near 
Matanzas, Cuba, three hundred and thirty-nine. 

" Between her decks, where the slaves are packed, there is not room for a 
man to sit, unless inclining his head forward ; their food, half a pint of rice 
per day, with one pint of water. No one can imagine the sufferings of slaves 
on their passage across, unless the conveyances in which they are taken are ex- 
amined. Our friend had none on board, but his cargo of three hundred were 
ready in a barracoon, waiting a good opportunity to start. A good hearty 
negro costs but twenty dollars, or thereabouts, and is purchased for rum, pow- 
der, tobacco, cloth, &c. They bring from three to four hundred dollars in 
Cuba. The English are doing everything in their power to prevent the slave- 
trade ; and keep a force of thirty vessels on this coast, all actively cruising. 
The British boats also brought down a prize ; and the steamer is at this mo- 
ment towing the Truxton, the Truxton's prize, and her own, at the rate of six 
miles an hour. 

"It is extremely difficult to get up these rivers to the places where the slavers 
lie. The whole coast is intersected by innumerable rivers, with branches pour- 
ing into them from every quarter, and communicating with each other by nar- 
row, circuitous and very numerous creeks, bordered on each side with impene- 
trable thickets of mangroves. In these creeks, almost concealed by the trees, 
the vessels lie, and often elude the strictest search. But when they have taken 
on board their living cargo, and are getting out to sea, the British are very 
apt to seize them, except, alas ! when they are protected by the banner of the 
United States." 

On the 30th of November, the Yorktown, Commander Bell, captured the 
American bark "Pons," off Kabenda, on the south coast, with eight hundred 
and ninety-six slaves on board. This vessel had been at Kabenda about twenty 
days before, during which she had been closely watched by the British cruiser 
"Cygnet." The Cygnet, leaving one morning, the master of the Pons, James 
Berry, immediately gave up the ship to Gallano, the Portuguese master. Dur- 
ing the day, so expeditious had they been, that water and provisions were 
received on board, and nine hundred and three slaves were embarked ; and at 
eight o'clock the same evening, the Pons was under way. Instead of standing 
out to sea, she kept in with the coast during the night, and in the morning 
discovering the British cruiser, furled sails, and drifted so close to the shore that 
the negroes came down to the beach in hopes of her being wrecked. She thus 
20 



306 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

eluded detection. When clear of the Cygnet, she stood out to sea, and two 
days afterwards was captured by the Yorktown. 

Commander Bell says: " The captain took us for an English man-of-war 
and hoisted the American colors ; and no doubt had papers to correspond. " 
These he threw overboard. "As soon as the slaves were recaptured, they gave 
a shout that could have been heard a mile." 

During the night, eighteen of the slaves had died, and one jumped overboard. 
The master accounted for the number dying from the necessity of his sending 
below all the slaves on deck, and closing the hatches, when he fell in with the 
Yorktown, in order to escape detection. Ought not every such death be re- 
garded as murder? 

Commander Bell says: " The vessel has no slave-deck, and upwards of eight 
hundred and fifty were piled, almost in bulk, on water-casks below. As the 
ship appeared to be less than three hundred and fifty tons, it seemed impossible 
that one-half could have lived to cross the Atlantic. About two hundred filled 
up the spar-deck alone when they were permitted to come up from below ; and 
yet the captain assured me that it was his intention to have taken four hun- 
dred more on board if he could have spared the time. 

" The stench from below was so great that it was impossible to stand more 
than a few minutes near the hatchways. Our men who went below from curi- 
osity, were forced up sick in a few minutes : then all the hatches were off. 
What must have been the sufferings of those poor wretches when the hatches 
were closed 1 I am informed that very often in these cases, the stronger will 
strangle the weaker ; and this was probably the reason why so many died, or 
rather were found dead the morning after the capture. None but an eye-wit- 
ness can form a conception of the horrors these poor creatures must endure in 
their transit across the ocean. 

"I regret to say that most of this misery is produced by our own country- 
men. They furnish the means of conveyance in spite of existing enactments ; 
and although there are strong circumstances against Berry, the late master of 
the Pons, sufficient to induce me to detain him, if I should meet him, I fear 
neither he nor his employers can be reached by our present laws." 

In this letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Commander Bell adds : "For 
twenty days did Berry wait in the roadstead of Knbenda, protected by the flag 
of his country, yet closely watched by a foreign man-of-war, who was certain 
of his intention ; but the instant that cruiser is compelled to withdraw for a 
few hours, he springs at the opportunity of enriching himself and owners, and 
disgracing the flag which had protected him." 

The prize " Pons " was taken to Monrovia. There the slaves were landed, 
and gave the people a practical exhibition of the trade by which their ancestors 
had been torn from their homes. In the fourteen days intervening between the 
capture and arrival of the vessel at Monrovia, one hundred and fifty had died. 

" The slaves," says the Monrovia Herald of December 28th, "were much 
emaciated, and so debilitated that many of them found difficulty in getting out 
of the boats. Such a spectacle of misery and wretchedness, inflicted by a 



THE CRUISERS. 307 

lawless and ferocious cupidity, so excited our people, that it became unsafe for 
the captain of the slaver, who had come to look on, to remain on the beach. 
Eight slaves died in harbor before they were landed, and their bodies were 
thrown overboard." 

The slaves, who were from eight to thirty years of age, came starved and 
thirsting from on board. Caution was required in giving them food. "When 
it was supposed that the danger of depletion was over, water was poured into 
a long canoe, into which they plunged like hungry pigs into a trough — the 
stronger faring the best. " 

Still, the kindness of human nature had not altogether been obliterated by 
length and intensity of suffering. Two boys, brothers, had found beside them 
a younger boy of the same tribe, who was ill. They contrived to nestle to- 
gether on the deck, under such shelter as the cover of the long-boat offered 
them — a place where the pigs, if they are small enough, are generally stowed. 
There they made a bed of some oakum for their dying companion, and placed 
a piece of old canvas under his head. Night and day one was always awake 
to watch him. Hardship rendered their care fruitless : the night after the ves- 
sel anchored he died, and was thrown overboard. 

The recaptured slaves were apprenticed out to the Liberians, and kindly 
treated and cared for. An American who visited Monrovia a few years after, 
found many of them admitted to the churches as members, and others attend- 
ing the Sabbath schools. The squadron also captured several empty slavers 
and sent them to the United States. 

In 1846 this squadron was relieved, and the sloop of war Marion, brigs 
Dolphin and Boxer, with the flag-ship United States, Commodore Read, were 
sent out. 

The Dolphin was lying at Cape Mount, watching the American bark Chan- 
cellor, which was trading with the suspected Captain Canot, since extensively 
known throughout the United States by his "Life of an African Slaver." 
The British cruiser Favorite was stationed off the cape, and the officers stirred 
up the chiefs, who were bound by treaty to suppress the slave-trade, to attack 
and destroy the extensive trading establishment of Canot, who they said was 
making preparations for slaving. The premises were burnt, together with a 
large stock of goods he had shipped from New York. Captain Canot states 
in his book, that his brigantine, stores and dwellings, were fired by the officers 
and crew of the cruiser, and that he was then engaged in a legitimate business. 

We leave the narrative of the operations of the cruisers for the present, in 
order to present some scenes in the life of a slave-trader. This Captain Canot 
had been engaged for twenty years in the traffic. After his downfall, as re- 
lated, he embraced, with zeal, the first opportunity to mend his fortunes by 
honorable industry, and succeeded. His journals and papers were placed in 
the hands of Brantz Mayer, who wrote out the history of his life. Dr. Hall, 
the distinguished founder and first governor of the Maryland colony, pro- 
nounced him, setting aside his career as a slaver, a man of unquestionable in- 
tegrity. The N. A. Review, upon sufficient grounds, pronounced the work 



308 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

truthful and reliable as to the events described. While the genius of Mayei 
has imparted a pleasant coloring to some of the incidents, it has also portrayed 
with fidelity the repelling horrors of a traffic, which, in the language of a 
gallant naval officer, " for revolting, heartless atrocity, might make the devil 
wonder, and hell recognize its own likeness " 

A correct idea of the crew of a slaver may be formed from Canot's description 
of his first voyage : "Our crew consisted of twenty-one scamps, Spaniards, 
Portuguese, Frenchmen and mongrels, the refuse of the press-gang and jail- 
birds. The Areostatico cleared at Havana for the Cape de Verde isles, but in 
truth bound for the Rio Pongo. Accustomed as I had been to wholesome 
American seamanship and discipline, I trembled not a little when I discovered 
the amazing ignorance of the master and the utter worthlessness of the crew. 
Forty-one days, however, brought us to the end of our voyage at the mouth of 
the Rio Pongo. While we were slowly drifting between the river banks, and 
watching the gorgeous vegetation of Africa, which that evening first burst upon 
my sight, I fell into a chat with the native pilot, who had been in the United 
States, and spoke English remarkably well. Berak very soon inquired whether 
there- was any one else on board who spoke the language besides myself, and 
when told that the cabin-boy alone knew it, he whispered a story which, in 
truth, I was not the least surprised to hear. 

"That afternoon one of our crew had attempted the captain's life, while on 
shore, by snapping a carbine behind his back! Our pilot learned the fact 
from a native who followed the party from the landing along the. beach, and 
its truth was confirmed, in his belief, by the significant boasts made by the 
tallest of the boatmen who accompanied him on board. He was satisfied that 
the entire gang contemplated our schooner's seizure. 

"The pilot's story corroborated some hints'I received from our cook during 
the voyage. It struck me instantly, that if a crime like this was really designed, 
no opportunity for its execution could be more propitious than the present. I 
determined, therefore, to omit no precaution that might save the vessel and the 
lives of her honest officers. On examining the carbines brought back from 
shore, which I had hurriedly thrown into the arm-chest on deck, I found that 
the lock of this armory had been forced, and several pistols and cutlasses ab- 
stracted. 

"Preparations had undoubtedly been made to assassinate us. As night drew 
on, my judgment, as well as nervousness, convinced me that the darkness 
would not pass without a murderous attempt. There was an unusual silence. 
On reaching port, there is commonly fun and merriment among crews ; but the 
usual song and invariable guitar were omitted from the evening's entertain- 
ment. I searched the deck carefully, yet but two mariners were found above 
the hatches, apparently asleep. Inasmuch as I was only a subordinate officer, 
I could not command, nor had I any confidence in the nerve or judgment of 
the chief mate, if I trusted my information to him. Still I deemed it :i duty 
to tell him the story, as well as my discovery about the missing arms. Ac- 
cordingly, I called the first officer, boatswain, and cook, as quietly as possible, 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 309 

into the caT}in, leaving our English cabin-boy to watch in the companion way. 
Here I imparted our danger, and asked their assistance in striking the first 
blow. My plan was to secure the crew, and give them battle. The mate, as 
I expected, shrank like a girl, declining any step till the captain returned. 
The cook and boatswain, however, silently approved my movement ; so that 
we counseled our cowardly comrade to remain below, while we assumed the 
responsibility and risk of the enterprise. 

" It may have been rather rash, but I resolved to begin the rescue, by shoot- 
ing down, like a dog, and without a word, the notorious Cuban convict who 
had attempted the captain's life. This, I thought, would strike panic into the 
mutineers, and end the mutiny in the most bloodless way. Drawing a pair of 
large horse-pistols from beneath the captain's pillow, and examining the load, 
I ordered the cook and boatswain to follow me to the deck. But the craven 
officer would not quit his hold on my person. He besought me not to commit 
murder. He clung to me with the panting fear and grasp of a woman. He 
begged me, with every term of endearment, to desist ; and, in the midst of 
my scuffle to throw him off, one of the pistols accidentally exploded. A mo- 
ment after, my vigilant watch-boy screamed from the starboard a warning 
'look-out ! ' and peering forward in the blinding darkness as I emerged from 
the lighted cabin, I beheld the stalwart form of the ringleader, brandishing a 
cutlass within a stride of me. I aimed and fired. We both fell : the muti- 
neer from two balls in his abdomen, and I from the recoil of an over-charged 
pistol. 

" My face was cut and my eye injured by the concussion ; but as neither 
combatant was deprived of consciousness, in a moment we were both on our 
feet. The Spanish felon, however, pressed his hand on his bowels, and rushed 
forward, exclaiming he was slain ; but in his descent to the forecastle he was 
stabbed in the shoulder with a bayonet by the boatswain, whose vigorous 
blow drove the weapon with such trinendous force that it could hardly be 
drawn from the scoundrel's carcass. 

" I said I was up in a moment ; and feeling my face with my hand I per- 
ceived a quantity of blood on my cheek, around which I hastily tied a hand- 
kerchief, below my eyes. I then rushed to the arm-chest. At that moment, 
the crack of a pistol and a sharp, boyish cry, told me that my pet was wound- 
ed beside me. I laid him behind the hatchway and returned to the charge. 
By this time I was blind with rage, and fought, it seems, like a madman. I 
confess that I have no personal recollection whatever of the following events, 
and only learned them from the subsequent reports of the cook and the boat- 
swain. 

" I stood, they said, over the arm-chest like one spell-bound. My eyes 
were fixed on the forecastle ; and, as head after head loomed up out of the 
darkness above the hatch, I discharged carbine after carbine at the mark. 
Every thing that moved fell by my aim. As I fired the weapons, I flung them 
away to grasp fresh ones ; and, wheu the battle was over, the cook aroused me 
from my mad stupor, still groping wildly for arms in the emptied chest. 



310 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

" As the smoke cleared off, the fore part of our schooner seemed utterly de- 
serted ; yet we found two men dead, one in mortal agony on the deck, while 
the ringleader and a colleague were gasping in the forecastle. Six pistols 
were fired against us from forward ; but, strange to say, the only efficient ball 
was the one that struck my English boy's leg. 

" When I came to my senses, my first quest was for the gallant boatswain, 
who, being unarmed on the forecastle when the unexpected discharge took 
place, and seeing no chance of escape from my murderous carbines, took refuge 
over the bows. 

" Our cabin-boy was soon quieted. The mutineers needed but little care 
for their hopeless wounds, while the felon chief, like all such wretches, died iu 
an agony of despicable fear, shrieking for pardon. My shriving of his sins 
was a speedy rite ! Such was my first night iu Africa ! 

" There are casual readers who may consider the scene described unnatural. 
It may be said that a youth, whose life had been checkered by trials and dis- 
asters, but who preserved a pure sensibility throughout them, is sadly distorted 
when portrayed as expanding, at a leap, into a desperado. I have but little to 
say in reply to these objections, save that the occurrences are perfectly true 
as stated, and, moreover, that I am satisfied that they were only the natural 
developments of my character. 

" From my earliest years I have adored nobility of soul, and detested dis- 
honor and treachery. I have passed through scenes which will be hereafter 
told, that the world may qualify by harsh names ; yet I have striven to con- 
duct myself throughout them, not only with the ideas of fairness current among 
reckless men, but with the truth that, under all circumstances, characterizes an 
honorable nature. 

" Now the tragedy of my first night on the Rio Pongo was my transition 
from pupilage to responsible independence. I do not allege in a boastful 
spirit that I was a man of courage ; because courage, or the want of it, are 
things for which a person is no more responsible than he is for the possession 
or hick of physical strength. I was, moreover, always a man of what I may 
style self-possessed passion. I was endowed with something more than cool 
energy ; or, rather, cool energy was heightened and sublimated by the fire of 
an ardent nature. Hitherto I had been tempered down by the habitual obe- 
dience to which I was subjected as a sailor under lawful discipline. But the 
events of the last six months, and especially the gross relaxation on the voy- 
age to Africa, the risks we had run in navigating the vessel, and the outlaws 
that surrounded me, not only kept my mind for ever on the alert, but aroused 
my dormant nature to a full sense of duty and self-protection. 

" Is it unnatural, then, for a man whose heart and nerves have been laid bare 
for months, to quiver with agony and respond with headlong violence when 
imperiled character, property and life, hang upon the fiat of his courageous 
promptitude ? The doubters may cavil over the philosophy, but I think I may 
remain content with the fact. I did my duty — dreadful as it was. 

" Let me draw a veil over our gory decks when the gorgeous sun of Africa 



A SLAVE TRADER. 311 

shot his first rays through the magnificent trees and herbage that hemmed the 
placid river. Five bodies were cast into the stream, and the traces of the 
tragedy obliterated as well as possible. The recreant mate, who plunged into 
the cabin at the report of the first pistol from the forecastle, reappeared with 
haggard looks and trembling frame, to protest that he had no hand in what he 
called "the murder." The cook, boatswain, and African pilot recounted the 
whole transaction t* the master, who inserted it in the log-book, and caused 
me to sign the narrative with unimplicated witnesses. Then the wound of the 
cabin-boy was examined and found to be trifling, while mine, though not pain- 
ful, was thought to imperil my sight. The flint lock of a rebounding pistol 
had indicted three gashes just beneath the eye on my cheek. 

" There was but little appetite for breakfast that day. After the story was 
told and recorded, we went sadly to work unmooring the vessel, bringing her 
slowly like- a hearse to an anchorage in front of Bangalang, the residence and 
factory of Mr. Ormond, better known by the country name of " Mongo John." 
This personage came on board early in the morning with our returned captain, 
and promised to send a native doctor to cure both my eye and the boy's leg, 
making me pledge him a visit as soon as the vessel's duties would permit. 

" When the runners returned from the interior with the slaves required to 
complete the Areostatico's cargo, I considered it my duty to the Italian grocer 
of Regla to dispatch his vessel personally. Accordingly, I returned on board 
to aid in stowing one, hundred and eight boys and girls, the eldest of whom 
did not exceed fifteen years of age ! As I crawled between decks, I confess I 
could not imagine how this little army was to be packed or draw breath in a 
hold but twenty-two inches high ! Yet the experiment was promptly made, 
inasmuch as it was necessary to secure them below in descending the river, in 
order to prevent their leaping overboard and swimming ashore. I found it 
impossible to adjust the whole of them in a sitting posture ; but we made them 
lie down in each other's laps, like sardines in a can, and in this way obtained 
space for the entire cargo. Strange to tell, when the Areostatico reached Ha- 
vana, but three of these "passengers" had paid the debt of nature." 

Capt. Canot remained on the coast, first as secretary to Ormond, and finally 
established himself as a regular "trader." The first vessel consigned to him 
was the Fortuna, which he promptly dispatched with 220 human beings packed 
in her hold. The vessel arrived safe at Matanzas, yielding a "clear profit to 
the owners of $41,000." The Areostatico again returned and was dispatched 
with a " choice cargo of Maudingoes " for house servants in Havana. This 
vessel went to the bottom in a gale. 

Of the embarkation and treatment of slaves he says : "As I am now fair- 
ly embarked in a trade which absorbed so many of my most vigorous years, I 
suppose the reader will not be loth to learn a little of my experience in the 
alleged "cruelties" of this commerce; and the first question, in all likelihood, 
that rises to his lips, is a solicitation to be apprised of the embarkation and 
treatment of slaves on the dreaded voyage. 

"An African factor of fair repute is ever careful to select his human cargo 



312 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

with consummate prudence, so as not only to supply his employers with ath- 
letic laborers, but to avoid any taint of disease that may affect the slaves in 
their transit to Cuba or the American main. Two days before embarkation, 
the head of every male and female is neatly shaved ; and, if the cargo belongs 
to several owners, each man's brand is impressed on the body of his respective 
negro. This operation is performed with pieces of silver wire or small irons 
fashioned into the merchant's initials, heated just hot enough to blister with- 
out burning the skin. When the entire cargo is the venture of but one pro- 
prietor, the branding is always dispensed with. 

"On the appointed day, the barracoon, or slave-pen, is made joyous by the 
abundant "feed" which signalizes the negro's last hours in his native country. 
The feast over, they are taken alongside the vessel in canoes ; and as they 
touch the deck, they are entirely stripped, so that the women as well as men 
go out of Africa as they came into it^-naked. This precaution, it will be 
understood, is indispensable; for perfect nudity, during the whole voyage, is 
the only means of securing cleanliness and health. In this state, they are im- 
mediately ordered below, the men to the hold and the women to the cabin, 
while boys and girls are, day and night, kept on deck, where their sole pro- 
tection from the elements is a sail in fair weather, and a tarpaulin in foul. 

" It is the duty of a guard to report immediately whenever a slave refuses 
to eat, in order that his abstinence may be traced to stubbornness or disease. 
Negroes have sometimes been found in slavers who attempted voluntary starv- 
ation ; so that, when the watch reports the patient to be " shamming," his ap- 
petite is stimulated by the medical antidote of a 'cat.' 

" At sundown the process of stowing the slaves for the night is begun. The 
second mate and boatswain descend into the hold, whip in hand, and range 
the slaves in their regular places ; those on the right side of the vessel facing 
forward, and lying in each other's lap, while those on the left are similarly 
stowed with their faces towards the stern. In this way each negro lies on his 
right side, which is considered preferable for the action of the heart. In allot- 
ting places, particular attention is paid to size, the taller being selected for the 
greatest breadth of the vessel, while the shorter and younger are lodged near 
the bows. When the cargo is large and the lower deck crammed, the super- 
numeraries are disposed of on deck, which is securely covered with boards to 
shield them from moisture. The strict discipline of nightly stowage is, of 
course, of the greatest importance in slavers, else every negro would accom- 
date himself as if he were a passenger. 

"In order to insure perfect silence and regularity during night, a slave is 
chosen as constable from every ten, and furnished with a 'cat' to enforce com- 
mands during his appointed watch. In remuneration for his services, which, 
it may be believed, are admirably performed whenever the whip is required, 
he is adorned with an old shirt or tarry trowsers. Now and then billets of 
wood are distributed among the sleepers, but this luxury is never granted un- 
til the good temper of the negro is ascertained, for slaves have often been 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 313 

tempted to mutiny by the power of arming themselves with these pillows from 
the forest. 

" But ventilation is carefully attended to. The hatches and bulkheads of 
every slaver are grated, and apertures are cut about the deck for ampler cir- 
culation of air. Wind-sails, too, are constantly pouring a steady draft into 
the hold, except during a chase, when, of course, every comfort is temporarily 
sacrificed for safety. During calms or in light baffliug winds, when the suffo- 
cating air of the tropics makes ventilation impossible, the gratings are always 
removed, and portions of the slaves allowed to repose at night on deck, while 
the crew is armed to watch the sleepers. 

" Handcuffs are rarely used on shipboard^ It is the common custom to se- 
cure slaves in the barracoons and while shipping, by chaining ten in a gang ; 
but as these platoons would be extremely inconvenient at sea, the manacles 
are immediately taken off and replaced by leg-irons, which fasten them in 
pairs by the feet. Shackles are never used but for full-grown men, while wo- 
men and boys are set at liberty as soon as they embark. It frequently hap- 
pens that when the behavior of male slaves warrants their freedom, they are 
released from all fastenings long before they arrive. Irons are altogether dis- 
pensed with on many Brazilian slavers, as negroes from Anjuda, Benin and 
Angola, are mild, and uuaddicted to revolt like those who dwell east of the 
Cape or north of the Gold Coast. Indeed, a knowing trader will never use 
chains but when compelled, for the longer a slave is ironed the more he dete- 
riorates ; and, as his sole object is to land a healthy cargo, pecuniary interest 
as well as natural feeling, urges the sparing of metal. 

" In old times, before treaties made slave-trade piracy, the landing of human 
cargoes was as comfortably conducted as the disembarkation of flour. But 
now, the enterprise is effected with secrecy and hazard. A wild, uninhabited 
portion of the coast, where some little bay or sheltering nook exists, is com- 
monly selected by the captain and his confederates. As soon as the vessel is 
driven close to the beach and anchored, her boats are packed with slaves, while 
the craft is quickly dismantled to avoid detection from sea or land. The busy 
skiffs are hurried to and fro incessantly till the cargo is entirely ashore, when 
the secured gang, led by the captain, and escorted by armed sailors, is rapidly 
marched to the nearest plantation. There it is safe from the rapacity of local 
magistrates, who, if they have a chance, imitate their superiors by exacting 
"gratifications." 

"In the meantime, a courier has been dispatched to the owners in Havana, 
Matanzas, or Santiago de Cuba, who immediately post to the plantation with 
clothes for the slaves and gold for the crew. Preparations are quickly made 
through brokers for the sale of the blacks ; while the vessel, if small, is dis- 
guised, to warrant her return under the coasting flag to a port of clearance 
If the craft happens to be large, it is considered perilous to attempt a return 
with a cargo, or " in distress," and, accordingly, she is either sunk or burnt 
where she lies. 

"Many of the Spanish governors in Cuba have respected treaties, or, at least, 



314 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

promised to enforce the laws. Squadrons of dragoons and troops of lancers 
have been paraded with convenient delay, and ordered to gallop to plantations 
designated by the representative of England. It generally happens, however, 
that when the hunters arrive the game is gone. Scandal declares that, while 
brokers are selling the blacks at the depot, it is not unusual for their owner or 
his agent to be found knocking at the door of the captain-general's secretary. 
It is even said that the captain-general himself is sometimes present in the 
sanctuary, and, after a familiar chat about the happy landing of ' the contra- 
band,' as the traffic is amiably called, the requisite rouleaux are insinuated 
into the official desk under the intense smoke of a fragrant cigarillo. The 
metal is always considered the property of the captain-general, but his scribe 
avails himself of a lingering farewell at the door, to hint an immediate and 
pressing need for ' a very small darkey!' Next day, the diminutive African 
does not appear; but, as it is believed that Spanish officials prefer gold even 
to mortal flesh, his algebraic equivalent is unquestionably furnished in the shape 
of shining ounces 1" 

The following extract will be read with satisfaction, exhibiting as it does 
one of the native tribes in a very favorable aspect : " During the rainy sea- 
sou, which begins in June and lasts till October, the stores of provisions in 
establishments along the Atlantic coast become sadly impaired. The Foulah 
and Mandiugo tribes of the interior are prevented by the swollen condition of 
intervening streams from visiting the beach with their produce. In these straits, 
the factories have recourse by canoes to the small rivers, which are neither en- 
tered by sea-going vessels, nor blockaded for the caravans of interior chiefs. 

" Among the tribes or clans visited by me in such seasons, I do not remem- 
ber any whose intercourse afforded more pleasure, or exhibited nobler traits, 
than the Bagers, who dwell on the solitary margins of those shallow rivulets, 
and subsist by boiling salt in the dry season and making palm oil in the wet. 
I have never read an account of these worthy blacks, whose civility, kindness, 
and honesty will compare favorably with those of more civilized people. 

" The Bagers live very much apart from the great African tribes, and keep 
up their race by intermarriage. The language is peculiar, and altogether de- 
void of that Italian softness that makes the Soosoo so musical. 

" Having a week or two of perfect leisure, I determined to set out in a ca- 
noe to visit one of these establishments, especially as no intelligence had reach- 
ed me for some time from one of my country traders who had been dispatched 
thither with an invoice of goods to purchase palm oil. My canoe was com- 
fortably fitted with a water-proof awning, and provisioned for a week. 

" A tedious pull along the coast and through the dangerous surf, brought 
us to the narrow creek through whose marshy mesh of mangroves we squeezed 
our canoe to the bank. Even after landing, we waded a considerable distance 
through marsh before we reached the solid land. The Bager town stood some 
hundred yards from the landing, at the end of a desolate savanna, whose lonely 
waste spread as far as the eye could reach. The village itself seemed quite de- 
serted, so that I had difficulty in finding ' the oldest inhabitant,' who invaria- 



bagkrs. , 315 

bly stays at home and acts the part of chieftain. This venerable personage 
welcomed me with great cordiality ; and having made my dantica, or, in other 
words, declared the purpose of my visit, I desired to be shown the trader's 
house. The patriarch led me at once to a hut, whose miserable thatch was 
supported by four posts. Here I recognized a large chest, a rum cask, and 
the grass hammock of my agent. I was rather exasperated to find my prop- 
erty thus neglected and exposed, and began venting my wrath in no seemly 
terms on the delinquent clerk, when my conductor laid his hand gently on my 
sleeve, and said there was no need to blame him. 'This,' continued he, 'is 
his house ; here your property is sheltered from sun and rain ; and, among the 
Bagers, whenever your goods are protected from the elements, they are safe 
from every danger. Your man has gone across the plain to a neighboring 
town for oil ; to-night he will be back ; in the meantime, look at your goods.' 

" I opened the chest, which, to my surprise, was unlocked, and found it 
nearly full of the merchandise I had placed in it. I shook the cask, and its 
weight seemed hardly diminished. I turned the spiggot, and lo ! the rum 
trickled on my feet. Hard-by was a temporary shed, filled to the roof with 
hides and casks of palm oil, all of which, the gray-beard declared, was my 
property. 

" Whilst making this inspection, I have no doubt the expression of my face 
indicated a good deal of wonder, for I saw the old man smile complacently as 
he followed me with his quiet eye. 'Good!' said the chief, 'it is all there, 
is it not ? We Bagers are neither Soosoos, Mandingoes, Foulahs, nor White- 
men, that the goods of a stranger are not safe in our towns 1 We work for a 
living ; we want little; big ships never come to us, and we neither steal from 
our guests nor go to war to sell one another I' 

"The conversation, I thought, was becoming a little personal; and, with a 
gesture of impatience, I put a stop to it. On second thoughts, however, I 
turned abruptly round, and shaking the noble savage's hand with a vigor that 
made him wince, presented him with a piece of cloth. Had Diogenes visited 
Africa in search of his man, it is by no means unlikely that he might have ex- 
tinguished his lamp among the Bagers ! 

" It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when I arrived in the town, 
which, as I before observed, seemed quite deserted, except by a dozen or two 
ebony antiquities, who crawled into the sunshine when they learned the advent 
of a stranger. The young people were absent gathering palm nuts in a neigh- 
boring grove. A couple of hours before sundown, my trader returned ; and, 
shortly after, the merry gang of villagers made their appearance, laughing, 
singing, dancing, and laden with fruit As soon as the gossips announced the 
arrival of a white man during their absence, the little hut that had been hos- 
pitably assigned me was surrounded by a crowd, five or six deep, of men, wo- 
men, and children. The pressure was so close and sudden that I was almost 
stifled. Finding they would not depart until I made myself visible, I emerged 
from concealment and shook hands with nearly all. The women, in particular, 
insisted on gratifying themselves with a sumboo or smell at my face — which 



316 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

is the native's kiss — and folded their long black arms in an embrace of my 
neck, threatening peril to my shirt with their oiled and dusty flesh. However, 
I noticed so much bonhommie among the happy crew that my heart would not 
allow me to repulse them ; so I kissed the youngest and shunned the crones. 
In token of my good will, I led a dozen or more of the prettiest to the rum- 
barrel, and made them happy for the night. 

"When the town's-folks had comfortably nestled themselves in their hovels, 
the old chief, with a show of some formality, presented me a heavy ram-goat, 
distinguished for its formidable head ornaments, which, he said, was offered as 
a bonne-bouche for my supper. He then sent a crier through the town, in- 
forming the women that a white stranger would be their guest during the 
night ; and, in less than half an hour, my hut was visited by most of the vil- 
lage dames and damsels. One brought a pint of rice ; another some roots of 
cassava ; another, a few spoonsful of palm oil ; another a bunch of peppers ; 
while the oldest lady of the party made herself particularly remarkable by the 
gift of a splendid fowl. In fact, the crier had hardly gone his rounds before 
my mat was filled with the voluntary contributions of the villagers ; aud the 
wants, not only of myself but of my eight rowers, completely supplied. 

" There was nothing peculiar in this exhibition of hospitality, on account of 
my nationality. It was the mere fulfillment of a Bager law ; and the poorest 
black stranger would have shared the rite as well as myself. I could not help 
thinking that I might have traveled from one end of England or America to 
the other without meeting a Bager welcome. 

"These Bagers are remarkable for their honesty, as I was convinced by sev- 
eral anecdotes related, during my stay in this village, by my trading clerk. He 
took me to a neighboring lemon-tree, and exhibited an English brass steelyard 
hanging on its branches, which had been left there by a mulatto merchant from 
Sierra Leone, who died in the town on a trading trip. This article, with a 
chest half full of goods, deposited in the ' palaver house,' had been kept se- 
curely more thau twelve years in expectation that some of his friends would 
send for them from the colony. The Bagers, I was told, have no jujus, feit- 
iches, or gregrees ; they worship no god or evil spirit ; their dead are buried 
without tears or ceremony ; and their hereafter is eternal oblivion. 

" The malas of this tribe are of middling size and deep black color ; broad 
shouldered, but neither brave nor warlike. They keep aloof from other tribes, 
and by a Fullah law, are protected from foreign violence in consequence of 
their occupation as salt-makers, which is regarded by the interior natives as 
one of the most useful trades. Their fondness for palm oil and the little work 
they are compelled to perform, make them generally indolent. Their dress is 
a single handkerchief, or a strip of country cloth four or five inches wide, most 
carefully put on. 

" The young women have none of the sylph-like appearance of the Mandin- 
goes or Soosoos. They work hard and use palm oil plentifully, both internally 
and externally, so that their relaxed flesh is bloated like blubber. Both sexes 
shave their heads, and adorn their noses and lower lips with rings, while they 



NATURAL SCENERY. 317 

penetrate their ears with porcupine quills or sticks. Tliey neither sell nor 
buy each other, though they acquire children of both sexes from other tribes, 
and adopt them into their own, or dispose of them if not suitable. Their 
avails of work are commonly divided ; so the Bagers may be said to resemble 
the Mormons in polygamy, the Fourierites in community, but to exceed both 
in honesty." 

As a contrast to our gloomy picture of the wrongs of Africa, we present a 
glimpse of its gorgeous natural scenery. It will be a relief to turn away for a 
moment from the contemplation of violence and crime, of wretchedness and 
despair — the foul exhalations of the reeking slave-deck, the charnel house of 
corruption, disease, and death. 

"As the traveler along the coast turns the prow of his canoe through the surf, 
and crosses the angry bar that guards the mouth of an African river, he sud- 
denly finds himself moving calmly onward between sedgy shores, buried in 
mangroves. Presently the scene expands in the unruffled mirror of a deep 
majestic stream. Its lofty banks are covered by innumerable varieties of the 
tallest forest trees, from whose summits a trailing net-work of vines and flow- 
ers floats down and sweeps the passing current. A stranger who beholds this 
scenery for the first time is struck by the immense size, the prolific abundance, 
and gorgeous verdure- of every thing. Leaves large enough for garments lie 
piled and motionless in the lazy air. The bamboo and cane shake their slen- 
der spears and pennant leaves as the stream ripples among their roots. Be- 
neath the massive trunks of forest trees the country opens ; and, in vistas 
through the wood, the traveler sees innumerable fields lying fallow in grass, or 
waving with harvests of rice and cassava, broken by golden clusters of Indian 
corn. Anon, groups of oranges, lemons, coffee-trees, plantains, and bananas 
are crossed by the tall stems of cocoas, and arched by the broad and drooping 
coronals of royal palm. Beyond this, capping the summit of a hill, may be 
seen the conical huts of natives, bordered by fresh pastures dotted with flocks 
of sheep and goats, or covered with numbers 01 the sleekest cattle. As you 
leave the coast, and shoot round the river-curves of this fragrant wilderness, 
teeming with flowers, vocal with birds, and gay with their radiant plumage, 
you plunge into the interior, where the rising country slowly expands into hills 
and mountains. 

" The forest is varied. Sometimes it is a matted pile of tree, vine and brarri- 
ble, obscuring every thing, and impervious save with knife and hatchet. At 
others it is as a Gothic temple. The sward spreads openly for miles on every 
side, while, from its even surface, the trunks of straight and massive trees rise 
to a prodigious height, clear from every obstruction, till their gigantic limbs, 
like the capitals of columns, mingle their foliage in a roof of perpetual verdure. 

"At length the hills are reached, and the lowland heat is tempered by moun- 
tain freshness. The scene that may be beheld from almost any elevation is 
always beautiful, and sometimes grand. Forest, of course, prevails ; yet with 
a glass, and often by the unaided eye, gentle hills, swelling from the wooded 
landscape, may be seen covered with native huts, whose neighborhood is 



318 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

checkered with patches of sward and cultivation, and inclosed by massive belts 
of primeval wildness. Such is commonly the westward view ; but north and 
east, as far as vision extends, noble outlines of hill and mountain may be traced 
against the sky, lapping each other with their mighty folds, until they fade 
away in the azure horizon. 

" When a view like this is beheld at morning, in the neighborhood of rivers, 
a dense mist will be observed lying beneath the spectator in a solid stratum, 
refracting the light now breaking from the east. Here and there, in this lake 
of vapor, the tops of hills peer up like green islands in a golden sea. But 
ere you have time to let fancy run riot, the 'cloud compelling' orb lifts its 
disc over the mountains, and the fogs of the valley, like ghosts at cock-crow, 
flit from the dells they have haunted since night-fall. Presently the sun is out 
in his terrible splendor. Africa unveils to her master, and the blue sky and 
green forest blaze and quiver with his beams." 

The account of an excursion made into the interior of the country for the 
purpose of procuring slaves and opening trade with the native chiefs, exhibits 
the horror of the people at the prospect of being sold into slavery. 

" Timbo lies on a rolling plain. North of it a lofty mountain range rises at 
the distance of ten or fifteen miles, and sweeps eastwardly to the horizon. The 
landscape, which declines from these slopes to the south, is in many places bare; 
yet fields of plentiful cultivation, groves of cotton-wood, tamarind, and oak, 
thickets of shrubbery and frequent villages stud its surface and impart an air 
of rural comfort to the picturesque scene. 

" I soon proposed a gallop with my African kindred over the neighborhood; 
and one fine morning, after a plentiful breakfast of stewed fowls, boiled to rags 
with rice, and seasoned with delicious ' palavra sauce,' we cantered off to the 
distant villages. As we approached the first brook, but before the fringe of 
screening bushes was passed, our cavalcade drew rein abruptly, while Amah- 
de-Bellah cried out, ' Strangers are coming ! ' A few moments after, as we 
slowly crossed the stream, I noticed several women crouched in the underwood, 
having fled from the bath. This warning is universally given, and enforced by 
law to guard the modesty of the gentler sex. 

" In half an hour we reached the first suburban village ; but fame had pre- 
ceded us with my character, and as the settlement was cultivated either by 
serfs or negroes liable to be made so, we found the houses bare. The poor 
wretches had learned, on the day of my reception, that the principal object of 
my journey was to obtain slaves, and, of course, they imagined that the only 
object of my foray in their neighborhood was to seize the gang ami bear it 
abroad in bondage. Accordingly, we only tarried a few minutes in Pihdo, and 
dashed off to Furo ; but here, too, the blacks had been panic-struck, and 
escaped so hurriedly that they left their pots of rice, vegetables, and meat 
boiling in their sheds. Furo was absolutely stripped of inhabitants ; the vet- 
eran chief of the village did not even remain to do the honors of his affrighted 
brethren. Amah-de-Bellah laughed heartily at the terror I inspired ; but I 



THE NATIVES. 319 

confess I could not help feeling sadly mortified when I found my presence 
shunned as a pestilence. 

" The native villages through which I passed on this excursion manifested 
the great comfort in which these Africans live throughout their prolific land, 
when unassailed by the desolating wars that are kept up for the slave-trade. It 
was the height of the dry season, when every thing was parched by the snn, 
yet I could trace the outlines of fine plantations, gardens, and rice-fields. 
Every where I found abundance of peppers, onions, giiiic, tomatoes, sweet 
potatoes, and cassava, while tasteful fences were garlanded with immense vines 
and flowers. Fowls, goats, sheep, and oxen stalked about in innumerable 
flocks, and from every domicil depended a paper, inscribed with a charm from 
the Koran to keep off thieves and witches. 

" My walks through Timbo were promoted by the constant efforts of my 
entertainers to shield me from intrusive curiosity. Whenever I sallied forth, 
two townsfolk in authority were sent forward to warn the public that the Fur- 
too desired to promenade without a mob at his heels. These lusty criers 
stationed themselves at the corners with an iron triangle, which they rattled to 
call attention to the king's command ; and in a short time the highways were 
so clear of people, who feared a bastinado, that I found my loneliness rather 
disagreeable than otherwise. Every person I saw, shunned me. When I 
called the children or little girls, they fled from me. My reputation as a slaver 
in the villages, and the fear of a lash in the town, furnished me much more sol- 
itude than is generally agreeable to a sensitive traveler. 

" Towards night-fall I left my companions, and wrapping myself closely in 
a Mandingo dress, stole away through by-ways to a brook which runs by 
the town walls. Thither the females resort at sunset to draw water ; and 
choosing a screened situation where I would not be easily observed, I watched, 
for more than an hour the graceful children, girls, and women of Timbo as 
they performed this domestic task of eastern lands. 

" I was particularly impressed by the general beauty of the sex, who, in 
many respects, resembled the Moor rather than the negro. Unaware of a 
stranger's presence, they came forth as usual in a simple dress which covers 
their body from waist to knee, and leaves the rest of the figure entirely naked. 
Group after group gathered together on the brink of the brook in the slanting 
sunlight and lengthening shadows of the plain. Some rested on their pitchers 
and water vessels ; some chatted, or leaned on each other gracefully, listening 
to the chat of friends ; some stooped to fill their jars ; others lifted the brim- 
ming vessels to their sisters' shoulders, while others strode homeward singing, 
with their charged utensils poised on head or hand. Their slow, stately, swing- 
ing movement under the burdei was grace that might be envied on a Spanish 
paseo. I do not think the forms of these Fullah girls, with their complexions 
of freshest bronze, are exceeded in symmetry by the women of any other coun- 
try. There was a slender delicacy of limb, waist, neck, hand, foot, and bosom, 
which seemed to be the type that moulded every one of them. I saw none of 
the hanging breast ; the flat, expanded nostrils ; the swollen lips, and fillet- 



320 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

like foreheads that characterize the Soosoos and their sisters of the coast. 
None were deformed, nor were any marked by traces of disease. I may ob- 
serve, moreover, that the male Fullahs of Timbo are impressed on my memory 
by a beauty of form which almost equals that of the women ; and, in fact, the 
only fault I found with them was their minute resemblance to the feminine del- 
icacy of the other sex. They made up, however, in courage what they lacked 
in form, for their manly spirit has made them renowned among all the tribes 
they have so long coi/rolled by distinguished bravery and perseverance. 

" The patriarchal landscape by the brook, with the Oriental girls over their 
water-jars, and the lowing cattle in the pastures, brought freshly to my mind 
many a Bible scene I heard my mother read when I was a boy at home. 

" My trip to Timbo, I confess, was one of business rather than pleasure or 
scientific exploration. I did not make a record, at the moment, of my ' im- 
pressions de voyage,' and never thought that, a quarter of a century after- 
wards, I would feel disposed to chronicle the journey in a book, as an interest- 
ing souvenir of my early life. Had I supposed that the day would come 
when I was to turn author, it is likely I might have been more inquisitive ; 
but being only ' a slaver,' I found Ahma, Sulimani, Abdulmomen, the Ali- 
Marni, and all the quality and amusements of Timbo, dull enough, when my 
object was achieved. Still, while I was there, I thought I might as well see 
all that was visible. I strolled repeatedly through the town. I became ex- 
cessively familiar with its narrow streets, low houses, mud walls, cul-de-sacs, 
and mosques. I saw no fine bazaars, market-places, or shops. The chief 
wants of life were supplied by peddlers. Platters, jars, and baskets of fruit, 
vegetables, and meat, were borne around twice or thrice daily. Horsemen 
dashed about on beautiful steeds toward the fields in the morning, or came 
home at night-fall at a slower pace, i" never saw man or woman bask lazily 
in the sun. Females were constantly busy over their cotton and spinning 
wheels when not engaged in household occupations ; and often I have seen an 
elderly dame quietly crouched in her hovel at sunset reading the Koran. Nor 
are the men of Timbo less thrifty. Their city wall is said to hem in about ten 
thousand individuals, representing all the social industries. They weave cot- 
ton, work in leather, fabricate iron from the bar, engage diligently in agricul- 
ture, and, whenever not laboriously employed, devote themselves to reading 
and writing, of which they are excessively fond. 

" These are faint sketches, which, on ransacking my brain, I find resting on 
its tablets. But I was tired of Timbo ; I was perfectly refreshed from my 
journey ; and I was anxious to return to my factory on the beach. Two 
' moons' only had been originally set apart for the enterprise, and the third 
was already waxing toward its full. I feared the Ali-Mami was not yet pre- 
pared with slaves for my departure, and I dreaded lest objections might be 
made if I approached his royal highness with the flat announcement. Accor- 
dingly, I schooled my interpreters, and visited that important personage. I 
made a long speech, as full of compliments and blarney as a Christmas pud- 
ding is of plums, and concluded by touching the soft part in African royalty's 



A CONILICT. 321 

heart — slaves ! I told the King that a vessel or two, with abundant freights, 
would be waiting me on the river, and that I must hasten thither with his 
choicest gangs if he hoped to reap a profit, 

"The king and the royal family were no doubt excessively grieved to part 
with the Furtoo Mongo, but they were discreet persons and ' listened to rea- 
son.' War parties and scouts were forthwith dispatched to blockade the paths, 
while press-gangs made recruits among the villages, and even in Tirnbo. Su- 
limani-Ali himself sallied forth, before day-break, with a troop of horse, and 
at sundown came back with forty-five splendid fellows, captured in Fiudo and 
Furo ! 

" The personal dread of me in the town itself was augmented. If I had 
been a Pestilence before, I was Death now ! When I took my usual morning 
walk the children ran from me screaming. Since the arrival of Sulimani with 
his victims, all who were under the yoke thought their hour of exile had come. 
The poor regarded me as the devil incarnate. Once or twice, I caught women 
throwing a handful of dust or ashes towards me, and uttering an invocation 
from the Koran to avert the demon or save them from his clutches. Their 
curiosity was merged in terror. My popularity was over ! " 

The captain takes command of the schooner La Esperanza, whose chief 
officer had died of the fever, resolved to make a visit to his friends in Cuba, 
for a little relaxation from the monotony of a slave-trader's life in Africa. The 
slave cargo was duly stowed, and the schooner put to sea, but the British bull- 
dogs soon scented the foul slaver on the tainted breeze and were on his track. 

"When the land breeze died away, it fell entirely calm, and the sea con- 
tinued an unruffled mirror for three days, during which the highlands remained 
in sight, like a faint cloud in the east. The glaring sky and the reflecting 
ocean acted and reacted on each other until the air glowed like a furnace. 
During night a dense fog enveloped the vessel with its clammy folds When 
the vapor lifted on the fourth morning, our look-out announced a sail from the 
mast-head, and every eye was quickly sweeping the landward horizon in search 
of the stranger. Our spies along the beach had reported the coast clear of 
cruisers when I sailed, so that I hardly anticipated danger from men-of-war ; 
nevertheless, we held it discreet to avoid intercourse, and, accordingly, our 
doubled-manned sweeps were rigged out to impel us slowly toward the open 
ocean. Presently, the mate went aloft with his glass, and, after a deliberate 
gaze, exclaimed: 'It is only the Dane, — I see his flag.' At this my crew 
swore they would sooner fight than sweep in such a latitude ; and, with three 
cheers, came aft to request that I would remain quietly where I was until the 
Northman overhauled us. 

" We made so little headway with oars that I thought the difference trifling, 
whether we pulled or were becalmed. Perhaps it might be better to keep the 
hands fresh, if a conflict proved inevitable. I passed quickly among the men, 
with separate inquiries as to their readiness for battle, and found all — from 
the boy to the mate — anxious, at every hazard, to do their duty. Our break- 

21 



322 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

fast was as cold as could be served in such a climate, but I made it palatable 
with a case of claret. 

"When a sail on the coast of Africa heaves in sight of a slaver, it is always 
best for the imperiled craft, especially if gifted with swift hull and spreading 
wings, to take flight without the courtesies that are usual in mercantile sea-life. 
At the present day, fighting is, of course, out of the question, and the valuable 
prize is abandoned by its valueless owners. At all times, however, — and as a 
guard against every risk, whether the cue be to fight or fly, — the prudent sla- 
ver, as soon as he finds himself in the neighborhood of unwholesome canvas, 
puts out his fire, nails his forecastle, sends his negroes below, and secures the 
g'-atings over his hatches. 

" All these preparations were quietly made on board the Esperanza ; and, in 
addition, I ordered a supply of small arms and ammunition on deck, where 
they were instantly covered with blankets. Every man was next stationed at 
his post, or where he might be most serviceable. The cannons were spunged 
and loaded with care ; and, as I desired to deceive our new acquaintance, I 
ran up the Portuguese flag. The calm still continued as the day advanced ; 
indeed, I could not perceive a breath of air by our dog-vane, which veered 
from side to side as the schooner rolled slowly on the lazy swell. The stran- 
ger did not approach, nor did we advance. There we hung — 

'A painted ship upon a painted ocean 1 ' 

I cannot describe the fretful anxiety which vexes a mind under such circum- 
stances. Slaves below ; a blazing sun above ; the boiling sea beneath ; a 
withering air around ; decks piled with materials of death ; escape unlikely; a 
phantom in chase behind ; the ocean like an unreachable eternity before ; un- 
certainty every where; and, within your skull, a feverish mind harassed by 
doubt and responsibility, yet almost craving for any act of desperation that 
will remove the spell. It is a living night-mare, from which the soul pant? 
to be free. 

" With torments like these, I paced the deck for half an hour beneath the 
awning, when, seizing a telescope and mounting the rigging, I took deliberate 
aim at the annoyer. He was full seven or eight miles away from us, but very 
soon I saw, or fancied I saw, a row of ports, which the Dane had uot : then 
sweeping the horizon a little astern of the craft, I distinctly made out three 
boats, fully manned, making for us with ensigns flying. 

" Anxious to avoid a panic, I descended leisurely, and ordered the sweeps to 
be spread once more in aid of the breeze, which, within the last ten minutes, 
had freshened enough to fan us along about a knot an hour. Next, I imparted 
my discovery to the officers ; and, passing once more among the men to test 
their nerves, I said it was likely they would have to encounter an angrier cus- 
tomer than the Dane. In fact, I frankly told them our antagonist was un- 
questionably a British cruiser of ten or twelve guns, from whose clutches there 
was no escape, unless we repulsed the boats. 

" I found my crew as confident in the face of augumented risk as they had 



A CONFLICT. 323 

been when we expected the less perilous Dane. Collecting their votes for fight 
or surrender, I learned that all but two were in favor of resistance. I had no 
doubt in regard to the mates, in our approaching trials. 

"By this time the breeze had again died away to utter calmness, while the 
air was so still and fervent that our sweltering men almost sank at the sweeps. 
I ordered them in, threw overboard several water-casks that encumbered the 
deck, and hoisted our boat to the stern-davits to prevent boarding in that quar- 
ter. Things were perfectly ship-shape all over the schooner, and I congratu- 
lated myself that her power had been increased by two twelve pound carron- 
ades, the ammunition, and part of the crew of a Spanish slaver, abandoned on 
the bar of Rio Pongo a week before my departure. We had in all three guns, 
and abundance of musketry, pistols and cutlasses, to be wielded and managed 
by thirty-seven hands. 

"By this time the British boats, impelled by oars alone, approached within 
half a mile, while the breeze sprang up in cat's paws all around the eastern 
horizon, but without fanning us with a single breath. Taking advantage of one 
of these slants, the cruiser had followed her boats, but now, about five miles off. 
was again as perfectly becalmed as we had been all day. Presently, I observed 
the boats converge within the range of my swivel, and lay on their oars as if for 
consultation. I seized this opportunity, while the enemy was bundled together, 
to give him the first welcome ; and, slewing the schooner round with my sweeps, 
I sent him a shot from my swivel. But the ball passed over their heads, while, 
with three cheers, they separated — the largest boat making directly for our 
waist, while the others steered to cross our bow and attack our stern. 

" During the chase my weapons, with the exception of the pivot gun, were 
altogether useless, but I kept a couple of sweeps ahead and a couple astern to 
play the schooner, and employed the loud-tongued instrument as the foe ap- 
proached. The larger boat, bearing a small carronade, was my best target, 
yet we contrived to miss each other completely until my sixth discharge, when 
a double-headed shot raked the whole bank of starboard oar-blades, and dis- 
abled the rowers by the severe concussion. This paralyzed the launch's advance, 
and allowed me to devote my exclusive attention to the other boats ; yet, before 
I could bring the schooner in a suitable position, a signal summoned the assail- 
ants aboard the cruiser to repair damages. I did not reflect until this moment 
of reprieve, that, early in the day, I had hoisted the Portuguese ensign to de- 
ceive the Dane, and imprudently left it aloft in the presence of John Bull. I 
struck the false flag at once, unfurled the Spanish, and refreshing the men with 
a double allowance of grog and grub, put them again to the sweeps. When 
the cruisers reached their vessels, the men instantly reembarked, while the 
boats were allowed to swing alongside, which convinced me that the assault 
would be renewed as soon as the rum and roast-beef of Old England had 
strengthened the heart of the adversary. Accordingly, noon had not long 
passed when our pursuers again embarked. Once more they approached, di- 
vided as before, and again we exchanged ineffectual shots. I kept them at 
bay with grape and musketry until near three o'clock, when a second signal of 



324 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

retreat was hoisted on the cruiser, and answered by exultant vivas from my 
crew. It grieved me, I confess, not to mingle my voice with these shouts, for 
I was sure that the lion retreated to make a better spring, nor was I less dis- 
heartened when the mate reported that nearly all the ammunition for our can- 
nons was exhausted. Seven kegs of powder were still in the magazine, though 
not more than a dozen rounds of grape, cannister, or balls remained in the locker. 
There was still an abundance of cartridges for pistols and musketry, but these 
were poor defenses against resolute Englishmen whose blood was up and who 
would unquestionably renew the charge with reinforcements of vigorous men. 
Fore and aft, high and low, we searched for missils. Musket balls were cram- 
med in bags, bolts and nails were packed in cartridge paper, slave shackles 
were formed with rope yarns into chain-shot, and, in an hour, we were once 
more tolerably prepared to pepper the foe. 

" When these labors terminated, I turned my attention to the relaxed crew, 
portions of whom refused wine, and began to sulk about the decks. As yet, 
only two had been slightly scratched by spent musket balls ; but so much dis- 
content began to appear among the passenger-sailors of the wrecked slaver, 
that my own hands could with difficulty restrain them from revolt. I felt much 
difficulty in determining how to act, but I had no time for deliberation. Vio- 
lence was clearly not my role, but persuasion was a delicate game in such straits 
among men whom I did not command with the absolute authority of a master. 
I cast my eye over the taffrail, and seeing that the British boats were still afar, 
I followed my first impulse, and calling the whole gang to the quarter-deck, 
tried the effect of African palaver and Spanish gold. I spoke of the perils of 
capture and of the folly of surrendering a slaver while there was the slightest 
hope of escape. I painted the unquestionable result of being taken after such 
resistance as had already been made. I drew an accurate picture of a tall and 
dangerous instrument on which piratical gentlemen have some times been 
known to terminate their lives ; and finally, I attempted to improve the rhythm 
of my oratory by a couple of golden ounces to each combatant, and the promise 
of a slave apiece at the end of our successful voyage. 

" My suspense was terrible, as there — on the deck of a slaver, amid calm, 
heat, battle, and mutiny, with a volcano of three hundred and seventy-five im- 
prisoned devils below me — I awaited a reply, which, favorable or unfavorable, 
I must hear without emotion. Presently, three or four came forward and ac- 
cepted my offer. I shrugged my shoulders, and took half a dozen turns up 
and down the deck. Then turning to the crowd, I doubled my bounty, and 
offering a boat to take the recusants on board the enemy, swore that I would 
stand by the Esperanza with my unaided crew in spite of the dastards ! 

" The offensive word with which I closed the harangue seemed to touch the 
right string of the Spanish guitar, and in an instant I saw the dogged heads 
spring up with a jerk of mortified pride, while the steward and cabin-boy poured 
in a fresh supply of wine, and a shout of union went up from both divisions. 
I lost no time in confirming my converts ; and, ramming down my eloquence 



A CONFLICT. 325 

with a wad of doubloons, ordered every man to his post, for the enemy was 
again in motion. 

"But he did not come alone. New actors had appeared on the scene during 
my engagement with the crew. The sound of the cannonade had been heard, 
it seems, by a consort of his Britannic Majesty's brig, and, although the battle 
was not within her field of vision, she dispatched another squadron of boats 
under the guidance of the reports that boomed through the silent air. 

" The first division of my old assailants was considerably in advance of the 
reinforcement, and in perfect order approached us in a solid body, with the 
apparent determination of boarding on the same side. Accordingly, I brought 
all my weapons and hands to that quarter, and told both gunners and musketeers 
not to fire without orders. Waiting their discharge, I allowed them to get 
close ; but the commander of the launch seemed to anticipate my plan by the 
reservation of his fire till he could draw mine, in order to throw his other boat- 
loads on board under the smoke of his swivel and small arms. It was odd to 
witness our mutual forbearance, nor could I help laughing, eveu in the midst 
of danger, at the mutual checkmate we were trying to prepare. However, 
my Britons did not avoid pulling, though they omitted firing, so that they were 
already rather perilously close wheu I thought it best to give them the contents 
of my pivot, which I had crammed almost to the muzzle with bolts and bullets. 
The discharge paralyzed the advance, while my carronades flung a quantity of 
grape into the companion boats. In turu, however, they plied us so deftly ( 
with balls from swivels and musketry, that five of our most valuable defenders 
writhed in death on the deck. 

" The rage of battle at closer quarters than heretofore, and the screams of 
bleeding comrades beneath their feet, roused to its fullest extent the ardent na- 
ture of my Spanish crew. They tore their garments ; stripped to their waists ; 
called for rum ; and swore they would die rather than yield ! 

"By this time the consort's reinforcement was rapidly approaching ; and, 
with hurrah after hurrah, the five fresh boats came on in double column. As 
they drew within shot, each cheer was followed with a fatal volley, under which 
several more of our combatants were prostrated, while a glancing musket ball 
lacerated my knee with a painful wound. For five minutes we met this onset 
with cannon, muskets, pistols, and enthusiastic shouts ; but in the dispairing 
cosfusion of the hour, the captain of our long gun rammed home his ball be- 
fore the powder, so that when the priming burnt, the most reliable of our 
weapons was silent forever. At this moment a round shot from the launch 
dismounted a carronade — our ammunition was wasted — and in this disabled 
state the Britons prepared to board our crippled craft. Muskets, bayonets, 
pistols, swords, and knives, for a space kept them at bay, even at short quarters ; 
but the crowded boats tumbled their enraged fighters over our forecastle like 
surges from the sea, and, cutlass in hand, the victorious furies swept everything 
before them. The cry was to 'spare no one! ' Down went sailor after sailor, 
struggling with the frenzied passion of despair. Presently an order went 
forth to split the gratings and release the slaves. I clung to my post and 



32G THE SLAVE TRADE. 

cheered the battle to the last ; but when I heard this fatal command, which, if 
obeyed, might bury assailant and defender in common ruin, I ordered the rem- 
nant to throw down their arms, while I struck the flag and warned the rash 
and testy Englishman to beware. 

" The senior officer of the boarding party belonged to the division from the 
cruiser's consort. As he reached the deck, his clement eye fell sadly on the 
scene of blood, and he commanded ' quarter ' immediately. It was time. 
The excited boarders from the repulsed boats had mounted our deck brimming 
with revenge. Every one that opposed was cut down without mercy ; and in 
another moment, it is likely I would have joined the throng of the departed. 

" All was over ! There was a hushed and panting crowd of victors and van- 
quished on the bloody deck, when the red ball of the setting sun glared through 
a crimson haze and filled the motionless sea with liquid fire. For the first time 
that day I became sensible of personal sufferings. A stifling sensation made 
me gasp for air as I sat down on the taffrail of my captured schooner, and felt 
that I was — a prisoner ! " 

The night after the capture the captain made his escape in one of the boats, 
and again reached the coast and his establishment at Kambia. Shortly after- 
wards the " Feliz " arrived from Matanzas, consigned to him for a cargo of 
slaves. 

" Slaves dropped in slowly at Kambia and Bangalang, though I still v had 
half the cargo of the Feliz to make up. Time was precious, and there was 
no foreigner on the river to aid me. In this strait I suddenly resolved on a 
foray among the natives on my own account ; and equipping a couple of my 
largest canoes with an ample armament, as well as a substantial store of pro- 
visions and merchandise, I departed for the Matacan river, a short stream, un- 
suitable for vessels of considerable draft. I was prepared for the purchase of 
fifty slaves. 

" I reached my destination without risk or adventure, but had the oppor- 
tunity of seeing some new phases of Africanism on my arrival. Most of the 
coast negroes are wretchedly degraded by their superstitions and sauvagerie, 
and it is best to go among them with power to resist as well as presents to 
purchase. Their towns did not vary from the river and bush settlements gen- 
erally. A house was given me for my companions and merchandise ; yet such 
was their curiosity to see the ' white man,' that the luckless mansion swarmed 
with sable bees both inside and out, till I was obliged to send for his majesty 
to relieve my sufferings. 

" After a proper delay, the king made his appearance in all the parapher- 
nalia of African court-dress. A few fathoms of check girded his loins, while 
a blue shirt and red waistcoat were surmounted by a dragoon's cap with brass 
ornaments. His countenance was characteristic of Ethiopia and royalty. A 
narrow forehead retreated rapidly till it was lost in the crisp wool, while his 
eyes were wide apart, and his prominent cheek-bones formed the base of an 
inverted cone, the apex of which was his braided beard coiled up under his 
chin. When earnest in talk, his gestures were mostly made with his head, by 



COMMERCE. 327 

straining his eyes to the rim of their sockets, stretching his mouth from ear to 
ear, grinning like a baboon, and throwing out his chin horizontally with a sud- 
den jerk. Notwithstanding these personal oddities, the sovereign was kind, 
courteous, hospitable, and disposed for trade. Accordingly, I 'dashed,' or 
presented him and his head-men a few pieces of cottons, with some pipes, 
beads and looking-glasses, by way of whet for the appetite of to-morrow. 

" Next day we proceeded to formal business. His majesty called a regular 
' palaver ' of his chiefs and head-men, before whom I stated my dantica and 
announced the terms. Very soon several young folks were brought for sale, 
who, I am sure, never dreamed at rising from last night's sleep that they were 
destined for Cuban slavery 1 My merchandise revived the memory of pecca- 
dilloes that had been long forgotten, and sentences that were forgiven. Jeal- 
ous husbands, when they tasted my rum, suddenly remembered their wives' in- 
fidelities, and sold their better halves for more of the oblivious fluid. In truth, 
I was exalted into a magician, unroofing the village and baring its crime and 
wickedness to the eye of justice. Law became profitable, and virtue had 
never reached so high a price 1 Before night the town was in a turmoil, for 
every man cudgeled his brain for an excuse to kidnap his neighbor, so as to 
share my commerce. As the village was too small to supply the entire gang 
of fifty, I had recourse to the neighboring settlements, where my 'barkers,' 
or agents, did their work in a masterly manner. Traps w%re adroitly baited 
with goods to lead the unwary into temptation, when the unconscious pilferer 
was caught by his ambushed foe, and an hour served to hurry him to the beach 
as a slave for ever. In fact, five days were sufficient to stamp my image per- 
manently on the Matacan settlements, and to associate my memory with any 
thing but blessings in at least fifty of their families ! 

"In 1829, vessels were publicly sold, and, with very little trouble, equipped 
for the coast of Africa. The captures in that region were somewhat like play- 
ing a hand — taking the tricks, reshuffling the same cards, and dealing again to 
take more tricks ! Accordingly, I fitted a schooner to receive a cargo of 
negroes immediately on quitting port. My crew was made up of men from 
all nations, captured in prizes ; but I guardedly selected my officers from 
Spaniards exclusively. 

"We were slowly wafting along the sea, a day or two out of the British col- 
ony, when the mate fell into a chat with a clever lad who was hanging lazily 
over the helm. They spoke of voyages and mishaps, and this led the sailor 
to declare his recent escape from a vessel, then in the Rio Nunez, whose mate 
had poisoned the captain to get possession of the craft. She had been fitted, he 
said, at St. Thomas with the feigned design of coasting ; but, when she sailed 
for Africa, her register was sent back to the island in a boat to serve some 
other vessel, while she ventured to the continent ivithout papers. 

" I have cause to believe that the slave-trade was rarely conducted upon the 
honorable principles between man and man, which, of course, are the only se- 
curity betwixt owners, commanders and consignees whose commerce is exclu- 
sively contraband. There were men, it is true, engaged in it, with whom the 



S28 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

' point of honor ' was more omnipotent than the dread of law iu regular 
trade. But innumerable cases have occurred in which the spendthrifts who 
appropriated their owners' property on the coast of Africa, availed themselves 
of such superior force as they happened to control, in order to escape detec- 
tion, or assure a favorable reception in the West Indies. In fact, the slaver 
sometimes ripened into something very like a pirate ! 

"In 1828 aud 1829, severe engagements took place between Spanish slav- 
ers and this class of contrabandists. Spaniards would assail Portuguese when 
the occasion was tempting and propitious. Many a vessel has been fitted iu 
Cuba for these adventures, and returned to port with a living cargo, purchased 
by cannon-balls and boarding-pikes exclusively. 

"Now, I confess that my notions had become at this epoch somewhat re- 
laxed by my traffic on the coast, so that I grew to be no better than folks of 
my cloth. I was fond of excitement ; my craft was sadly in want of a cargo ; 
and, as the mate narrated the helmsman's story, the Quixotic idea naturally 
got control of my brain that I was destined to become the avenger of the 
poisoned captain. I will not say that I was altogether stimulated by the noble 
spirit of justice ; for it is quite possible I would never have thought of the 
dead man had uot the sailor apprised us that his vessel was half full of 
negroes ! 

"As we drifted'slowly by the mouth of my old river, I slipped over the bar, 
and, while I fitted the schooner with a splendid nine-pounder amidships, I dis- 
patched a spy to the Rio Nunez to report the facts about the poisoning, as 
well as the armament of the unregistered slaver. In ten days the runner ver- 
ified the tale. She was still in the stream, with one hundred and eighty-five 
human beings, but would soon be off with two hundred and twenty-five. 

" The time was extraordinarily propitious. Every thing favored my enter- 
prise. The number of slaves would exactly fit my schooner. Such a windfall 
could not be neglected ; and, on the fourth day, I was entering the Rio Nunez 
under the Portuguese flag, which I unfurled by virtue of a pass from Sierra 
Leone to the Cape de Verde islands. 

" I cannot tell whether my spy had been faithless, but when I reached Fu- 
caria, I perceived that my game had taken wing from her anchorage. Here 
was a sad disappointment. The schooner drew too much water to allow a 
further ascent, and, moreover, I was unacquainted with the river. 

" As ii was important that I should keep aloof from strangers, I anchored 
in a quiet spot, and seizing the first canoe that passed, learned, for a small re- 
ward, that the object of my search was hidden in a bend of the river at the 
king's town of Kakuudy, which I could not reach without the pilotage of a 
certain mulatto, who alone was fit for the enterprise. 

" I knew this half-breed as soon as his person was described, but I had little 
hope of securing his services, either by fair means or promised recompense. 
He owed me five slaves for dealings that took place between us at Kauibia, 
and had always refused so strenuously to pay, that I felt sure he would be off 
to the woods as soon as he knew of my presence on the river. Accordingly. 



PIRACY. 329 

I kept my canoemen on the schooner by an abundant supply of ' bitters,' and 
at midnight landed half a dozen, who proceeded to the mulatto's cabin, where 
he was seized sans ceremonie. The terror of this ruffian was indescribable 
when he found himself in my presence — a captive, as he supposed, for the 
debt of flesh. But I soon relieved him, and offered him a liberal reward for 
his prompt, secret and safe pilotage to Kakundy. The mulatto was willing, 
but the stream was too shallow for my keel. He argued the point so convinc- 
ingly, that in half an hour I relinquished the attempt, and resolved to make 
' Mahomet come to the mountain.' 

" The two boats were quickly manned, armed, and supplied with lanterns ; 
and, with muffled oars, guided by our pilot — whose skull was kept constantly 
under the lee of my pistol — we fell like vampyres on our prey in the dark- 
ness. 

" With a wild hurrah and a blaze of our pistols in the air, we leaped on 
board, driving every soul under hatches without striking a blow I Sentries 
were placed at the cabiu door, forecastle and hatchway. The cable was 
slipped, my launch took her in tow, the pilot and myself took charge of the 
helm, and, before daylight, the prize was alongside my schooner, transhipping 
one hundred and ninety-seven of her slaves,.with their necessary supplies. 

" Great was the surprise of the captured crew when they saw their fate ; 
and great was the agony of the poisoner, when he returned next morning to 
the vacant anchorage, after a night of debauch with the king of Kakundy. 
First of all, he imagined we were regular cruisers, and that the captain's death 
was about to be avenged. But when it was discovered that they had fallen 
into the grasp of friendly slavers, five of his seamen abandoned their craft 
and shipped with me. 

" We had capital stomachs for breakfast after that night's romance. Hardly 
was it swallowed, however, when three canoes came blustering down the stream, 
filled with negroes and headed by his majesty. I did not wait for a salutation, 
but, giving the warriors a dose of bellicose grape, tripped my anchor, sheeted 
home my sails, and was off like an albatross ! 

"The feat was cleverly achieved; but, since then, I have very often been 
taxed by my conscience with doubts as to its strict morality. The African 
slave-trade produces singular notions of meum and tuum in the minds and 
hearts of those who dwell for any length of time on that blighting coast ; and 
it is not unlikely that I was quite as prone to the infection as better men, who 
perished under the malady, while I escaped ! 

"It was a sweltering July, and the ' rainy season ' proved its tremendous 
power by almost incessant deluges. In the breathless calms that held me spelk 
bound on the coast, the rain came down in such torrents that I often thought 
the solid water would bury and submerge our schooner. Now and then, a 
south-wester and the current would fan and drift us along ; yet the tenth day 
found us rolling from side to side in the longitude of the Cape de Verdes. 

" Day broke with one of its customary squalls and showers. As the cloud 
lifted, my look-out from the cross-trees announced a sail under our lee. It was 



330 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

invisible from deck, in the folds of the retreating rain, but, in the dead calm 
that followed, the distant whistle of a boatswain was distinctly audible. Be- 
fore I could deliberate, all my doubts were solved by a shot in our main-sail, 
and the crack of a cannon. There could be no question that the unwelcome 
visitor was a man-of-war. 

" It was fortunate that the breeze sprang up after the lull, and enabled us 
to carry everything that could be crowded on our spars. We dashed away be- 
fore the freshening wind like a deer with the unleashed hounds pursuing. The 
slaves were shifted from side to side — forward or aft— to aid our sailing. 
Headstays were slackened, wedges knocked off the masts, and every incum- 
brance cast from the decks into the sea. Now and then, a fruitless shot from 
his bow-chasers reminded the fugitive that the foe was still on his scent. At 
last, the cruiser got the range of his guns so perfectly that a well-aimed ball 
ripped away our rail and tore a dangerous splinter from the foremast, three 
feet from deck. It was now perilous to carry a press of sail on the same tack 
with the weakened spar, whereupon I put the schooner about, and, to my de- 
light, found we ranged ahead a knot faster on this course than the former. The 
enemy ' went about ' as quickly as we did, but her balls soon fell short of us, 
and, before noon, we had crawled so nimbly to windward that her top-gallants 
alone were visible above the horizon. 

" Our voyage was uucheckcred by any occurrence worthy of recollection save 
the accidental loss of the mate in a dark and stormy night, until we approached 
the Antilles. Here, where everything on a slaver assumes the guise of pleas- 
ure and relief, I remarked not only the sullenuess of my crew, but a disposition 
to disobey or neglect. The second mate — shipped in the Rio Nunez, and who 
replaced my lost officer as chief mate of the schooner — was noticed occasion- 
ally in close intercourse with the watch, while his deportment indicated dissat- 
isfaction, if not mutiny. 

" A slaver's life on shore, as well as at sea, makes him wary when another 
would not be circumspect, or even apprehensive. The sight of land is com- 
monly the signal for merriment, for a well-behaved cargo is invariably released 
from shackles, and allowed free intercourse between the sexes during the day- 
time on deck. Water tanks are thrown open for unrestricted use. ' The cat ' 
is cast into the sea. Strict discipline is relaxed. The day of dauger or re- 
volt is considered over, and the captain enjoys a new and refreshing life till the 
hour of landing. Sailors, with proverbial generosity, share their biscuits and 
clothing with the blacks. The women, who are generally without garments, 
appear in costume from the wardrobes of tars, petty officers, mates, and even 
captains. Sheets, table-cloths, and spare sails are torn to pieces for raiment, 
while shoes, boots, caps, oil-cloths, and monkey-jackets contribute to the gay 
masquerade of the 'emigrants.' 

" It was my sincere hope that the first glimpse of the Antilles would have 
converted my schooner into a theatre for such a display ; but the moodiness of 
my companions was so manifest that I thought it best to meet rebellion half 



MUTINY. 331 

way, by breaking the suspected officer, and sending him forward at the same 
time that I threw his 'dog-house' overboard.* 

" I was now without a reliable officer, and was obliged to call two of the 
youngest sailors to my assistance in navigating the schooner. I knew the cook 
and steward — both of whom messed aft — to be trustworthy ; so that, with four 
men at my back, and the blacks below, I felt competent to control my vessel. 
From that moment, I suffered no one to approach the quarter-deck nearer than 
the mainmast. 

" It was a sweet afternoon when we were floating along the shores of Porto 
Rico, tracking our course upon the chart. Suddenly, one of my new assistants 
approached, with the sociability common among Spaniards, and, in a quiet 
tone, asked whether I would take a cigarillo. As I never smoked, I rejected 
the offer with thanks, when the youth immediately dropped the twisted paper 
on my map. In an instant, I perceived the ruse, and discovered that the ci- 
garillo was, in fact, a billet rolled to resemble one. I put it in my mouth, 
and walked aft until I could throw myself on the deck, with my head over the 
stern, so as to open the paper unseen. It disclosed the organization of a mu- 
tiny, under the lead of the broken mate. Our arrival in sight of St. Domingo 
was to be the signal of its rupture, and for my immediate landing on the island. 
Six of the crew were implicated with the villain, and the boatswain, who was 
ill in the slave-hospital, was to share my fate. 

" My resolution was promptly made. In a few minutes, I had cast a hasty 
glance into the arm-chest, and seen that our weapons were in order. Then, 
mustering ten of the stoutest and cleverest of my negroes on the quarter-deck, 
I took the liberty to invent a little strategic fib, and told them, in the Soosoo 
dialect, that there were bad men on board, who wanted to run the schooner 
ashore among the rocks and drown the slaves while below. At the same time, 
I gave each a cutlass from the arm-chest, and supplying my trusty whites with 
a couple of pistols and a knife a-piece, without saying a word, I seized the 
ringleader and his colleagues I Irons and double-irons secured the party to the 
mainmast or deck, while a' drum-head court-martial, composed of the officers, 
and presided over by myself, arraigned and tried the scoundrels in much less 
time than regular boards ordinarily spend in such investigations. During the 
inquiry, we ascertained beyond doubt that the death of the mate was due to 
false play. He had been wilfully murdered, as a preliminary to the assault on 
me, for his colossal stature and powerful muscles would have made him a dan- 
gerous adversary in the seizure of the craft. 

" There was, perhaps, a touch of the old-fashioned Inquisition in the mode 
of our judicial researches concerning this projected mutiny. We proceeded 
very much by way of ' confession,' and whenever the culprit manifested reluct- 
ance or hesitation, his memory was stimulated by a 'cat' Accordingly, at 
the end of the trial, the mutineers were already pretty well punished ; so that 



* The forecastle and cabin of a slaver are given up to the living freight, while officers 
Bleep on deck in kennels, technically known as "dog-houses." 



332 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

we sentenced the six accomplices to receive an additional flagellation, and con 
tinue ironed till we reached Cuba. But the fate of the ringleader was not de- 
cided so easily. Some were in favor of dropping him overboard, as he had 
done with the mate ; others proposed to set him adrift on a raft, ballasted with 
chains ; but I considered both these punishments too cruel, notwithstanding his 
treachery, and kept his head beneath the pistol of a sentry till I lauded him in 
shackles on Turtle Island, with three days food and abundance of water. 

"After all these adventures, I was very near losing the schooner before I 
got to land, by one of the perils of the sea, for which I blame myself that I 
was not better prepared. It was the afternoon of a fine day. For some time 
I had noticed on the horizon a low bank of white cloud, which rapidly spread 
itself over the sky and water, surrounding us with an impenetrable fog. I ap- 
prehended danger ; yet, before I could make the schooner snug to meet the 
squall, a blast — as sudden and loud as a thunderbolt — prostrated her nearly on 
her beam. The shock was so violent and unforeseen that the unrestrained 
slaves, who were enjoying the fine weather on deck, rolled to leeward till they 
floundered in the sea that inundated the scuppers. There was no power in the 
tiller to ' keep her away ' before the blast, for the rudder was almost out of 
water ; but, fortunately, our mainsail burst in shreds from the bolt-ropes, and, 
relieving us from its pressure, allowed the schooner to right under control of 
the helm. The West Indian squall abandoned us as rapidly as it assailed, and 
I was happy to find that our entire loss did not exceed two slave-children, who 
had been carelessly suffered to sit on the rail. 

" The reader knows "that my voyage was an impromptu speculation, with- 
out papers, manifest, register, consignees, or destination. It became necessary, 
therefore, that I should exercise a very unusual degree of circumspection, not 
only in landing my human cargo, but in selecting a spot from which I might 
communicate with proper persons. I had never been in Cuba, save on the oc- 
casion already described, nor were my business transactions extended beyond 
the Regla Association, by which I was originally sent to Africa. 

" The day after the ' white squall,' I found our scHooner drifting with a lead- 
in"- breeze along the southern coast of Cuba, and as the time seemed favor- 
able, I thought I might as well cut the gordian knot of dilemma by landing my 
cargo in a secluded cove that indented the beach about nine miles east of Sant 
Iago. If I had been consigned to the spot, I could not have been more for- 
tunate in my reception. Some sixty yards from the landing, I found the com- 
fortable home of a ranchero who proffered the hospitality usual in such cases, 
and devoted a spacious barn to the reception of my slaves, while his family 
prepared an abundant meal. 

" As soon as the cargo was safe from the grasp of cruisers, I resolved to dis- 
regard the flagless and paperless craft that bore it from Africa, and being un- 
acquainted in Sant' Iago, to cross the island towards the capital, in search of 
a consignee. Accordingly, I mounted a spirited little horse, and with a mon- 
tero guide, turned my face once more towards the ' ever faithful city of Ha- 
vana.' 



cuba. 333 

" My companion had a thousand questions for 'the captain,' all of which I 
answered with so much bonhomrflie that we soon became the best friends ini- 
aginable, and chatted over all the scandal of Cuba. I learned from this man 
that a cargo had recently been ' run ' in the neighborhood of Matanzas, and 
that its disposal was most successfully managed by a Senor * * * , from Cat- 
alonia. 

" I slapped my thigh and shouted eureka! It flashed through my mind to 
trust this man without further inquiry, and I confess that my decision was 
based exclusively upon his sectional nationality. I am partial to the Catalans. 
Accordingly, I presented myself at the counting-room of my future con- 
signee in due time, and ' made a clean breast ' of the whole transaction, dis- 
closing the destitute state of my vessel. In a very short period, his excellency 
the captain-general was made aware of my arrival, and furnished a list of ' the 
Africans,' by which name the Bosal slaves are commonly known in Cuba. Nor 
was the captain of the port neglected. A convenient blank page of his regis- 
ter was inscribed with the name of my vessel as having sailed from the port 
six months before, and this was backed by a register and muster-roll, in order 
to secure my unquestionable entry into a harbor. 

"Before nightfall everything was in order with Spanish dispatch, when stim- 
ulated either by doubloons or the smell of African blood ; and twenty-four 
hours afterwards, I was again at the landing with a suit of clothes and a blan- 
ket for each of my ' domestics. ' The schooner was immediately put in charge 
of a clever pilot, who undertook the formal duty and name of her comman- 
der, in order to elude the vigilance of all the minor officials whose conscience 
had not been lulled by the golden anodyne. 

" In the meanwhile every attention had been given to the slaves by my hos- 
pitable ranchero. ' The head-money ' once paid, no body — civil, military, for- 
eign, or Spanish — dared interfere with them. Forty-eight hours of rest, ab- 
lution, exercise and feeding, served to recruit the gang and steady their gait. 
Nor had the sailors in charge of the party omitted the performance of their 
duty as ' valets ' to the gentlemen, and ' ladies' 1 maids ' to the females ; so that 
when the march towards Sant Iago began, the procession might have been 
considered as 'respectable as it was numerous.' 

"The brokers of the southern emporium made very little delay in finding 
purchasers at retail for the entire venture. The returns were, of course, in 
cash ; and so well did the enterprise turn out, that I forgot the rebellion of our 
mutineers, and allowed them to share my bounty with the rest of the crew. 
In fact, so pleased was I with the result on inspecting the balance sheet, that 
I resolved to divert myself with the dolce far niente of Cuban country life for 
a month at least. 

"But while I was making ready for this delightful repose, a slight breeze 
passed over the calmness of my mirror. I had given, perhaps imprudently, 
but certainly with generous motives, a double pay to my men in recompense of 
their perilous service on the Rio Nunez. With the usual recklessness of their 
craft, they lounged about Havana, boasting of their success, while a French- 



334 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

man of the party, who had been swindled of his wages at cards, appealed to 
his consul for relief By dint of cros- the Gallic official extracted 

ge from his countryman, and took advantage of the : 
" m to make him a ^ _ rrtain Don Teodore Car 

teas alleged to be a native of France'. Bra it of my 

i by the recreant Frenchman into a most unjustifiable as 
well as cruel act. 

" Of course the story was promptly detailed to the captain-general, who is- 
sued an order for my arrest. But I was too wary and flush to be ca a . 

y the guardian of France's lilies. No person bearing my name could 
be found in the inland : and as the schooner had entered port with Spanish pa- 
pers, Spanish crew, and was regularly sold, it became manifest to the stupefied 
consul that the sailor's ' yarn ' was an entire fabrication. That night a con- 
venient press-gang, in want of recruits for the royal marine, se::. 
gadocio crew, and as there were no witnesses to corroborate the consul's com- 
plaint, it was forthwith dismissed. 

re managed very cleverly in Havana — when you know h 

The following extract presents a new phase of the slave-trade ; as the ordi- 
nary horrors of the middle passage were increased by that terrible dise 
small-pox. The narrator had shipped as a sailing master on board " 
Pablo. The vessel was disguised as a French cruiser ; her officers wore the 
French uniform, and on all occasions, except in the presence of a genuine 
French cruiser, she hoisted the Bourbon lilies, and the vessel was conducted in 

if she belonged to the royal navy. She proceeded to ( 
zambique channel, took on board eight hundred victims, and started on the re- 
turn vovi.-^ : • ^"e had hardly reached the open sea before the captain was 
prostrated with an ague which refused to yield to ordinary remedies, and finally 
ripened into fever, that deprived him of reason. Other dari ; - 
around us. "We had been several days off the cape of Good Hope, buffeting 
—hen word was brought me after a night of weary 
watching, that several slaves were ill of small-pox. Of all eal&:. 
cur in the voyage of a ireaded and unmar s 

nailed me. Impetuous with anxiety, I rushed to the captain, and re- 
gardless of fever or insanity, disclosed the dreadful fact He stared at me for 
a minute as if in doubt ; then opening his bureau and pointing to a ] . 
of combustible material, said that it communicated through the d 
powder magazine, and ordered me to — ' blow up the brig ." 

" The master's madness sobered his mate. I lost no time in securi: _ 
the dangerous implement and its perilous owner, while I called the off 
the cabin for inquiry and consultation as to our desperate state. 

hout intermission, and during all this 
time with so much violence that it was impossible to take off the gratings, re- 
lease tiu v decks, or rig the " n the first lull 
occurred, a thorough ins; hnndred was made, and a death 
annov • fe had departed during the tempest, a carefal inspection of 



SMALL-POX. 335 

the body was made, and it was this that first disclosed the pestilence in our 
midst. The corpse was silently thrown into the sea, and the malady kept se- 
cret from crew and negroes. 

" When breakfast was over on that fatal morning, I determined to visit the 
slave deck myself, and ordering an abundant supply of lanterns, descended to 
the cavern, which still reeked horribly with human vapor, even after ventila- 
tion. But here, alas ! I found nine of the negroes infected by the disease. 
We took counsel as to the use of laudanum in ridding ourselves speedily of 
the sufferers — a remedy that is seldom and secretly used in desperate cases to 
preserve the living from contagion. But it was quickly resolved that it had 
already goue too far, wheu nine were prostrated, to save the vest by depriving 
them of life. Accordingly, these wretched beings were at once sent to the 
forecastle as a hospital, and given in charge to the vaccinated or inoculated as 
nurses. The hold was then ventilated and limed ; yet before the gale abated, 
our sick list was increased to thirty. The hospital could hold no more. Twelve 
of the sailors took the infection, and fifteen corpses had been east into the sea ! 

" All reserve was now at an end. Body after body fed the deep, and still 
the gale held on. At last, when the wind and waves had lulled so much as to 
allow the gratings to be removed from our hatches, our consternation knew no 
bounds when we found that nearly all the slaves were dead or dying with the 
distemper. I will not dwell on the scene or our sensations. It is a picture 
that must gape with all its horrors before the least vivid imagination. Yet 
there was no time for languor or sentimental sorrow. Twelve of the stoutest 
survivors were ordered to drag out the dead from among the ill, and though 
they were constantly drenched with rum to brutalize them, still we were forced 
t<> aid the gang by reckless volunteers from our crew, who, arming their hands 
with tarred mittens, flung the foetid masses of putrefaction into the sea ! 

" One day was a counterpart of another ; and yet the love of life, or, per- 
haps, the love of gold, made us fight the monster with a courage that became 
a better cause. At length death was satisfied, but not until the eight hundred 
beings we had shipped in high health had dwindled to four hundred and ninety- 
seven skeletons ! 

"The San Pablo might have been considered entitled to a 'clean bill of 
health ' by the time she reached the equator. The dead left space, food, and 
water for the living, and very little restraint was imposed on the squalid rem- 
nant. None were shackled after the outbreak of the fatal plague, so that in 
a short time the survivors began to fatten for the market to which they were 
hastening. But, such was not the fate of our captain. The fever and delirium 
had long left him, yet a dysenteric tendency, the result of a former malady, sud- 
denly supervened, and the worthy gentleman rapidly declined. His nerves 
gave way so thoroughly that from fanciful weakness he lapsed into helpless hy- 
pochondria. One of his pet ideas was that a copious dose of calomel would 
insure his restoration to perfect health. 

" But there was no balm in calomel for the captain. Physic could not save 
him. He declined day by day ; yet the energy of his hard nature kept him 



336 THE SLAVE TKADE. 

alive when other men would have sunk, and enabled him to command even from 
his sick bed. 

" It was always our Sabbath service to drum the men to quarters and exer- 
cise them with cannons and small arms. One Sunday, after the routine was 
over, the dying man desired to inspect his crew, and was carried to the quar- 
ter-deck on a mattrass. Each sailor marched in front of him and was allowed 
to take his hand ; after which he called them around in a body, and announced 
his apprehension that death would claim him before our destination was 
reached. Then, without previously apprising us of his design, he proceeded 
to make a verbal testament, and enjoined it upon all as a duty to his memory 
to obey implicitly. If the San Pablo arrived safely in port, he desired that 
every officer and mariner should be paid the promised bounty, and that the pro- 
ceeds of the cargo should be sent to his family in Nantz. But if it happened 
that we were attacked by a cruiser, and the brig was saved by the risk and valor 
of a defense, then he directed that one-half the voyage's avails should be 
shared between officers and crew, while one-quarter was sent to his friends in 
France, and the other given to me. His sailing-master and Cuban consignees 
were to be the executors of this salt-water document. 

" We were now well advanced north- westwardly on our voyage, and in every 
cloud could see a promise of the continuing trade-wind, which was shortly to 
end a luckless voyage. From deck to royal — from flying-jib to ring-tail, every 
stitch of canvas that would draw was packed and crowded on the brig. Ves- 
sels were daily seen in numbers, but none appeared suspicious till we got far 
to the westward, when my glass detected a cruising schooner, jogging along 
under easy sail. I ordered the helmsman to keep his course ; and tautening 
sheets, braces, and halyards, went into the cabin to receive the final orders of 
our commander. 

" He received my story with his usual bravery, nor was he startled when a 
boom from the cruiser's gun announced her in chase. He pointed to one of 
his drawers and told me to take out its contents. I handed him three flags, 
which he carefully unrolled, and displayed the ensigns of Spain, Denmark, and 
Portugal, in each of which I found a set of papers suitable for the San Pablo. 
In a feeble voice he desired me to select a nationality ; and, when I chose the 
Spanish, he grasped my hand, pointed to the door, and bade me not to sur- 
render. 

" When I reached the deck, I found our pursuer gaining on us with the ut- 
most speed. She outsailed us — two to one. Escape was altogether out of 
the question ; yet I resolved to show the inquisitive stranger our mettle, by 
keeping my course, firing a gun, and hoisting my Spanish signals at peak and 
main. 

" At this time the San Pablo was spinning along finely at the rate of about 
six knots an hour, when a shot from the schooner fell close to our stern. In 
a moment I ordered in studding-sails alow and aloft, and as my men had been 
trained to their duty in man-of-war fashion, I hoped to impose on the cruiser 
by the style and perfection of the manoeuvre. Still, however, she kept her 



A CHASE. 



337 



way, and, in four hours after discovery, was within half gun-shot of the brig. 
Hitherto I had not touched my armament, but I selected this moment to 
load under the enemy's eyes, and, at the word of command, to fling open the 
ports and run out my barkers. The act was performed to a charm by my well- 
drilled gunners ; yet all our belligerent display had not the least effect on the 
schooner, which still pursued us. At last, within hail, her commander leaped 
on a gun, and ordered me to 'heave to, or take a ball !' 

" Now, I was prepared for this arrogant command, and, for half an hour, 
had made up my mind how to avoid an engagement. A single discharge of 
my broadside might have sunk or seriously damaged our antagonist, but the 
consequences would have been terrible if. he boarded me, which I believed to 
be his aim. Accordingly, I paid no attention to the threat, but tautened 
my ropes and surged ahead. Presently, my racing chaser came up under my 
lee within pistol-shot, when a reiterated command to heave to or be fired on, 
was answered for the first time by a faint ' no inliendo,' — ' I don't understand 
you,' — while the man-of-war shot ahead of me. Then I had him! Quick as 
thought, I gave the order to 'square away,' and putting the helm up, struck 
the cruiser near the bow, carrying away her foremast and bowsprit. Such was 
the stranger's surprise at my daring trick that not a musket was fired or boarder 
stirred, till we were clear of the wreck. It was then too late. The loss of 
my jib-boom and a few rope-yarns did not prevent me from cracking on my 
studding-sails, and leaving the lubber to digest his stupid forbearance ! 

" This adventure was a fitting epitaph for the stormy life of our poor com- 
mander, who died on the following night, and was buried under a choice selec- 
tion of the flags he had honored with his various nationalities. A few days 
after the blue water had closed over him forever, our cargo was safely en- 
sconced in the hacienda nine miles east of St. Jago de Cuba, while the San 
Pablo was sent adrift and burned to the water's edge." 

In a former chapter of this work the natives of the Gold Coast are described 
as remarkable for ferocity, courage and endurance. Four hundred and eighty 
of these negroes were embarked on board the Estrella at Ayudah, and the in- 
cidents of the voyage are thus related : "I have always regretted that I left 
Ayudah on my homeward voyage without interpreters to aid in the necessary 
intercourse with our slaves. There was no one on board who understood a 
word of their dialect. Many complaints from the negroes that would have 
been dismissed or satisfactorily adjusted, had we comprehended their vivacious 
tongues, and grievances were passed over in silence or hushed with the lash. 
Indeed, the whip alone was the emblem of La Estrella's discipline ; and in the 
end it taught me the saddest of lessons. 

" From the beginning there was manifest discontent among the slaves. I 
endeavored at first to please and accommodate them by a gracious manner ; 
but manner alone is not appreciated by untamed Africans. A few days after 
our departure, a slave leaped overboard in a fit of passion, and another 
choked himself during the night. These two suicides, in twenty-four hours, 



338 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

caused much uneasiness among the officers, and induced me to make every 
preparation for a revolt. 

" We had been at sea about three weeks without further disturbance, and 
there was so much merriment among the gangs that were allowed to come on 
deck, that my apprehensions of danger began gradually to wear away. Sud- 
denly, however, one fair afternoon, a squall broke forth from an almost cloud- 
less sky ; and as the boatswain's whistle piped all hands to take in sail, a sim- 
ultaneous rush was made by the confined slaves at all the after-gratings, 
and amid the confusion of 'the rising gale, they knocked down the guard and 
poured upon deck. The sentry at the fore-hatch seized the cook's axe, and 
sweeping it around him like a scythe, kept at bay the band that sought to 
emerge from below him. Meantime, the women in the cabin were not idle. 
Seconding the males, they rose in a body, and the helmsman was forced to stab 
several with his knife before he could drive them below again. 

" About forty stalwart devils, yelling and grinning with all the savage fe- 
rocity of their wilderness, were now on deck, armed with Staves of broken 
water-casks, or billets of wood, found in the hold. The suddenness of this 
outbreak did not appal me, for, in the dangerous life of Africa, a trader must 
be always admonished and never off his guard. The blow that prostrated the 
first white man was the earliest symptom I detected of the revolt ; but in an 
instant I had the arm-chest open on the quarter-deck, and the mate and stew- 
ard beside me to protect it. Matters, however, did not stand so well forward 
of the mainmast. Four of the hands were disabled by clubs, while the rest 
defended themselves and the wounded as well as they could with handspikes, 
or whatever could suddenly be clutched. I had always charged the cook, on 
such an emergency, to distribute from his coppers a liberal supply of scalding 
water upon the belligerents ; and, at the first sign of revolt, he endeavored to 
baptize the heathen with his steaming slush. But dinner had been over for 
some time, so that the lukewarm liquid only irritated the savages, one of whom 
laid the unfortunate ' doctor ' bleeding in the scuppers. 

" All this occurred in perhaps less time than I have taken to tell it ; yet, 
rapid as was the transaction, I saw that, between the squall with its flying 
sails, and the revolt with its raving blacks, we would soon be in a desperate 
plight, unless I gave the order to shoot. Accordingly, I told my comrades to 
aim low and fire at once. 

" Our carbines had been purposely loaded with buck-shot, to suit such an 
occasion, so that the first two discharges brought several of the rebels to their 
knees. Still, the unharmed neither fled nor ceased brandishing their weapons. 
Two more discharges drove them forward among the mass of my crew, who 
had retreated to the bowsprit ; but, being reinforced by the boatswain and car- 
penter, we took command of the hatches so effectually, that a dozen additional 
discharges among the ebony legs, drove the refractory to their quarters 
below. 

" It was time ; for sails, ropes, tacks, sheets, and blocks, were flapping, 
dashing and rolling about the masts and decks, threatening us with imminent 



THE REVOLT. 339 

danger from the squall. In a short time, every thing was made snug, the ves- 
sel put on her course, and attention paid to the mutineers, who had begun to 
fight among themselves in the hold. 

" I perceived at once, by the infuriate sounds proceeding from below, that 
it would not answer to venture in their midst by descending through the 
hatches. Accordingly, we discharged the women from their quarters under a 
guard on deck, and sent several resolute and well-armed hands to remove a 
couple of boards from the bulk-head that separated the cabin from the hold. 
"When this was accomplished, a party entered, on hands and knees, through 
the aperture, and began to press the mutineers forward towards the bulk-head 
of the forecastle. Still, the rebels were hot for fight to the last, and boldly 
defended themselves with their staves against our weapons. 

" By this time, our lamed cook had rekindled his fires, and the water was 
once more boiling. The hatches were kept open, but guarded, and all who 
did not fight were suffered to come singly on deck, where they were tied. A3 
only about sixty remained below engaged in conflict, or defying my party of 
sappers and miners, I ordered a number of auger-holes to be bored in the 
deck, as the scoundrels were forced forward near the forecastle, when a few 
buckets of boiling water, rained on them through the fresh apertures, brought 
the majority to submission. Still, however, two of the most savage held out 
against water as well as fire. I strove as long as possible to save their lives, 
but their resistance was so prolonged and perilous, that we were obliged to 
disarm them for ever by a couple of pistol shots. 

There was very little comfort on board La Estrella, after the suppression of 
this revolt. We lived with a pent-up volcano beneath us, and, day and night, 
we were ceaselessly vigilant. Terror reigned supreme, and the lash was its 
sceptre. 

" At last, we made land at Porto Rico, and were swiftly passing its beau- 
tiful shores, when the inspector called my attention to the appearance of one 
of our attendant slaves, whom we had drilled as a sort of cabin-boy. He was 
a gentle, intelligent child, and had won the hearts of all the officers. His 
pulse was high, quick and hard ; his face and eyes read and swollen ; while, 
on his neck, I detected half a dozen rosy pimples. He was sent immediately 
to the forecastle, free from contact with any one else, and left there, cut off 
from the crew, till I could guard against pestilence. It was small-pox ! 

" The boy passed a wretched night of fever and pain, developing the malady 
with all its horrors. It is very likely that I slept as badily as the sufferer, for 
my mind was busy with his doom. Daylight found me on deck in consulta- 
tion with our veteran boatswain, whose experience in the trade authorized the 
highest respect for his opinion. Hardened as he was, the old man's eyes 
filled, his lips trembled, and his voice was husky, as he whispered the verdict 
in my ear. I guessed it before he said a word ; yet I hoped he would have 
counseled against the dread alternative. As we went aft to the quarter-deck, 
all eyes were bent upon us, for every one conjectured the malady and feared 
the result, yet none dared ask a question. I ordered a general inspection of 



340 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

the slaves, yet when a, favorable report was made, I did not rest content, and 
descended to examine each one personally. It was true ; the child alone was 
infected ! For half an hour, I trod the deck to and fro restlessly, and caused 
the crew to subject themselves to inspection. But my sailors were as healthy 
as the slaves. There was no symptom that indicated approaching danger. I 
was disappointed again. A single case — a single sign of peril in any quarter, 
would have spared the poison 1 

" That evening, in the stillness of night, a trembling hand stole forward to 
the afflicted boy with a potion that knows no waking. In a few hours, all 
was over. Life and the pestilence were crushed together ; for a necessary 
murder had been committed, and the poor victim was beneath the blue water ! 

" I am not superstitious, but, a voyage attended with such calamities could 
not end happily. Incessant gales and head winds, unusual in its season and 
latitude, beset us so obstinately, that it became- doubtful whether our food and 
water would last till we reached Matanzas. To add to our risks and misfor- 
tunes, a British corvette espied our craft, and gave chase off Cape Maize. 
All day long she dogged us slowly, but, at night, I tacked off shore, with the 
expectation of eluding my pursuer. Day dawn, however, revealed her again 
on our track, though this time we had unfortunately fallen to leeward. Ac- 
cordingly, I put La Estrella directly before the wind, and ran till dark with a 
fresh breeze, when I again dodged the cruiser, and made for the Cuban coast. 
But the Briton seemed to scent my track, for sunrise revealed him once more 
in chase. 

" The wind lulled that night to a light breeze, yet the red clouds and haze 
in the east betokened a gale from that quarter before meridian. A longer pur- 
suit must have given considerable advantage to the enemy, so that my best re- 
liance, I calculated, was in making the small harbor near St. Jago, now about 
twenty miles distant, where I had already landed two cargoes. The corvette 
was then full ten miles astern. 

" My resolution to save the cargo and lose the vessel was promptly made ; 
orders were issued to strike from the slaves the irons they had constantly worn 
since the mutiny ; the boats were made ready ; and every man prepared his 
bag for a rapid launch. 

" On dashed the cruiser, foaming at the bows, under the impetus of the 
rising gale, which struck him some time before it reached us. We were not 
more than seven miles apart when the first increased pressure on our sails was 
felt, and every thing was set and braced to give it the earliest welcome. Then 
came the tug and race for the beach, three miles ahead. But, under such cir- 
cumstances, it was hardly to be expected that St. George could carry the day. 
Still, every nerve was strained to effect the purpose. Regardless of the gale, 
reef after reef was let out while force pumps moistened the sails ; yet nothing 
was gained. Three miles against seven were too much odds ; — and, with a 
slight move of the helm, and 'letting all fly,' as we neared the line of surf, to 
break her headway, La Estrella was fairly and safely beached. 

" The sudden shock snapped her mainmast like a pipe-stem, but, as no one 



GALLINAS. 341 

was injured, in a twinkling the boats were overboard, crammed with women 
and children, while a stage was rigged from the bows to the strand, so that 
the males, the crew and the luggage were soon in charge of my old hacien- 
dado. 

" Prompt as we were, we were not sufficiently so for the cruiser. Half our 
cargo was ashore when she backed her top-sails off the mouth of the little 
bay, lowered her boats, filled them with boarders, and steered towards our 
craft. The delay of half a mile's row gave us time to cling still longer to 
the wreck, so that, when the boats and corvette began to fire, we wished them 
joy of their bargain over the remnant of our least valuable negroes. The 
rescued blacks are now, in all likelihood, citizens of Jamaica; but, under 
the influence of the gale, La Estrella made a very picturesque bonfire, as we 
saw it that night from the azotea of our landlord's domicil." 

On a subsequent voyage, the captain fell into the hands of the Philistines. 
While loading his fast-sailing Baltimore clipper in the Rio Salum, the vessel 
was seized by the boats of a French corvette, and the captain and crew, after 
being tried at San Luis, were sentenced to imprisonment in France, the cap- 
tain for ten years. When two years had elapsed, he obtained a pardon, and 
sailed immediately from Marseilles to the coast of Africa, to recruit his for- 
tunes. He entered the service of the noted Don Pedro, the prince of African 
slave-merchants. This extract is given to exhibit the enormous wealth which 
could be accumulated in the slave traffic by a man of superior ability. 

"Our concern is now with Gallinas. Nearly one hundred miles northwest 
of Monrovia, a short and sluggish river, bearing this well-known name, oozes 
lazily into the Atlantic ; and, carrying down in the rainy season a rich alluvion 
from the interior, sinks the deposit where the tide meets the Atlantic and 
forms an innumerable mesh of spongy islands. To one who approaches from 
sea, they loom up from its surface, covered with reeds and mangroves, like an 
immense field of fungi, betokening the damp and dismal field which death and 
slavery have selected for their grand metropolis. A spot like this, possessed, 
of course, no peculiar advantages for agriculture or commerce ; but its dan- 
gerous bar, and its extreme desolation, fitted it for the haunt of the outlaw and 
slaver. 

" Such, in all likelihood, were the reasons that induced Don Pedro Blanco, 
a well educated mariner from Malaga, to select Gallinas as the field of his 
operations. Don Pedro visited this place originally in command of a slaver ; 
but failing to complete his cargo, sent his vessel back with one hundred negroes, 
whose value was barely sufficient tt> pay the mates and crew. Blanco, however, 
remained on the coast with a portion of the Conquistador's cargo, and, on its 
basis, began a trade with the natives and slaver-captains, till, four years after, 
he remitted his owners the product of their merchandise, and began to flourish 
on his own account. The honest return of an investment long given over as 
lost, was perhaps the most active stimulant of his success, and for many years 
he monopolized the traffic of the Vey country, reaping enormous profits from 
his enterprise. 



342 THE SLAVE TKADE. 

" Gallinas was not in its prime when I came thither, yet enough of its 
ancient power and influence remained to show the comprehensive mind of Pedro 
Blanco. As I entered the river, and wound along through the labyrinth of 
islands, I was struck, first of all, with the vigilance that made this Spaniard 
stud the field with look-out seats, protected from sun and rain, erected some 
seventy-five or hundred feet above the ground, either on poles or on isolated 
trees, from which the horizon was constantly swept by telescopes, to announce 
the approach of cruisers or slavers. These telegraphic operators were the 
keenest men on the islands, who were never at fault in discriminating between 
friend and foe. About a mile from the river's mouth we found a group of 
islets, on each of which was erected the factory of some particular slave-mer- 
chant belonging to the grand confederacy. Blanco's establishments were on 
several of these marshy flats. On one, near the mouth, he had his place of 
business or trade with foreign vessels, presided over by his principal clerk, an 
astute and clever gentleman. On another island, more remote, was his resi- 
dence, where the only white person was a sister, who, for a while, shared with 
Don Pedro his solitary and pestilential domain. Here this man of education 
and refined address surrounded himself with every luxury that could be pur- 
chased in Europe or the Indies, and dwelt in a sort of oriental but semi-bar- 
barous splendor, that suited an African prince rather than a Spanish grandee. 
Further inland was another islet, devoted to his seraglio, within whose recesses 
each of his favorites inhabited her separate establishment, after the fashion of 
the natives. Independent of all these were other islands, devoted to the bar- 
racoons or slave prisons, ten or twelve of which contained from one hundred 
to five hundred slaves each. These barracoons were made of rough staves 
or poles of the hardest trees, four or six inches in diameter, driven five feet in 
the ground, and clamped together by double rows of iron bars. Their roofs 
were constructed of similar wood, strongly secured and overlaid with a thick 
thatch of long and wiry grass, rendering the interior both dry and cool. At 
the ends, watch-houses — built near the entrance — were tenanted by sentinels, 
with loaded muskets. Each barracoon was tended by two or four Spaniards 
or Portuguese ; but I have rarely met a more wretched class of human beings, 
upon whom fever and dropsy seemed to have emptied their vials. 

" Such were the surroundings of Don Pedro in 1836, when I first saw his 
slender figure, swarthy face, and received the graceful welcome which I had 
hardly expected from one who had passed fifteen years without crossing the 
bar of Gallinas ! Three years after this interview, he left the coast forever, 
with a fortune of near a million. For a while he dwelt iu Havana, engaged 
in commerce ; but I understood that family difficulties induced him to retire 
altogether from trade ; so that, if still alive, he is probably a resident of 'Ge- 
nova la Superba,' whither he went from the island of Cuba. 

" The power of this man among the natives is well known ; it far exceeded 
that of any one with whom I became acquainted. Resolved as he was to be 
successful in traffic, he left no means untried, with blacks as well as whites, to 
secure prosperity. I have often been asked what was the character of a mind 



GALLINAS. 343 

which could voluntarily isolate itself for near a lifetime amid the pestilential 
swamps of a burning climate, trafficking in human flesh, exciting wars, bribing 
and corrupting ignorant negroes ; totally without society, amusement, excite- 
ment or change ; living, from year to year, the same dull round of seasons and 
faces ; without companionship, save that of men at war with law ; cut loose 
from all ties except those which avarice fonned among European outcasts who 
were willing to become satellites to such a luminary as Don Pedro ? I have 
always replied to the question, that this African enigma puzzled me as well as 
those orderly and systematic persons, who would naturally be more shocked at 
the tastes and prolonged career of a resident slave-factor in the marshes of 
Galliuas. 

" I heard many tales on the coast of Blanco's cruelty, but I doubt them 
quite as much as I do the stories of his pride and arrogance. I have heard it 
said that he shot a sailor for daring to ask him for permission to light his cigar 
at the pxiro of the Don. Upon another occasion, it is said that he was tra- 
veling the beach some distance from Gallinas, near the island of Sherboro, 
where he was unknown, when he approached a native hut for rest and refresh- 
ment. The owner was squatted at the door, and, on being requested by Don 
Pedro to hand him fire to light his cigar, deliberately refused. In an instant 
Blanco drew back, seized a carbine from one of his attendants, and slew the 
negro on the spot. It is true that the narrator apologized for Don Pedro, by 
saying that to deny a Castilian fire for his tobacco was the gravest insult 
that can be offered him ; yet, from my knowledge of the person in question, I 
cannot believe that he carried etiquette to so frightful a pitch, even among a 
class whose lives are considered of trifling value except in market. On sev- 
eral occasions, during our subsequent intimacy, I knew him to chastise with 
rods, even to the brink of death, servants who ventured to infringe the sacred 
limits of his seraglio. But, on the other hand, his generosity was proverbially 
ostentatious, not only among the natives, whom it was his interest to suborn, 
but to the whites who were in his employ, or needed his kindly succor. I have 
already alluded to his mental culture, which was decidedly soigne for a Spaniard 
of his original grade and time. His memory was remarkable. I remember 
one night, while several of his employes were striving unsuccessfully to repeat 
the Lord's prayer in Latin, upon which they had made a bet, that Don Pedro 
joined the party, and taking up the wager, went through the petition without 
faltering. It was, indeed, a sad parody on prayer to hear its blessed accents 
fall perfectly from such lips on a bet ; but when it was won, the slaver insisted 
on receiving the slave which was the stake, and immediately bestowed him in 
charity on a captain who had fallen into the clutches of a British cruiser ! 

" Such is a rude sketch of the great man-merchant of Africa, the Rothschild 
of slavery, whose bills on England, France, or the United States, were as good 
as gold in Sierra Leone and Monrovia ! " 

The great slave-mart of Gallinas has since been destroyed by the colonists 
and cruisers, as narrated in a subsequent chapter. 



344 THE SLAVE TRADE. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Operations op the Cruisers under the Ashburton Treaty. 

The American Squadrons from 1847 to 1851. — More captures. — V. S. brig Perry — cruises 
off the southern coast. — Capture of a slaver with 800 slaves, by an English cruiser. — 
Abuses of the American flag. — The Lucy Ann captured. — Case of the Navarre. — Cap- 
ture by the Perry of the Martha of New York — her condemnation. — Case of the 
Chatsworth — of the Louisa Beaton. — The Chatsworth seized and sent to Baltimore — 
is condemned as a slaver. — State of the slave-trade on the southern coast. — Impor- 
tance of the squadron.— The Brazilian slave-trade diminishes. 



Wi 



E now return to the operations of the American cruisers. In 1847, the 
sloop-of-war Jamestown proceeded to the African station, under Commodore 
Bolton, and the frigate United States was relieved. The year following, the 
commodore was relieved by the Yorktown, Commodore Cooper. In 1849, the 
squadron was assigned to Commodore Gregory, and consisted of the sloops-of- 
war Portsmouth, John Adams, Dale, Yorktown, and the brigs Bainbridge, 
Porpoise and Perry. Three or four slavers were captured, and the entire 
coast closely watched. 

In 1851, the Germantown, Commodore Lavalette, relieved Commodore 
Gregory. He made an active cruise for two years, when the frigate Consti- 
tution, Commodore Mayo, arrived to take command of the squadron, consist- 
ing of the sloops-of-war Marion and Dale and the brig Perry. 

Of these squadrons, that of 1850 and 1851 contributed largely toward sup- 
pressing the trade and the abuses of the American flag. The efficient com- 
mander of the Perry, Andrew H. Foote, in his work entitled " Africa and the 
American Flag," published in 1854, has given the results of his cruising ope- 
rations on the southern coast, a region seldom before visited by American 
cruisers. We are also indebted to his work for reliable information in regard 
to Liberia, the Maryland Colony, and other subjects connected with Africa. 

The object of the cruise was "to protect the lawful commerce of the United 
States, and to prevent the flag and citizens thereof from being engaged in 
the slave-trade, to carry out in good faith the treaty stipulations with England, 
and to act in concert with British cruisers, so far as instructions permitted. " 

Information was received at Benguela, that five days previous to the arrival 
of the Perry, an English cruiser had captured, near this place, a brig, with 
eight hundred slaves on board. In this case, it appeared that the vessel came 
from Rio de Janeiro, under American colors and papers, with an American 
captain and crew; and had been, when on the coast, transferred to a Brazil- 
ian captain and crew, the Americans having gone on shore with the papers. 
The captured slaver was sent to the island of St. Helena for adjudication. 

After remaining three days at Benguela, where neither fresh water nor pro- 
visions could be procured, the Perry weighed anchor and ran down the coast, 
examining all intermediate points and boarding several vessels during the 



AMERICAN CRUISERS. 345 

passage to Loanda. This city is the capital of Loango, and the most flourish- 
ing of the Portuguese establishments ou the African coast. 

In a letter announcing the arrival of the vessel, and her reception by the au- 
thorities, the Navy Department was informed that an English steamer had 
arrived, having recently captured a slaver, the bark Navarre, which had 
sailed from Rio de Janeiro to St. Catharine's, where she had fitted up for a 
slave cargo, and received a Brazilian captain and crew. When boarded by 
the English steamer, the slaver had American colors flying ; and on being told 
by the commander that her papers were forged, and yet that he could not 
search the vessel, but must send her to an American cruiser, the captain then 
ordered the American colors to be hauled down, and the Brazilian to be hoist- 
ed, declaring that she was Brazilian property, sent the Brazilian captain and 
crew on deck, and gave up the vessel. 

The commander of the Perry also informed the Navy Department that, soon 
after his arrival at Loanda, he had received from various sources information 
of the abuse of the American flag in connection with the slave-trade ; and 
inclosed copies of letters and papers addressed to him by the British commis- 
sioner, and the commander of an English cruiser, which gave authentic infor- 
mation on the subject. 

He suggested that as the legitimate commerce of the United States ex- 
ceeded that of Great Britain and France, on the coast south of the equator, 
and the American flag had been used to cover the most extensive slave-trade, 
it would seem that the presence of one or two men-of-war, and the appoint- 
ment of a consul, or some public functionary at that place, were desirable. 

In reference to vessels ostensibly American, which had been engaged in the 
slave-trade; a British officer, on the 21st of March, 1850, in a letter inclosing a 
list of American vessels which had been boarded by the cruiser under his com- 
mand, stated that all the vessels had afterwards taken slaves from the coast, 
and, with the exception of the "Lucy Ann,"* captured with five hundred slaves 
on board by a British steamer, had escaped. The registers, or sea-letters, of these 
vessels appeared to be genuine ; and he being unable to detect any inaccura- 
cies in their papers, his duty to the American flag had ceased. The vessels in 
his list had been boarded by himself; but the senior officer of the division was 
referred to, " who could give a list of many more, all of which would have 
been good prizes to an officer having the right of search ; " for he was well as- 
sured that they went over to that coast, fully fitted and equipped for the slave- 
trade. 

On the 25th of March, the commander requested the English captain to 

*The "Lucy Ann," when captured, waa boarded fifty or sixty miles to leeward, or 
north of Loanda. She had an American flag flying, although her papers had been de- 
posited in the consul's office at Rio. The English boarding officer, who was not allow- 
ed to see any papers, suspecting her character, prolonged his visit for some time. As 
he was about leaving the vessel, a cry or stifled groan was heard issuing from the hold. 
The main hatches were apparently forced up from below, although a boat was placed 
over them, and the heads of many people appeared. Five hundred and forty-seven 
slaves were found in the hold, almost in a state of suffocation. The master then hauled 
down the American flag, declared the vessel to be Brazilian, and gave her up. 



346 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

give him a detailed account of the circumstances attending the capture of the 
bark Navarre, by her B. M. steamer Fire Fly. 

He asked for this information, as the Navarre was boarded when undei 
American colors, although displaying Brazilian colors when captured. 

In reply, the English captain informed him that the slave bark Navarre, 
seized under the Brazilian flag, on the 19th instant, had the American ensign 
flying at the time she was boarded. The boarding officer having doubts of her 
nationality, in consequence of her papers not appearing to be regular, he him- 
self, although ill at the time, considered it his duty to go on board, when, 
being convinced that her papers were false, he informed the person calling 
himself master of her, that it was his duty to send him to the American squad- 
ron, or in the event of not falling in with them, to New York. The master 
immediately went on deck and ordered the mate to haul down the American 
ensign — to throw it overboard — and to hoist their proper colors. The Amer- 
ican ensign was hauled down and thrown overboard by the mate, who imme- 
diately hoisted the Brazilian ensign. A man then came on deck from below, 
saying that he was captain of the vessel ; that she was Brazilian properly, and 
fully fitted for the slave-trade ; which the person who first appeared acknowl- 
edged, stating that he himself was a Brazilian subject. Having obtained this 
from them in writing, the person who first called himself captain having signed 
it, and having had the signing of the document witnessed by two officers, he 
opened her hatches, found all the Brazilian crew below, slave-deck laid, water 
filled, provisions for the slaves, and slave-shackles. 

On the 6th of June, 1850, at three o'clock in the afternoon, a large ship 
with two tiers of painted ports was made to windward, standing in for the 
laud toward Ambriz. At four o'clock the chase was overhauled, having the 
name " Martha, New York," registered on her stern. The Perry had no colors 
flying. The ship, when in range of the guns, hoisted the American ensign, 
shortened sail, and backed her main-topsail. The first lieutenant, Mr. Hush, 
was sent to board her. As he was rounding her stern, the people on board 
observed, by the uniform of the boarding officer, that the vessel was an Ameri- 
can cruiser. The ship then hauled down the American, and hoisted Brazilian 
colors. The officer went on board, and asked for papers and other proofs of 
nationality. The captain denied having papers, log, or any thing else. At 
this time something was thrown overboard, when another boat was sent from 
the Perry, and picked up the writing-desk of the captain, containing sundry 
papers and letters, identifying the captain as an American citizen ; also indi- 
cating the owner of three-fifths of the vessel to be an American merchant, 
resident in Rio de Janeiro. After obtaining satisfactory proof that the ship 
Martha was a slaver, she was seized as a prize. 

The captain at length admitted that the ship was fully equipped for the 
slave-trade. There were found on board the vessel one hundred and seventy- 
six casks filled with water, containing from one hundred to one huudred and 
fifty gallons each ; one hundred and fifty barrels of farina for slave-food ; 
several sacks of beans ; slave-deck laid ; four iron boilers for cooking slave- 



AMERICAN CRUISERS. 347 

provisions ; iron bars, with the necessary wood-work, for securing slaves to the 
deck ; four hundred spoons for feeding them ; between thirty and forty mus- 
kets, and a written agreement between the owner and captain, with the receipt 
of the owner for two thousand milreis. 

There being thirty-five persons on board this prize, many of whom were 
foreigners, it was deemed necessary to send a force of twenty-five men, with 
the first and second lieutenants, that the prize might be safely conducted to 
New York, for which place she took her departure that evening. 

Soon after the Martha was discovered, she passed within hailing distance of 
an American brig, several miles ahead of the Perry, and asked the name of 
the cruiser astern ; on being told, the captain, in despair, threw his trumpet on 
deck. But on a moment's reflection, as he afterwards stated, he concluded, 
notwithstanding, that she must be an English cruiser, not only from her ap- 
pearance, but from the knowledge that the Perry had left for Porto Praya, 
and could not in the mean time have returned to that part of the coast. 
Therefore, finding when within gun-shot of the vessel, that he could not escape, 
and must show his colors, ran up the American ensign, intending under his 
nationality to avoid search and capture. The boarding-officer was received at 
the gangway by a Brazilian captain, who strongly insisted that the vessel was 
Brazilian property. But the officer, agreeably to an order received on leaving 
the Perry, to hold the ship to the nationality first indicated by her colors, pro- 
ceeded in the search. In the mean time, the American captain, notwithstand- 
ing his guise as a sailor, being identified by another officer, was sent on board 
the Perry. He claimed that the vessel could not lawfully be subjected to 
search by an American man-of-war, while under Brazilian colors. But on 
being informed that he would be seized as a pirate for sailing without papers, 
even were he not a slaver, he admitted that she was on a slaving voyage ; add- 
ing, that had he not fallen in with the Perry, he would, during the night, 
have shipped eighteen hundred slaves, and before daylight in the morning 
been clear of the coast. 

Possession was immediately taken of the Martha, her crew put in irons, and 
both American and Brazilian captains, together with three or four cabin pas- 
sengers, (probably slave-agents,) were given to understand that they would be 
similarly served, in case of the slightest evidence of insubordination. The ac- 
counts of the prize crew were transferred, the vessel provisioned, and in twen- 
ty-four hours after her capture, the vessels exchanged three cheers, and the 
Martha bore away for New York. 

She was condemned in the U. S. District Court. The captain was admitted 
to bail for the sum of five thousand dollars, which was afterwards reduced to 
three thousand : he then escaped justice by its forfeiture. The American mate 
was sentenced to the penitentiary for the term of two years ; and the foreign- 
ers, who had been sent to the United States on account of the moral effect, be- 
ing regarded as beyond our jurisdiction, were discharged. 

The writing-desk thrown overboard from the Martha, soon after she was 
boarded, contained sundry papers, making curious revelations of the agency of 



348 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

some American citizens engaged in the slave-trade. These papers implicated 
a number of persons who are little suspected of ever having participated in 
such a diabolical traffic. 

After parting company with the Martha, the Perry proceeded to Loanda, 
and found English, French, and Portuguese men-of-war in port. The John 
Adams, having exhausted her provisions, had sailed for the north coast, after 
having had the good fortune to capture a slaver. The British commissioner 
called aboard, and offered his congratulations on the capture of the Martha, 
remarking that she was the largest slaver that had been on the coast for many 
years ; and the effect of sending all hauds found in her to the United States, 
would prove a severe blow to the iniquitous traffic. The British cruisers, af- 
ter the capture of a vessel, were in the practice of landing the slave-crews, ex- 
cept when they are British subjects, at some point on the coast. This is be- 
lieved to be required by the governments with which Great Britain has formed 
treaties. 

On boarding traders, the masters, in one or two instances, when sailing un- 
der a foreign flag, had requested the boarding-officer to search, and, after as- 
certaining her real character, to indorse the register. This elicited the follow- 
ing order to the boarding officer : 

" If a vessel hoists the American flag ; is of American build ; has her name 
and place of ownership in the United States registered on her stern ; or if she 
has but part of these indications of American nationality, you will, on board- 
ing, ask for her papers, which papers you will examine and retain, if she ex- 
cites suspicion of being a slaver, until you have searched sufficieutly to satisfy 
yourself of her real character. Should the vessel be American, and doubts 
exist of her real character, you will bring her to this vessel ; or, if it can be 
done more expeditiously, you will dispatch one of your boats, communicating 
such information as will enable the commander to give specific directions, or in 
person to visit the suspected vessel. 

" If the strange vessel be a foreigner, you will, on ascertaining the fact, leave 
her ; declining, even at the request of the captain, to search the vessel, or to 
indorse her character, as it must always be borne in mind that our government 
does not permit the detention and search of American vessels by foreign min- 
ers ; and, consequently, is scrupulous in observing towards the vessels of other 
nations the same line of conduct which she exacts from foreign cruisers towards 
her own vessels." 

On the 18th of August, the captain of an English cruiser entered Loanda 
with his boat, leaving the vessel outside, bringing the information that a sus- 
pected American trader was at Ambriz. The captain stated that he had 
boarded her, supposing she might be a Brazilian, but on ascertaining her na- 
tionality, had left her, and proceeded to Loanda for the purpose of communi- 
cating what had transpired. 

On receiving this information, the commodore ordered the Perry to proceed 
to Ambriz and search the vessel, and in case she was suspected of being en- 
gaged in the slave-trade, to bring her to Loanda. In the meantime, a lieu- 



AMERICAN CRUISERS. 349 

tenant who was about leaving the squadron as bearer of dispatches to the gov- 
ernment, volunteered his services to take the launch and proceed immediately 
to Ambriz, as the Perry had sails to bend, and make other preparations previ- 
ous to leaving. The launch was dispatched, and in five hours afterwards the 
Perrv sailed. Arriving on the following morning within twelve miles of Am- 
briz, the commander, accompanied by the purser and the surgeon, who volun- 
teered their services, pulled for the suspected vessel, which proved to be the 
American brigantine " Chatsworth," of Baltimore. The lieutenant, with his 
launch's crew, was on board. He had secured the papers and commenced the 
search. After taking the dimensions of the vessel, which corresponded to those 
noted in the register, examining and comparing the cargo with the manifest, 
scrutinizing the crew list, consular certificate, port clearance, and other papers 
on board, possession was taken of the Chatsworth, and the boarding officer di- 
rected to proceed with her, in company with the Perry, to Loanda. 

Both vessels having arrived, a letter to the following purport was addressed 
to the commodore : " One hundred bags of farina, a large quantity of plank, 
sufficient to lay a slave-deck, casks and barrels of spirits, in sufficient quantity 
to contain water for a large slave-cargo, jerked beef, and other articles, were 
found on board the Chatsworth. These articles, and others on board, corres- 
ponded generally with the manifest, which paper was drawn up in the Portu- 
guese language. A paper with the consular seal, authorizing the shipment of 
the crew, all foreigners, was also made out in the Portuguese language. In 
the register, the vessel was called a brig, instead of a brigantine. A letter of 
instructions from the reputed owner, a citizen of Baltimore, directed the Amer- 
ican captain to leave the vessel whenever he should be directed to do so by the 
Italian supercargo. These, together with the report that the vessel on her last 
voyage had shipped a cargo of slaves, and her now being at the most notori- 
ous slave-station on the coast, impressed the commander of the Perry so 
strongly with the belief that the Chatsworth was a slaver, that he considered 
it his duty to direct the boarding officer to take her in charge, and proceed in 
company with the Perry to Loanda, that the case might undergo a more criti- 
cal examination by the commander-in-chief. " 

The commodore, after visiting the Chatsworth in person, although morally 
certain she was a slaver, yet as the evidence which would be required in the 
United States courts essential to her condemnation, was wanting, conceived it 
to be his duty to order the commander of the Perry to surrender the charge of 
that vessel, and return all the papers to her master, and withdraw his guard 
from her. 

The Chatsworth still in port, and suspected of the intention of shipping a 
cargo of slaves at Ambriz, the Perry sailed, the day on which her orders were 
received, without giving any intimation as to her cruising-ground. When out- 
side of the harbor, the vessel was hauled on a wind to the southward, as if 
bound up the coast, and continued beating until out of sight of the vessels in 
the harbor. She was then kept away to the northward, making a course for 
Ambriz, in anticipation of the Chatsworth's soon sailing for that place. 



350 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

The cruising with the English men-of-war was resumed. A few days 
after leaving Loanda, when trying the sailing qualities of the vessel with a 
British cruiser, a sail was reported, standing down the land towards Ambriz. 
Chase was immediately made, and, on coming within gun-shot, a gun was fired 
to bring the vessel to. She was then boarded, and again searched, without 
finding any additional proof against the vessel's character. 

On returning towards Ambriz, soon after, the steamer Cyclops, with another 
British cruiser, was observed ; and also the Chatsworth, with an American 
brigantine lying near her. A boat from the Cyclops, with an English officer, 
pulled out several miles, while the Perry was in the offing, bringing a packet 
of letters and papers marked as usual, " On Her Britanic Majesty's Service." 
These papers were accompanied by a private note from the British commander 
of the division, expressing great regret at the occurrence, which was officially 
noticed in the accompanying papers, and the earnest desire to repair the 
wrong. 

The official papers were dated September the ninth, and contained state- 
ments relating to the chasing, boarding and detention of" the American brig- 
antine Louisa Beaton, on the seventh and eighth instant. 

The particulars of the seizure of the vessel were given in a letter from the 
commander of the English cruiser Dolphin, directed to the British commander 
of the division, as follows : " I have the honor to inform you, that at daylight 
on the "7th instant, being about seventy miles off the land, a sail was observed 
on the lee bow, while her majesty's brigantine, under my command, was steer- 
ing to the eastward. I made all possible sail in chase : the chase was observed 
making more sail and keeping away. Owing to light winds, I was unable to 
overtake her before Oh. 30m. a. m. When close to her and no sail shortened, 
I directed a signal gun to be fired abeam, and hailed the chase to shorten sail 
and heave to. Chase asserted he could not, and requested leave to pass to 
leeward ; saying, if we wanted to board him, we had better make haste about 
it, and that ' we might fire and be damned.' 

" I directed another gun to be fired across her bows, when she immediately 
shortened sail and hove to : it being night, no colors were observed flying 
on board the chase, nor was I aware of her character. 

"I was proceeding myself to board her, when she bore up again with the 
apparent intention of escaping. I was therefore again compelled to hoist 
the boat up and to close her under sail. I reached the chase on the second 
attempt, and found her to be the American brig Louisa Beaton. The master 
produced an American register, with a transfer of masters ; this gave rise to 
a doubt of the authenticity of the paper, and on requesting further informa- 
tion, the master refused to give me any, and declined showing me his port 
clearance, crew-list, or log-book. 

" The lieutenant who accompanied me identified the mate as having been in 
charge of the slave-brig Lucy Ann, captured by her majesty's steam-sloop 
Rattler. Under these suspicious circumstances, I considered it my duty, as 
the Louisa Beaton was bound to Ambriz, to place an officer and crew on board 



AMERICAN CRUISERS. 351 

of her, so as to confer with an American officer, or yourself, before allowing 
her, if a legal trader, to proceed on her voyage." 

The British commander of the division, in his letter, stated, that immediate- 
ly on the arrival of the vessels, he proceeded with the commander of the Dol- 
phin and the lieutenant of the Rattler to the brigantine Louisa Beaton. Her 
mastej - then presented the register, and also the transfer of masters made in 
Rio, but refused to show any other documents. 

On examining the register, and having met the vessel before on that coast, 
he decided that the Louisa Beaton's nationality was perfect ; but that the con- 
duct pursued by her master, in withholding documents that should have been 
produced on boarding, had led to the unfortunate detention of the vessel. 

The British commander further stated, that he informed the master of the 
Louisa Beaton that he would immediately order his vessel to be released, and 
that on falling in with the commander of the Perry, all due inquiry into tne 
matter for his satisfaction should be made ; but that the master positively re- 
fused to take charge again, stating that he would immediately abandon the 
vessel on the Dolphin's crew quitting her ; and, further, requested that the 
vessel might be brought before the American commander. 

That, as much valuable property might be sacrificed should the master carry 
his threat into execution, he proceeded in search of the Perry, that the case 
might be brought under consideration while .the Dolphin was present ; and on 
arriving at Ambriz, the cutter of the Perry was found in charge of one of her 
officers. 

On the following morning, as he stated, accompanied by the officer in charge 
of the Perry's cutter, and the commander of the Dolphin, he proceeded to the 
Louisa Beaton, and informed her master that the detention of his vessel arose 
from the refusal, on his part, to show the proper documents to the boarding- 
officer, authorizing him to navigate the vessel in those seas ; and from his mate 
having been identified by one of the Dolphin's officers as having been captured 
in charge of a vessel having on board five hundred and forty-seven slaves, 
which attempted to evade search and capture by displaying the American en- 
sign ; as well as from his own suspicious manceuvering in the chase. But as he 
was persuaded that the Louisa Beaton was an American vessel, and her papers 
good, although a most important document was wanting, namely, the sea-let- 
ter, usually given by consular officers to legal traders after the transfer of 
masters, he should direct the commander of the Dolphin to resign the charge 
of the Louisa Beaton, which was accordingly done ; and, that on meeting the 
commander of the Perry, he would lay the case before him ; and was ready, 
if he demanded it, to give any remuneration or satisfaction, on the part of the 
commander of the Dolphin, for the unfortunate detention of the Louisa Bea- 
ton, whether engaged in legal or illegal trade, that the master might in fair- 
ness demand, and the commander of the Perry approve. 

After expressing gr .c regret at the occurrence, the British commander 
stated that he was r jested by the captain of the Dolphin to assure the com- 
mander of the Pe ry, that no disrespect was intended to the flag of the United 



352 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

States, or even interference, on his part, with traders of America, be they le- 
4^al or illegal ; but the stubbornness of the master, and the identifying of one 
of his mates as having been captured in a Brazilian vessel, trying to evade de- 
tection by the display of the American flag, had led to the mistake. 

A postscript to the letter added, " I beg to state that the hatches of the 
Louisa Beaton have not been opened, nor the vessel or crew in any way ex- 
amined. " 

On the Perry's reaching the anchorage, the Louisa Beaton was examined. 
The affidavit of the master, which differs not materially from the statements of 
the British officers, was taken. A letter by the commander of the Perry was 
then addressed to the British officer, stating that he had in person visited the 
Louisa Beaton, conferred with her master, taken his affidavit, examined her 
papers, and found her to be in all respects a legal American trader. That the 
sea-letter, which had been referred to, as being usually given by consular offi- 
cers, was only required when the vessel changes owners, and not, as in the 
present case, on the appointment of a new master. The paper given by the 
consul authorizing the appointment of the present master, was, with the" re- 
mainder of the vessel's papers, strictly in form. 

The commander also stated that he respectfully declined being a party con- 
cerned in any arrangement of a pecuniary nature, as satisfaction to the master 
of the Louisa Beaton, for the detention and seizure of his vessel, and if such 
arrangement was made between the British officers and the master of the Louisa 
Beaton, it would be his duty to give the information to his government. 

The commander added, that the government of the United States did not 
acknowledge a right in any other nation to visit and detain the vessels of 
American citizens engaged in commerce : that whenever a foreign cruiser 
should venture to board a vessel under the flag of the United States, she would 
do it upon her own responsibility for all consequences : that if the vessel so 
boarded should prove to be American, the injured party would be left to such 
redress, either in the tribunals of England, or by an appeal to his own country, 
as the nature of the case might require. 

He also stated that he had carefully considered all the points in the several 
communications which the commander of the British division had sent him, in 
relation to the seizure of the Louisa Beaton, and he must unqualifiedly pro- 
nounce the seizure and detention of that vessel wholly unauthorized by the 
circumstances, and contrary both to the letter and the spirit of the eighth article 
of the treaty of Washington ; and that it became his duty to make a full 
report of the case, accompanied with the communications which the British 
commander had forwarded, together with the affidavit of the master of the 
Louisa Beaton, to the government of the United States. 

This letter closed the correspondence. 

The British commander-in-chief then accompanied the commander of the 
Perry to the Louisa Beaton, and there wholly disavowed the act of the com- 
mander of the Dolphin, stating, in the name of that officer, that he begged 



AMERICAN CRUISERS. 353 

pardon of the master, and that he would do anything in his power to repair 
the wrong; adding, "I could say no more, if I had knocked you down." 

The Louisa Beaton was then delivered over to the charge of her own master, 
and the officer of the cutter took his station alongside of the Chatsworth. 

On the 11th of September this brigantine was seized as a slaver. During 
the correspondence with the British officers in relation to the Louisa Beaton, 
au order was given to the officer of the cutter to prevent the Chatsworth from 
landing the remaining part of her cargo. The master immediately called on 
board the Perry with the complaint that his vessel had been seized on a for- 
mer occasion, and afterwards released by the commodore, with the indorsement 
of her nationality on the log-book. Since then she had been repeatedly 
searched, and now was prevented from disposing of her cargo ; he wished, 
therefore, that a definite decision might be made. A decision was made by the 
instant seizure of the vessel. 

Information from the master of the Louisa Beaton, that the owner of the 
Chatsworth had in Rio acknowledged to him that the vessel had shipped a 
cargo of slaves on her last voyage, and was then proceeding to the coast for a 
similar purpose— superadded to her suspicious movements, and the importance 
of breaking up this line of ostensible traders, but real slavers, running between 
the coasts of Brazil and Africa — were the reasons leading to this decision. 

On announcing the decision to the master of the Chatsworth, a prize crew 
was immediately sent on board and took charge of the vessel. The master and 
supercargo then drew up a protest challenging the act as Illegal, and claiming 
the sum of fifteen thousand dollars for damages. The supercargo, on present- 
ing this protest, remarked that the United States Court would certainly release 
the vessel ; and the procuro of the owner, with other parties interested, would 
then look to the captor for the amount of damages awarded. The commander 
replied, that he fully appreciated the pecuniary responsibility attached to this 
proceeding. 

The master of the Louisa Beaton, soon after the supercargo of the Chats- 
worth had presented the protest, went on shore for the purpose of having au 
interview with him, and not coming off at the time specified, apprehensions 
were entertained that the slave-factors had revenged themselves for his addi- 
tional information — leading to the seizure of the Chatsworth. At nine o'clock 
in the evening, three boats were manned and armed, containing thirty officers 
and men — leaving the Perry in charge of one of the lieutenants. When two 
of the boats had left the vessel, and the third was in readiness to follow, the 
master of the Louisa Beaton made his appearance, stating that his reception 
on shore had been anything but pacific. Had the apprehensions entertained 
proved correct, it was the intention to have landed and taken possession of the 
town ; and then to have marched out to the barracoons, liberated the slaves, 
and made, at least for the time being, " free soil " of that section of country. 

In a letter to the commodore, dated September 14th, information was given 
to the following purport : 

" Inclosed are affidavits, with other papers and letters, in relation to the 
23 






354 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

seizure of the American brigantine Chatsworth. This has been an exceedingly 
complicated case, as relating to a slaver with two sets of papers, passing alter- 
nately under different nationalities, eluding detection from papers being in 
form, and trading with an assorted cargo. 

" The Chatsworth has been twice boarded and searched by the commander, 
and on leaving for a short cruise off Ambrizette, a boat was dispatched with 
orders to watch her movements during the absence of the Perry. On return- 
ing from Ambrizette, additional evidence of her being a slaver was procured. 
Since then the affidavits of the master of the Chatsworth and the mate of the 
Louisa Beaton have been obtained, leading to further developments, until the 
guilt of the vessel, as will be seen by the accompanying papers, is placed be- 
yond all question." 

The Italian supercargo, having landed most of the cargo, and his business 
being in a state requiring his presence, was permitted to go on shore, with the 
assurance that he would return when a signal was made. He afterwards came 
within hail of the Chatsworth, and finding that such strong proofs against the 
vessel were obtained, he declined going on board, acknowledging to the master 
of the Louisa Beaton that he had brought over Brazilian papers. 

The crew of the Chatsworth being foreigners, and not wishing to be sent to 
the United States, were landed at Ambriz, where it was reported that the bar- 
racoons contained four thousand slaves, ready for shipment ; and where, it was 
said, the capture of the Chatsworth, as far as the American flag was concerned, 
would give a severe and unexpected blow to the slave-trade. 

After several unsuccessful attempts to induce the supercargo of the Chats- 
worth to come off to that vessel, a note in French was received from him, stat- 
ing that he was " an Italian, and as such could not be owner of the American 
brig Chatsworth, which had been seized, it is true, but unjustly, and against 
the laws of all civilized nations. That the owner of the said brig would know 
how to defend his property, and in case the judgment should not prove favor- 
able, the one who had been the cause of it would always bear the remorse of 
having ruined his countryman." 

After making the necessary preliminary arrangements, the master, with a 
midshipman aud ten men, was placed in charge of the Chatsworth ; and on the 
14th of September, the following order was sent to the commanding officer of 
the prize : "You will proceed to Baltimore, and there report yourself to the 
commander of the naval station, and to the Secretary of the Navy. You will 
be prepared, on your arrival, to deliver up the vessel to the United States 
marshal, the papers to the judge of the United States District Court, and be 
ready to act in the case of the Chatsworth as your orders and circumstances 
may require. " 

After a protracted trial, the Chatsworth was at length condemned as a slaver, 
in the U. S. District Court of Maryland. 

After a trip to St. Helena and the Cape de Verds, the Perry again pro- 
ceeded to the south coast. She anchored in Loango, and the commander ad- 
dressed a letter to the British commodore, April 4, 1851, asking whether any 



EFFICIENCY OF THE SQUADRONS. 355 

suspected vessels had been seen on the south coast ; also requesting his views 
of the present state of the slave-trade on the coast. In reply, the commodore 
writes : 

" On the second subject, my view of the present state of the slave-trade on 
the south coast : It is formed on my own observations of the line of coast from 
Cape St. Paul's to this port, and from the reports which I have received from 
the captains of the divisions, and the commanders of the cruisers under my or- 
ders, as well as from other well-informed persons on whom I can rely, that it 
has never been in a more depressed state, a state almost amounting to suppres- 
sion ; and that this arises from the active exertions of her majesty's squadron 
on both sides of the Atlantic, and the cordial cooperation which has been es- 
tablished between the cruisers of Great Britain and the United States on this 
coast, to carry out the intention of the Washington treaty ; and latterly from 
the new measures of the Brazilian government. 

" Factories have been broken up at Lagos, in the Congo, and at Ambriz ; 
although of this I need hardly speak, because your own observation during the 
past year must satisfy you of the present state of depression there. 

" The commencement of last year was marked by an unusual number of cap- 
tures by her majesty's cruisers, both in the bights and on the south coast, and 
also by those by the cruisers of the United States. This year, the capture of 
only one vessel equipped in the bights, and one with slaves (a transferred Sar- 
dinian,) on the south coast, have been reported to me — a striking proof of my 
view. 

" The desperate measures also adopted by the slave-dealers in the last few 
months to get rid of their slaves by the employment of small vessels, formerly 
engaged in the legal and coasting trade, as marked by the capture of several 
(named) slavers, prove the difficulty to which they have been driven. 

" The barracoons, however, along the whole line of coast, are still reported 
to me to contain a great number of slaves, to ship whom, I have little doubt 
further attempts will be made. 

" Most satisfactory, on the whole, as this state of things may be considered, 
still I hope it will not lead to any immediate relaxation either of our efforts or 
of our cooperation ; but that a vigilance will be observed for a time sufficient 
to enable a legal trade to replace the uprooted slave-traffic, and to disperse 
the machinery (I may say) of the merchants connected with it, and prevent 
any resumption of it by them." 

In answer to the charge frequently made that the American squadron had 
been unsuccessful in their efforts to prevent the slave-trade, commander Foote 
replies that " it has been shown that the African squadrons, instead of being 
useless, have rendered essential service. For much as colonization has ac- 
complished, and effectual as Liberia is in suppressing the slave-traffic within 
her own jurisdiction, these means and these results have been established and 
secured by the presence and protection of the naval squadrons of Great Brit- 
ain, France, and the United States. And had no such assistance been ren- 
dered, the entire coast, where we now see legal trade and advancing civiliza- 



356 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

tion, would have been at this day, in spite of any efforts to colonize, or to es- 
tablish legal commerce, the scene of unchecked, lawless slave-trade piracy. 

" Strange and frightful maladies have been engendered by the cruelties per- 
petrated within the hold of a slaver. If any disease affecting the human con- 
stitution were brought there, we may be sure that it would be nursed into mor- 
tal vigor in these receptacles of filth, corruption and despair. Crews have 
been known to die by the fruit of their own crime, and leave ships almost help- 
less. They have carried the scourge with them. The coast fever of Africa, 
bad enough where it has its birth, came in these vessels, and has assumed per- 
haps a permanent abode in the western regions of the world. No fairer sky 
or healthier climate were there on earth, than in the beautiful bay, and amid 
the grand and picturesque scenery of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. But it be- 
came a haunt of slavers, and the dead of Africa floated on the glittering wa- 
ters, and were tumbled upon the sands of its harbor. The shipping found, in 
the hot summer of 1849, that death had come with the slavers. Thirty or forty 
vessels were lying idly at their anchors, for their crews had mostly perished. 
The pestilence swept along the coast of that empire with fearful malignity. 

" Cuba for the same crime met the same retribution. Cargoes of slaves 
were lauded to die, and brought the source of their mortality ashore, vigorous 
and deadly. The fever settled there in the beginning of 1853, and came to 
our country, as summer approached, in merchant vessels from the West Indies. 
At New Orleans, Mobile, and other places it spread desolation, over which the 
country mourned. Let it be remembered that it is never even safe to disre- 
gard crime. 

" Civilized governments are now very generally united in measures for the 
suppression of the slave-trade. The coast of Africa itself is rapidly closing 
against it. The American and English colonies secure a vast extent of sea- 
coast against its revival. Christian missions, at many points, are inculcating 
the doctrines of divine truth, which, by its power upon the hearts of men, is 
the antagonist of such cruel unrighteousness. 

" The increase of commerce, and the advance of Christian civilization, will 
undoubtedly, at no distant date, render a naval force for the suppression of 
the African slave-trade unnecessary ; but no power having extensive commerce 
ought ever to overlook the necessity of a naval force on that coast. The Sec- 
retary of the Navy, it is to be hoped, has, in his recent report, settled the 
question as to the continuance of the African squadron. 

" The increasing influence of Liberia and Cape Palmas will prove a power- 
ful protection everywhere. With them Sierra Leone will unite in feeling and 
purposes. Their policy will always be the same. It must necessarily happen 
that a close political relationship in interests and feelings will unite them all 
in one system of action. Their policy will be that of uncompromising hostil- 
ity to the slave-trade." 

The pestilence which swept the coast of Brazil in 1849, had its effect in in- 
ducing the government to adopt more vigorous efforts to put down the slave- 
trade. In September, 1850, a law was passed declaring the slave-trade piracy, 



BRAZIL. 357 

and several vessels were afterwards captured by the Brazilian men-of-war. Ac- 
cording to a report of the Brazilian government, there were 60,000 slaves im- 
ported from Africa in 1848, 54,000 in 1849. In 1851, the number had been 
reduced to 3,28Y, of which 1,006 were captured by a Brazilian cruiser ; and 
in 1852 but one slave vessel is known to have landed on the coast. 

Cuba is still the great mart of the slave-trade, as appears by the occasional 
capture of slavers bound for that island. Witness the statements of the cap- 
tain of a captured vessel, as given in the following letter, dated Jamaica, April 
23, 1857 : "The newspapers which I send you will inform you of the slaver 
captured by the Arab off the coast of Cuba. On the day of her arrival, after 
the landing of her wretched cargo, I paid a visit to the vessel, and thus wit- 
nessed the horrible manner in which the negroes had been stowed. The slave 
deck was exactly two feet six inches in height, in a vessel of one hundred and 
fifty tons, and water casks were stowed beneath. Is it any wonder that out of 
five hundred human beings, one hundred and thirty-eight, including those the 
brutal captain shot, should have died in a passage of fifty-three days from Af- 
rica ? Forty died in one day between Cuba and St. Ann's Bay, on this island, 
showing at what fearful rate the mortality was increasing. When captured, 
they had but one biscuit to each person on board. 

" The captain states that he has run nine successful cargoes, and been cap- 
tured six times, and that he has lost £6,000 by this trip, but he does not mind 
it, as, if he had succeeded in landing the cargo, he would have received £31,000 
for the adventure. What mercantile speculation can compete with this hellish 
traffic f and is it any wonder that Spain has been cursed beyond all the nations 
upon the earth ? 

" On landing at Fort Augusta, where the slaves are kept until they recruit, 
I never saw such a picture of woe. In a large room, nearly twice the size of 
the slaver, were three hundred and twenty-two young men and boys, and in an 
adjoining one more than forty women and girls, all naked living spectres, with 
wasted limbs, and thighs about the circumference of a large walking-stick — in 
fact, mere skin and bone, eaten up with scurvy and the itch. Yet, strange to 
say, on a black soldier informing them that they were free, their eyes danced 
with delight, and with feeble strength they clapped their emaciated hands and 
shouted for joy. When their food was distributed, the whip had of necessity 
to be used, to save the weakest from being crushed to death in the scramble, so 
ravenously hungry were they. 

" Although the room in which they were placed is so much larger than the 
vessel, I could scarcely walk amongst them, as they occupied the whole space, 
and ft seems impossible that they could have been packed in the slave deck. 
It is stated that each individual had to sit down with wide extended legs, and 
another was then stowed in, and so on until the vessel was full ; and thus they 
remained, with the rare exception of being aired in detachments, for the space 
of fifty -four days." 

■ 



358 LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Historical Sketch of Sierra Leone and Liberia. 

Colony of Sierra Leone founded by the English, 1787. — Free negroes colonized. — Present 
extent and condition of the colony. — Establishment of English factories on the slave 
coast. — Treaties with the African chiefs. — Scheme of African Colonization agitated in 
1783 — by Jefferson and others. — Movements in Va., in 1800 and 1805. — Formation of 
the American Colonization Society in 1810. — Its object "to colonize the free people of 
color." — Cape Mesurado purchased and colonized in 1S21. — Defense of the infant set- 
tlement from an attack by the natives. — Mortality among the early settlers. — Increase 
of the colony in 1835. — State colonization societies establish settlements. — Consolida- 
tion of the state colonies, and establishment of the Commonwealth. — Governor Bu- 
chanan's efforts to suppress the slave-trade. — His death, 1841. — Republic of Liberia 
established 1847. — Joseph J. Roberts ("colored^ first President. — Its independence ac- 
knowledged by European powers. — The Republic attacks the slave establishments.— 
Natural resources of Liberia — its climate, soil, productions, exports, schools, churches, 
&e. — Settlements and population. — The Maryland settlement at Cape Palmas. 

J.N connection with the subject of the slave-trade, the English and American 
colonies deserve notice. Sierra Leone was founded by the English, May 9th, 
1787, as a colony for free negroes. At the close of the American war, several 
hundred were discharged from the army and navy, and were wandering about 
in a desolate condition. There were others who had gained their freedom un- 
der the decision of Lord Mansfield. Granville Sharp had noticed the condi- 
tion of these negroes in the streets of London, and formed the plan of trans- 
porting them to Africa. He obtained the aid of government, and in the year 
mentioned about four hundred were landed upon a district purchased of the 
king of Sierra Leone. In 1792, about twelve hundred more were landed 
from Nova Scotia These last were those who had been seduced from their 
masters in the States during the revolutionary war. Some five hundred Ma- 
roons from Jamaica, were also sent to the colony a few years afterwards. 
In 1807, the colony was surrendered to the crown. After the employment of 
British cruisers on the coast to suppress the slave-trade, the vessels which were 
captured were taken to the colony and the slaves liberated. They were pro- 
vided with a daily allowance for the first six mouths, after which lands were 
assigned them. 

The colony at the present time comprises about 25,000 square miles. The 
soil is very fertile, growing excellent crops of rice, Indian corn, yams, plan- 
tains and cassadas. Many of the West India products have been introduced, 
and sugar, coffee, indigo, ginger and cotton thrive well. The principal fruits 
are the cocoa, banana, pine-apples, orange, lime, guava, pomegranate and 
plum. The annual exports, chiefly to Great Britain, amount to about $500,000. 
Its population, chiefly of native Africans, is being brought under the influence 
of religious education, and thus fitted to become an important lever in pro- 
moting the civilization of their native regions. * 

For a distance of twelve hundred miles along the coast from Cape Palmas 



COLONIZATION. 359 

to the Gaboon, English factories and agents are established, for commercial 
purposes and for the suppression of the slave-trade. These establishments are 
supported by the government ; and its authorized commissioners enter into ne- 
gotiations with the powerful chiefs of the interior on the subject of the slave- 
trade. The Danish ports on the coast have recently been sold to the English. 
A treaty has been formed with the powerful king of Dahomey, whose chief 
revenue was derived from incursions against his neighbors and seizing and 
selling them to the slavers. He had kept an army of men and women trained 
for the purpose, and his victims numbered about nine thousand annually. An 
annual stipend from England supplies the deficiency in his revenue, and the 
trade is abolished in his dominions. Human sacrifices have also been to a 
great extent abolished in the two great states of Dahomey and Ashantee, and 
both are opened to missionary influences. 

The scheme of colonizing the free people of color was agitated in the United 
States shortly after the close of the revolutionary war. Dr. Thornton, of Wash- 
ington, in 1783, suggested the establishment of a colony in Africa. Mr. Jef- 
ferson, as secretary of state, made an application to the Sierra Leone com- 
pany, but without success. The Portuguese government was sounded for the 
acquisition of territory in South America for the purpose. The legislature of 
Virginia, in 1800, 1805, and 1816 discussed the subject. The Rev. Dr. Finley, 
of New Jersey, matured a plan for the purpose, and proceeded to Washington. 
On the 25th of December, 1816, a meeting was called, over which Henry Clay 
presided, and Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, Dr. Finley and others 
were elected vice-presidents. The American Colonization Society was formed. 
" Its objects is, to promote and execute a plan for colonizing, with their con- 
sent, the free people of color residing in our country, either in Africa, or such 
other places as Congress shall deem expedient ; " to prepare the way for the 
interference of the government by proving that a colony can be established 
and maintained without the opposition of the natives, that an important com- 
merce might be thus established, and the slave-trade in consequence discour- 
aged. The gradual emancipation of slaves, as favored by Jefferson and others 
in earlier days, was discussed. The work of forming an African nation in 
Africa, with republican institutions and Christian influences, was commenced. 

In 1817, two agents were sent by the society to examine the western coast 
for a suitable place for a colony. They selected the island of Sherboro, about 
sixty miles S. S. E. from Sierra Leone, and then sailed for the United States. 
Mr. Mills, one of the agents, died on the passage. 

On the 3d of March, 1819, Congress passed an act by which the President 
was authorized to restore to their own country any Africans captured from 
American or foreign vessels attempting to introduce them into the United 
States ; and to provide, by the establishment of a suitable government agency 
on the coast, for their subsistence and comfort. It was determined to make 
the site of the government agency, that of the colonial also, and to incorporate 
into the settlement all the Africans delivered by our men-of-war to the gov- 
ernment agent. 



360 LIBERIA. 

Rev. Samuel Bacon was appointed both government and colonial agent ; 
two society's agents were associated with him. In February, 1820, they sailed 
for the coast of Africa, accompanied by eighty emigrants. They found Sher- 
boro an unhealthy spot ; the fever made its appearance among them, and 
about twenty died, including Mr. Bacon. Lieutenant Townsend, of the sloop- 
of-war Cyane, which accompanied the emigrant vessel, also died of the fever. 
After this disastrous attempt, Sherboro was abandoned, and the emigrants 
removed to Sierra Leone. 

In 1821, Cape Mesurado, with a large tract of country, was purchased of 
the native chiefs. Mr. Jehudi Ashmun took charge of the colony in 1822, 
previous to which forty more emigrants had been sent out. For more than 
six years this able man devoted all his powers to the establishment of the 
colony on a firm foundation. His defense of the infant settlement in Novem- 
ber and December, 1822, against the united forces of the natives, exhibited 
great courage and talent. 

" On the 11th November the attack was commenced by a force of eight hun- 
dred warriors. The picket, contrary to orders, had left their station in advance 
of the weakest point of defense ; the native force, already in motion, followed 
close in the rear of the picket, and as soon as the latter had joined the detach- 
ment of ten men stationed at the gun, the enemy, presenting a front, opened 
their fire, and rushed forward to seize the post ; several fell, and off went the 
others, leaving the gun undischarged. This threw the small reserve in the 
centre into confusion, and had the enemy followed up their advantage, victory 
was certain ; but such was their avidity for plunder, that they fell upon the 
booty in the outskirts of the town. This disorded the main body. Mr. Ash- 
mun, who was too ill to move at any distance, was thus enabled, by the assist- 
ance of one of the colonists, Rev. Lot Carey, to rally the broken forces of the 
settlers. The brass field-piece was now brought to bear, and being well served 
did good execution. A few men, commanded by Elijah Johnson, passed round 
on the enemy's flank, which increased their consternation, and soon after the 
front of the enemy began to recoil. The colonists now regained the post 
which had at first been seized, and instantly brought the long-nine to bear upon 
the mass of the enemy ; eight hundred men were in a solid body, and every 
shot literally spent itself among them. A savage yell was raised by the enemy, 
and the colonists were victors. 

" In the assault, the colonists, (who numbered but thirty-five capable of 
bearing arms) had fifteen killed and wounded. It is impossible to estimate the 
loss of the natives, which must have been very great. An earnest but ineffec- 
tual effort was made by the agent to form with the kings a treaty of peace. 

" Notwithstanding this disastrous result, the natives determined upon another 
attack. They collected auxiliaries from all the neighboring tribes who could 
be induced to join them. The colonists, on the other hand, under Ashmun, the 
agent, were busily engaged in fortifying themselves for the decisive battle, upon 
which the fate of the settlement was suspended. On the 2d of December thr 
enemy attacked simultaneously the three sides of the fortifications. The col 



STATE SOCIETIES. 361 

onists received them with that bravery and determination which the danger of 
total destruction, in case of defeat, was calculated to inspire. The main body 
of the enemy being exposed to a galling fire from the battery, both in front 
and flank, and the assault on the opposite side of the town having been repulsed, 
a general retreat immediately followed, and the colonists were again victorious. 

" Mr. Ashmun received three musket-balls through his clothes ; three of the 
men stationed at one of the guns were dangerously wounded ; and not three 
rounds of ammunition remained after the action. Had a thu'd attack been 
made, the colony must have been conquered ; or had the first attack occurred 
before the arrival of Mr. Ashmun, it would have been extirpated. But its 
foundations were now secured by a firm and lasting peace." 

Mr. Ashmun, during his administration, made important accpiisitions of ter- 
ritory ; established schools and built churches ; destroyed slave-factories, and 
made treaties with the natives. In 1828, his health failed, from excessive 
labors, and he sailed for home in the hope of recruiting it ; but died at New 
Haven on the 25th of August. He found the colony on the brink of ruin — he 
left it in peace and prosperity. 

Dr. Richard Randall was appointed successor to Ashmun, and accompanied 
by Dr. Mechlin, a colored surgeon, arrived in December, 1828. Dr. Randall 
died four months after his arrival. The agency devolved upon Mechlin. In 
1829, Dr. Anderson was appointed physician and assistant agent, and took 
with him sixty emigrants. Ninety recaptured slaves were added to the colony 
about the same time. Dr. Mechlin was induced to return home from ill health, 
and the government devolved upon Dr. Anderson, who soon afterwards died. 
A. D. Williams, the vice-agent, filled the vacancy. Five Christian missionaries 
arrived from Switzerland, and took charge of the schools ; and two more emi- 
grant vessels and two missionaries from the United States, had a favorable 
influence upon the colony. The Liberia Herald was established ; and the 
colonial exports reached the sum of ninety thousand dollars. In 1832, the 
colonists again took the field and were successful against a combination of the 
native tribes. In 1834, Rev. J. B. Pinney, as agent, and Dr. Todson, as 
physician, arrived in the colony, accompanied by nine missionaries. After a 
short but efficient administration, Dr. Pinney was compelled, from ill health, 
to retire. Dr. Skinner succeeded him. In 1S35, nine vessels arrived from the 
United States with emigrants, which produced a great sensation among the 
natives, who supposed that rice had given out in America. Dr. Skinner re- 
turned home, suffering from ill health, and the vice-agent, A. D. Williams, 
took charge of the colony. 

Meantime, state societies had been establishing settlements in Liberia. In 
1837 there were : Monrovia, under the American colonization society; Bassa 
Cove, of the New York and Pennsylvania societies ; Greenville, of the Mis- 
sissippi society, and Cape Palmas, of the Maryland society — embracing twelve 
towns and five thousand emigrants. From this chaotic entanglement of inter- 
ests and jurisdictions sprung the commonwealth of Liberia, and Thomas H. 
Buchanan became its governor. The friends of the American Colonization 



3G2 LIBERIA. 

Society, and of the state societies, had forseen the necessity of a union, and a 
committee met at Washington City and drew up a common constitution for the 
colonies. Elisha Whittlesey moved, and the motion was adopted, that no 
white man should become a landholder in Liberia, and that full rights of citi- 
zenship should be enjoyed only by colored men. The American Colonization 
Society retained the right to veto the acts of the colonial legislature. 

In April, 1839, Governor Buchanan landed with the new constitution, which 
was approved by the Monrovians, and subsequently by the state colonies. He 
arrived with a large supply of guns and ammunition, furnished by the navy 
department, and a quantity of agricultural implements and machinery, includ 
ing a sugar mill. 

Governor Buchanan seems to have been indefatigable in his efforts to dimin- 
ish the slave-trade. His appeals and strong-handed measures had their effect 
in calling the attention of our government to the abuse of the American flag. 
He armed the colonists and marched to attack the slave-factories on the coast. 
He captured the slavers, and liberated the slaves from the barracoons. One 
of the native tribes attacked an outpost of the colony ; they were driven off, 
and Governor Buchanan promptly marshaled his forces to " carry the war into 
Africa. " For this purpose a force of two hundred effective men, with a field- 
piece and a body of followers, assembled at Millsburg, on the St. Paul's river. 
About thirty miles from this, by the air-line, in the swampy depths of the forest, 
was the point aimed at. Many careful arrangements were necessary to baffle 
spies, and keep the disaffected at bay during this desperate incursion, which 
the governor was about to make into the heart of the enemy's country. The 
fine conception had this redeeming characteristic, that it was quite beyond the 
enemy's understanding. 

" The force left Millsburg on Friday, 27th of March. Swamps and thickets 
soon obliged him to leave the gun behind. Through heavy rains, drenched 
and weary, they made their way, without any other resistance, to a bivouac in 
an old deserted town. Starting at daylight next morning, they forced their 
way through flooded streams and ponds, 'in mud up to their knees, and water 
up to the waist.' After a halt at ten o'clock, and three hours' march subse- 
quently, they learnt that the enemy had become aware of their movements, and 
was watching them. About six miles from their destination, after floundering 
through the mud of a deep ravine, followed by a weary pull up a long hill, a 
sharp turn brought them in front of a rude barricade of felled trees. A fire 
of musketry from it brought to the ground Captain Snetter, of the riflemen, 
who was in advance of his men. The men made a dash on the enemy so sud- 
denly that soon no body was in front of them. The line moved on without 
stopping, and met only a straggling fire here and there, as they threaded their 
narrow path through the bushes in single file. A few men were wounded in 
this disheartening march. At length those in advance came to a halt before 
the fortress, and the rear closed up. There the line was extended, and the 
party advanced in two divisions. The place was a kind of square, palisaded 



COLONIZATION. 303 

inclosure, having outside cleared patches here aud there, intermingled with 
clumps of brush. 

"The assailants were received with a sharp fire from swivels and muskets, 
which was warmly returned. Buchanan ordered Roberts (afterwards president) 
to lead a reserved company round from the left, so as to take in reverse the 
face attacked. This so confounded Gaytumba's garrison that they retreated, 
leaving everything behind. The hungry colonists became their successors at 
the simmering cooking-pots. So rapid had the onslaught been, that the second 
division did not reach in time to take a hand in it. The operation was thus 
completely successful, with the ultimate loss of only two men. 

" The place was burnt, aud a lesson given which established beyond all future 
challeuge the power of civilization on that coast. The banks of the St Paul's 
river, with its graceful meanderiugs, palm-covered islands, and glorious basin 
spreading round into the eastward expanse of the interior, were secured for 
the habitations of peace and prosperity." 

The commonwealth flourished uuder the administration of Buchanan. Every 
district was supplied with a free school, and lyceums were established. Alms- 
houses were erected, with manual labor schools attached. Rules were estab- 
lished for the treatment of apprentices, or recaptured Africans who were not 
able to take care of themselves. 

We are compelled to add the name of Buchanan to the catalogue of victims 
to the African fever. He died September 3, 1841. 

Joseph J. Roberts, a colored man, was his successor as governor of the com- 
monwealth. The early part of his administration was signalized by an expe- 
dition far into the interior, for the purpose of making treaties and establishing 
commercial intercourse. Taking a small number of men with him, he pro- 
ceeded up the St. Paul's river, visited the Camwood country, about seventy 
miles inland, and found the forests greatly wasted, and the main source of sup- 
ply, at that time, about one hundred miles farther back. Kings were visited 
and relieved of their fears, although not of their wonder, that the "governor 
should be at that distance from home without engaging in war." The party 
had left the canoe, aud after a circuit rouud to the eastward, they reached 
" Captain Sam's" town, one hundred and twenty miles east of Monrovia. 

Several kings met with the president in his excursion, with whom a conver- 
sation was held, " on the subject of trade, the course and extent of the river, 
native wars, religion, &c. " One, " who was seated in state, on a sofa of raised 
earth, gave us a hearty shake of the hand, and said he was glad to see us;" 
adding, "this country be your country, all this people be your countryman, you 
be first king." This king was informed by the president, "that he and his 
people must agree to abandon the slave-trade, to discontinue the use of sassy- 
wood, engage in no war except by permission of the colonial government." 
On one occasion, " Ballasada, the principal war-man of the Golah tribe, made 
his appearance ; he entered the gate of the barricade, at the head of some 
twenty or thirty armed warriors, with drums beating, horns blowing, dressed in 
a large robe, and stepping with all the majesty of a great monarch." At 



364 LIBERIA. 

Yando's town, arrangements were made for establishing a school. At Gelby, 
one of the missionaries preached to a large congregation — the king with most 
of his people being present. The audience was attentive, and, with the king, 
gave "a nod of the head at almost every word uttered by the interpreter." 

At " Captain Sam's town," a place of great trade, they met three strangers 
from different tribes, anxious to have a question settled, viz : " whether, if they 
carried their produce to the American settlement for sale, the colonists would 
beat them, take then - property away, and put them in jail." Their interme- 
diate friends had persuaded them that such would be the case, and consequently 
had themselves, in the meantime, become their agents, and plundered them at 
discretion. They had, at that time, brought a considerable quantity of pro- 
duce for sale, and some of them had been kept waiting for many months. All 
this was fully cleared up to their satisfaction, and great extension of trade was 
promised. The governor says: "I have traveled considerably in the United 
States, but have never seen anywhere a more beautiful country than the one 
passed through, well timbered and watered, and the soil, I venture to assert, 
equal to any in the world." 

In order to obtain exclusive and complete jurisdiction over the territory of 
Liberia, it was a necessary measure to establish a national independence. The 
leading men saw the necessity of making the experiment. A constitution was 
framed, borrowed from that of the United States, and a declaration of inde- 
pendence was drawn up and proclaimed. On the 24th day of August, 1847, 
the flag of the Republic of Liberia was displayed, and Joseph J. Roberts was 
elected first president of the republic. England, France, Belgium, Prussia, 
and Brazil acknowledged its independence. England presented the republic 
with a man-of-war schooner, with armament and stores complete, and France 
presented it with a large quantity of arms. Treaties of amity and commerce 
were formed with both nations. 

On the 22d of February, 1849, the French flag steam frigate Penelope, ac- 
companied by another cruiser, arrived at Monrovia. On the following day, 
the commander, with the officers and two hundred men, landed for the purpose 
of saluting the flag of the republic. They were received by three uniform 
companies of Monrovia, in front of Colonel Yates's residence, where three 
field-pieces had been placed. The procession was then formed and moved up 
Broad street to the president's house, where the flag-staff, bearing the Libe- 
rian colors, was standing. A salute of twenty-one guns was fired from the 
field-pieces, which was repeated by the French cruisers, and returned by the 
Liberiau guns. Refreshments were provided for the men, and the officers 
dined with the president. 

In March, 1849, several English and French cruisers placed themselves at 
the disposal of President Roberts for an expedition against the slave estab- 
lishments at New Sestos. Roberts embarked 400 men in the cruisers, and ac- 
companied by the U. S. sloop-of-war Yorktown, proceeded to the scene of ac- 
tion. Some of the native chiefs had been induced to defend the slavers, but a 
shell from the French steamer bursting over their heads, the natives made 



RESOURCES. 3G5 

tracks for the jungle. Roberts marched his men upon the barracoons. The 
defense was abandoned and the buildings fired. The slaves were liberated and 
New Sestos annexed. 

In the north, along the Gallinas river, the slave-trade lingered. President 
Roberts, by the aid of Mr. Gurney, Lord Ashley, and benevolent individuals 
in the United States and England, purchased the territory for nine thousand 
dollars. By the annexation of this territory, and in May, 1852, of the Cassa 
territory, Liberia virtually extends its dominion over six hundred miles of sea 
coast, exterminating the slave-trade from near Cape Palmas to Sierra Leone. 

Liberia is well watered, and its natural resources are immense. Cotton is 
indigenous, and yields two crops a year. Coffee thrives well ; a single tree at 
Monrovia yielding thirty pounds at one gathering. Sugar-cane grows in un- 
rivaled luxuriance, and cam-wood in unlimited quantities ; red-wood, bar-wood, 
and other dyes, are likewise plentiful ; the oil-palm is abundant ; and indigo, 
caoutchouc, ginger, arrow-root, cocoa, cocoa-nuts, pine-apples, castor-nuts, 
yams, plantains, bananas, figs, olives, tamarinds, limes, oranges, lemons, &c, 
may be added to the list of vegetable products, many of which are exported 
to a greater or less extent. Ivory is easily obtainable ; and rich metallic veins 
also exist. An important export and import trade is now earned on ; and a 
large number of the inhabitants of the interior depend upon Liberia for their 
supplies of imported goods. 

The exports amount to about eight hundred thousand dollars per annum, 
and are on the increase. The soil is capable of sustaining an immense popu- 
lation, but the want of agricultural industry has been felt. As the country be- 
comes settled, and the character of its diseases better understood, the accli- 
mating fever is less dreaded, and now rarely proves fatal. This having been 
passed through, the colored emigrants enjoy far better health than they did in 
most parts of the United States. The statistics of President Roberts exhibit 
about three per cent, less number of deaths than among the same class of peo- 
ple in Canada and New England. The thermometer ranges from 70° to 85°; 
seldom higher or lower. 

A thirst for education has been awakened among the surrounding aborigines 
of Liberia, many of whom send their children 400 and 500 miles, to be edu- 
cated in the republic. The Liberians have built for themselves above thirty 
thurches of brick and stone ; and possess numerous schools, and a considerable 
lumber of printing-presses. More than 20,000 natives have requested to be 
taken under the protection of the state, while not less than 100,000 live on its 
territory, and 350,000 are bound to it by treaties to abolish the slave-trade. 
At different times, ten buildings, erected by slave-traders for the storage of 
slaves, have been burned down by the Liberians, and hundreds of their fellow- 
creatures, therein confined, liberated ; and they at all times afford refuge to the 
weak and the oppressed. Monrovia, the capital and port of the colony, is sit- 
uated on Cape Mesurado. There are, besides, abor? twenty towns and vil- 
lages in the territory. The government of the country is precisely on the 
American model ; consisting of a p r sident, a vice-president, a senate, and a 



366 CAPE PALMAS. 

house of representatives ; the number of members in the former being six, and 
in the latter twenty-eight. A company has recently been organized in the United 
States for establishing steam communication between Liberia and this country. 
Population in 1850, 250,000.* 

The yearly income of the American Colonization Society, it appears, has 
only ranged from $3,000 to $50,000. The annual average of the first six years 
was $3,276. A liberal bequest of $25,000 per annum for forty years was made 
to the society by Mr. M'Donough, of New Orleans. From a table published 
in the Colonization Herald for April, 1857, it appears that since the first set- 
tlement of the colony, 9,502 emigrants have been sent out. Of these, 3,676 
were born free; 326 purchased their own liberty; and the remaining 5,500 
were emancipated for emigration. Of the whole number, 3,315 have gone 
from Virginia. 

The Maryland Colonization Society established its colony at Cape Palmas 
in 1834. A tract extending about tweuty miles along the sea coast, and as 
many inland, was purchased of the natives by Dr. James Hall, the agent of 
the society. Fifty-three emigrants commenced the settlement, but vessels con- 
tinued to arrive with more settlers An additional tract was procured in 1836, 
and in succeeding years new settlers arrived. The state had voted $20,000 per 
annum for twenty years. In 1837, Mr. Russworm, a colored man, was ap- 
pointed governor of the colony, and fulfilled the high expectations formed of 
him. Six chiefs ceded to him their territories, which became incorporated in 
the colony. Every treaty contained an absolute prohibition of the slave-trade. 
A line of packets was established in 1846, to carry out emigrants and bring 
home produce. It is now contemplated to erect the colony into an independ- 
ent state. 

From an address put forth by the colonists of Liberia to the free people of 
color of the United States, we make a few extracts : 

" The first consideration which caused our voluntary removal to this country, 
and the object which we still regard with the deepest concern, is liberty — lib- 
erty in the sober, simple, but complete sense of the word ; not a licentious 
liberty, nor a liberty without government, or which should place us without the 
restraint of salutary laws ; but that liberty of speech and conscience which 
distinguishes the free enfranchised citizens of a free state. We did not enjoy 
that freedom in our native country ; and from causes which, as respects our- 
selves, we shall soon forget forever, we were certain it was not there attainable 
for ourselves or our children. This, then, being the first object of our pursuit 
in coming to Africa, is probably the first subject on which you will ask for in- 
formation ; and we must truly declare to you that our expectations and hopes, 
in this respect, have been realized. Our constitution secures to us, so far as 
our condition allows, ' all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the citizens of 
the United States,' and these rights and privileges are ours. We are proprie- 
tors of the soil we live on, and possess the rights of freeholders. Our suf- 

* Lippincott's Gazet >er of the World. 







f?!HBBS»i" 



w<* 1 - 

FATJQUIER SPRINGS. 



THE COLONISTS. 367 

frages, and what is of more importance, our sentiments and our opinions, have 
their due weight in the government we live under. Our laws are altogether 
our own ; they grow out of our circumstances, are framed for our exclusive 
benefit, and administered by officers of our own appointment, and as such 
possess our confidence. We have a judiciary chosen from among ourselves ; 
we serve as jurors in the trials of others, and are liable to be tried only by ju- 
ries of our fellow-citizens ourselves. "We have all that is meant by liberty of 
conscience. The time and mode of worshiping God, as prescribed to us in 
His word, and dictated by our conscience, we are not only free to follow, but 
are protected in following. 

" Forming a community of our own in the land of our forefathers ; having 
the commerce, and the soil, and the resources of the country at our disposal, 
we know nothing of that debasing inferiority with which our very color 
stamped us in America. There is nothing here to create the feeling of caste 
. — nothing to cherish the feeling of superiority in the minds of foreigners who 
visit us. It is this moral emancipation, this liberty of the mind from worse 
than iron fetters, that repays us ten thousand times over for all that it has cost 
us, and makes us grateful to God and our American patrons for the happy 
change which has taken place in our situation. We are not so self-complacent 
as to rest satisfied with our improvement, either as regards our minds or our 
circumstances. We do not expect to remain stationary — far from it But 
we certainly feel ourselves, for the first time, in a state to enjoy either to any 
purpose. The burden is gone from our shoulders. We now breathe and 
move freely, and know not (in surveying your present state) for which to pity 
you most, the empty name of liberty which you endeavor to content yourselves 
with, in a country that is not yours, or the delusion which makes you hope for 
ampler privileges in that country hereafter. 

"We solicit none of you to emigrate to this country; for we know not 
who among you prefers rational independence, and the honest respect of his 
fellow-men, to that mental sloth and careless poverty which you already pos- 
sess, and your children will inherit after you in America. But if your views 
and aspirations rise a degree higher — if your minds are not as servile as your 
present condition, we can decide the question at once ; and with confidence say 
that you will bless the day, and your children after you, when you determined 
to become citizens of Liberia. 

" But we do not hold this language on the blessings of liberty for the purpose 
of consoling ourselves for the sacrifice of health, or the sufferings of want, in 
consequence of our removal to Africa. We enjoy health, after a few months' 
residence in this country ; and a distressing scarcity of provisions, or any of 
the necessaries of life, has of late been entirely unknown, even to the poorest 
persons in this community. On these points there are, and have been, much 
misconception and some malicious misrepresentations in the United States. 

" The true character of the African climate is not well understood in other 
countries. Its inhabitants are as robust, as healthy, as long-lived, to say the 
least, as those of any other country. Nothing like an epidemic has ever ap- 
24 



368 LIBERIA. 

peared in this colony ; nor can we learn from the natives, that the calamity of 
a sweeping sickness ever yet visited this part of the continent. But the change 
from a temperate to a tropical country is a great one — too great not to affect 
the health more or less, and in the cases of old people, and very young peo- 
ple, it often causes death. In the early years of the colony, want of good 
houses, the great fatigues and dangers of the settlers, their irregular mode of 
living, and the hardships and discouragements they met with, greatly helped the 
other causes of sickness, which prevailed to an alarming extent, and were at- 
tended with great mortality. But we look back to those times as a season of 
trial long past, and nearly forgotten. Our houses and circumstances are now 
comfortable ; and for the last two or three years not one person in forty, from 
the middle and southern states, has died from the change of climate. 

"A more fertile soil, and a more productive country, so fas as it is cultivated, 
there is not, we believe, on the face of the earth. Its hills and its plains are 
covered with a verdure which never fades ; the productions of nature keep on 
in their growth through all seasons of the year. Even the natives of the 
country, almost without farming tools, without skill, and with very little labor, 
make more grain and vegetables than they can consume, and often more than 
they can sell. 

"Add to all this, we have no dreary winter here, for one-half the year, to de- 
stroy the products of the other half. Nature is constantly renewing herself, 
and is also constantly pouring her treasures all the year round in the laps of 
the industrious. We could say on this subject more, but we are afraid of ex- 
citing too highly the hopes of the imprudent. Such persons, we think, will 
do well to keep their rented cellars, and earn their twenty-five cents a day at 
their wheelbarrow, in the commercial towns of America, and stay where they 
are. It is only the industrious and virtuous that we cau point to independence, 
and plenty, and happiness in this country. 

" Truly, we have a goodly heritage ; and if there is any thing lacking in the 
character or condition of the people of this colony, it can never be charged to 
the account of the country ; it must be the fruit of our own mismanagement, 
or slothfulness, or vices. But from all these evils we confide in Him to whom 
we are indebted for our blessings, to preserve us. It is the topic of our week- 
ly and daily thanksgiving to Almighty God, both in public and private, and 
He knows with what sincerity we were conducted, by His providence, to 
this shore. Such great favors, in so short a time, and mixed with so few trials, 
are to be ascribed to nothing but His special blessing. This we acknowledge. 
We only want the gratitude which such signal favors call for. Nor are we 
willing to close this paper, without adding a heartfelt testimonial to the deep 
obligations we owe to our American patrons and best earthly benefactors, 
whose wisdom pointed us to this home of our nation, and whose active and 
persevering benevolence enabled us to reach it. Judge, then, of the feelings 
with which we hear the motives and doings of the Colonization Society tra- 
duced — and that, too, by men too ignorant to know what the society has al- 
ready accomplished; too weak to look through its plans and intentions; or 



SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 36' 9 

too dishonest to acknowledge either. But, without pretending to any pro- 
phetic sagacity, we can ce-rtainly predict to that Society the ultimate triumph 
of their hopes and labors ; and disappointment and defeat to those who oppose 
them.- Men may theorize and speculate upon their plans in America, but there 
can be no speculation here. The cheerful abodes of civilization and happiness 
which are scattered over this verdant mountain — the flourishing settlements 
which are spreading around it — the sound of Christian instruction, and scenes 
of Christian worship, which are heard and seen in this land of brooding pagan 
darkness — a thousand contented freemen united in founding a new Christian 
empire, happy themselves, and the instrument of happiness to others — every 
object, every individual, is an argument, is a demonstration, of the wisdom and 
goodness of the plan of colonization." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

History of Slavery in the North American Colonies. 

Early existence of Slavery in England. — Its forms. — The Feudal System. — Serfdom. — 
Its extinction. — African Slavery introduced into the North American Colonies, 1620. — 
Slavery in Virginia. — Massachusetts sanctions Negro and Indian slavery, 1641: Kid- 
napping declared unlawful, 1645. — Nogro and Indian slavery authorized in Connecti- 
cut. 1650.— Decree against perpetual slavery in Rhode Island, 1652. — Slavery in New 
Netherland among the Dutch, 1650 — Its mild form. — First slavery statute of Virginia, 
1G62. — In Maryland, 1663, against amalgamation. — Statute of Virginia, conversion 
and baptism not to confer freedom ; other provisions, 1667.- — Maryland encourages 
Slave-trade. — Slave code of Virginia, 1682, fugitives may be killed. — New anti-amal- 
gamation act of Maryland, 1681. — Settlement of South Carolina, 1660. — Absolute 
power conferred on masters. — Law of Slavery in New York, 1665. — Slave code of Vir- 
ginia, 1692: offenses of slaves, how punishable. — Revision of Virginia code, 1705 : 
slaves made real estate. — Pennsylvania protests against importation of Indian slaves 
from Carolina, 1705. — New act of 1712 to stop importation of negroes and slaves, pro- 
hibiting duty of £20. — Act repealed by Queen. — First slave law of Carolina, 1712. — 
Its remarkable provisions. — Census of 1715. — Maryland code of 1715 — baptism not to 
confer freedom.. — Georgia colonized, 1732 : rum and slavery prohibited. — Cruel delu- 
sion in New York ; plot falsely imputed to negroes to burn the city, 1741. — Slavery 
legalized in Georgia, 1750. — Review of the state of Slavery in all the colonies in 1750. — 
Period of the Revolution. — Controversy in Massachusetts on the subject of slavery, 
1766 to 1773. — Slaves gain their freedom in the courts of Massachusetts. — Court of 
King's Bench decision. — Mansfield declares the law of England, 1772. — Continental 
Congress declares against African Slave-trade, 1784. 



s 



LAYERY existed in England in early times, and slaves became an article 
of export. Prisoners of war were reduced to slavery ; criminals and debtors 
were added to the number, and unfortunate gamesters who had staked their 
liberty.* There were also hereditary slaves, who derived their condition from 
their parents, and who were sold and transferred from hand to hand. This 

* Henry's History of England. 



370 SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

form of slavery was gradually extinguished by the feudal system, which sub- 
stituted villeinage. To the serfs, who were the lowest grade of vassals, was 
committed the task of tilling the lands which the soldier gained or protected. 
There were grades even among the serfs, though probably there were not in- 
stances in which one held another as vassal and superior. The peculiarity of 
the class was, that they were astricted to the domain, and went with it when it 
changed hauds. Some, however, had rights and privileges which they might 
maintain in the court of the manor of their lord. Some held small estates, 
which, however, they could not dispose of. The lowest class were abject and 
unprivileged.* 

At the time of the first English emigration to America, but few faint traces 
were left of that system of villeinage once so universal throughout Europe, 
and still prevalent in Russia. In England it had disappeared, not by any for- 
mal legislative act, but as the joint result of private emancipations and by the 
discouragement long given by the English courts to claims so contrary to nat- 
ural right. It became an established opinion throughout western Europe that 
Christians could not be held as slaves — but the immunity did not extend to in- 
fidels or heathen. 

We have mentioned in a former chapter that slavery was first introduced into 
the North American colonies in 1620, by a Dutch vessel which landed a por- 
tion of her human merchandise at Jamestown, Virginia. The event wa3 al- 
most simultaneous with the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, Dec. 
22d, 1620. In buying and holding negro slaves, the "Virginians did not sup- 
pose themselves to be violating any law, human or divine. Whatever might 
be the case with the law of England, the law of Moses, in authorizing the en- 
slavement of "strangers," seemed to give to the purchase of negro slaves an 
express sanction. The number of negroes in the colony, limited as it was to 
a few cargoes, brought at intervals by Dutch traders, was long too small to 
make the matter appear of much moment, and more than forty years elapsed 
before the colonists thought it necessary to strengthen the system of slavery 
by any express enactments. 

*In the colony of Massachusetts a body of fundamental laws was established 
in 1641. One of the articles, based on the Mosaic code, provides that "there 
shall never be any bond slavery, villeinage, nor captivity among us, unless it 
be lawful captives, taken in just wars, and such strangers as willingly sell them- 
selves or are sold unto us, and these shall have all the liberties and Christian 
usages which the law of God established in Israel requires. This exempts 
none from servitude who shall be judged thereto by authority." This article 
sanctions the slave-trade and the holding of negroes and Indians in bondage. 
This seems to be the first positive enactment in the colonies on the subject of 
slavery. 

About this time a transaction occurred, (1645,) which some consider a pro- 
test on the part of Massachusetts against the African slave-trade. We state 

* Chambers' History of Laws. 



CONNECTICUT. 371 

the facts, and the reader can judge whether the inference is warranted or not : 
The ships which took cargoes of staves and fish to Madeira and the Cana- 
ries were accustomed to touch on the coast of Guinea "to trade for negroes," 
who were carried generally to Barbadoes or the other English islands in the 
West Indies, the demand for them at home being but small. In the case above 
referred to, instead of buying negroes in the regular course of traffic, which, 
under a fundamental law of Massachusetts already quoted, would have been 
perfectly legal, the crew of a Boston ship joined with some London vessels on 
the coast, and, on pretense of some quarrel with the natives, landed a "mur- 
derer " — the expressive name of a small piece of cannon — attacked a negro 
village on Sunday, killed many of the inhabitants, and made a few prisoners, 
two of whom fell to the share of the Boston ship. In the course of a lawsuit 
between the master, mate, and owners, all this story came out, and Saltonstall, 
who sat as one of the magistrates, thereupon presented a petition to the court, 
in which he charged the master and mate with a threefold offense, murder, man- 
stealing, and Sabbath-breaking ; the two first capital by the fundamental laws 
of Massachusetts, and all of them "capital by the law of God." The magis- 
trates doubted their authority to punish crimes committed on the coast of Af- 
rica ; but they ordered the negroes to be sent back, as having been procured 
not honestly by purchase, but unlawfully by kidnapping. 

A code of laws for Connecticut was compiled in 1G50 and adopted by the 
general court, as the legislative assembly was then called. On the subject of 
the Indians this code exhibits much anxiety. The militia law is full and pre- 
cise. Every town is to have a store of powder, and on Sundays and lecture 
days to be furnished with an armed guard, to prevent sudden surprises. Trade 
with the Indians in arms of any kind, or in dogs, is strictly forbidden. "White 
men leaving the colony and joining the Indians are liable to three years' im- 
prisonment. Every band of Indians resident near any plantation is to have 
some sachem or chief to be personally responsible for all depredations commit- 
ted by the band ; and, in conformity with a recommendation of the commis- 
sioners for the united colonies, if satisfaction for injuries is refused or neglect- 
ed, the Indians themselves may be seized ; " and, because it will be chargeable 
keeping them in prison," they may be delivered to the injured party, "either 
to serve, or to be shipped out and exchanged for negroes, as the case will 
justly bear." It thus appears that negro slavery was authorized in Connecti- 
cut as well as in Massachusetts. It was only the heretics of Providence who 
prohibited perpetual servitude by placing "black mankind" on the same level 
with regard to limitation of service as white servants. Unfortunately for the 
honor of Rhode Island, this regulation, enacted during a temporary disruption 
of the province, never extended to the other towns, and never obtained the 
force of a general law.* 

Slaves were introduced into New Netherland by the Dutch West India 
Company, about the year 1650. Most of them remained the property of the. 

*Hildreth's History of the United States. 



372 SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

company, and the more trusty and industrious, after a certain period of labor, 
were allowed little farms, paying a stipulated amount of produce. This 
emancipation did not extend to the children, a circumstance inexplicable and 
highly displeasing to the Dutch commonalty, who could not understand " how 
any one born of a free Christian mother could nevertheless be a slave." 

At a session of the Virginia legislature, in December, 1662, aa act was 
passed, being the first statute of Virginia which attempts to give a legislative 
basis to the system of hereditary slavery. It was enacted that children should 
be held bond or free " according to the condition of the mother." 

In 1663, the subject of slavery also attracted the notice -of the Maryland 
legislature. It was provided, by the first section of an act now passed, that 
"all negroes and other slaves within this province, and all negroes and othei 
slaves to be hereafter imported into this province, shall serve during life ; and 
all children born of any negro or other slave, shall be slaves, as their fathers 
were, for the term of their lives." The second section recites that "divers 
free-born English women, forgetful of their free condition, and to the disgrace 
of our nation, do intermarry with negro slaves ;" and for deterring from such 
" shameful matches," it enacts that, during their husbands' lives, white women 
so intermarrying shall be servants to the masters of their husbands, and that 
the issue of such marriages shall be slaves for life. 

In 1667, the assembly of Virginia enacted that negroes, though converted 
and baptized, should not thereby become free. At the same session, in re- 
markable deviation from the English law, it was also enacted, that killing 
slaves by extremity of correction should not be esteemed felony, "since it can 
not be presumed that prepense malice should induce any man to destroy his 
own estate." The prohibition against holding Indians as slaves was also re- 
laxed as to those brought in by water, a new law having enacted " that all ser- 
vants, not being Christians, imported by shipping, shall be slaves for life." 
About this period, and afterward, a considerable number of Indian slaves seem 
to have been imported into Virginia and New England from the West Indies 
and the Spanish main. 

As a necessary pendent to the slave code, the system now also began of 
subjecting freed slaves to civil disabilities. It had already been enacted that 
female servants employed in field labor should be rated and taxed as tithable. 
Negro women, though free, were now subjected to the same tax. Free ne- 
groes and Indians were also disqualified to purchase or hold white servants. 

Some replies of Berkeley to a series of questions submitted to him by the 
plantation committee of the privy council, give quite a distinct picture of the 
colony as it was in 1671. The population is estimated at 40,000, including 
2,000 "black slaves," and 6,000 "Christian servants," of whom about 1,500 
were imported yearly, principally English. Since the exclusion of Dutch ves- 
sels by the acts of navigation, the importation of negroes had been very lim- 
ited ; not above two or three ship loads had arrived in seven years. The Eng- 
lish trade to Africa, a monopoly in the hands of the Royal African Company, 
does not seem to have been prosecuted with much spirit ; and such supply of 



VIRGINIA. 373 

slaves as that company furnished was chiefly engrossed by Jamaica and other 
sugar colonies. 

In 1611 an act was passed by Maryland encouraging the importation of 
slaves. 

In 1682 the slave code of Virginia received some additions. Slaves were 
prohibited to carry arms, offensive or defensive, or to go off the plantations of 
their masters without a written pass, or to lift hand against a Christian, even 
in self-defense. Runaways who refused to be apprehended might be lawfully 
killed. The condition of slavery was imposed upon all servants, whether ne- 
groes, Moors, mulattoes, or Indians, brought into the colony by sea or land, 
whether converted to Christianity or not, provided they were not of Christian 
parentage or country, or Turks or Moors in amity with his majesty. An un- 
successful attempt was made in the council, whether dictated by humanity, by 
policy, or by a wish to promote the interests of the Royal African company, 
to reenact the old law prohibiting the enslavement of Indians. 

The attempt in Maryland to prevent the intermarriage of whites and blacks 
seems not to have proved very successful. The preamble to a new act on this 
subject recites that such matches were often brought about by the " instigation, 
procurement, or connivance of the master or mistress," who thus availed them- 
selves of the provisions of the former law to prolong the servitude of their 
female servants, and, at the same time, to raise up a new brood of slaves. To 
remedy this evil, all white female servants intermarrying with negro slaves 
were to be declared free at once, and their children also ; but the minister cel- 
ebrating the marriage, and the master or mistress promoting or conniving at 
it, were subjected to a fine of ten thousand pounds of tobacco. 

The settlement of South Carolina commenced about 1660. In the scheme 
of government for this colony, drafted by the afterwards celebrated metaphy- 
sician, John Locke, there was inserted a provision that " every freeman of 
South Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, 
of what opinion and religion whatsoever." 

In the code of laws known as the "Duke's laws," enacted for the govern- 
ment of New York in 1665, there is a provision that "no Christian shall be 
kept in bond slavery, villeinage, or captivity, except such who shall be judged 
thereunto by authority, or such as willingly have sold or shall sell themselves," 
in which case a record of such servitude shall be entered in the court of ses- 
sions, "held for that jurisdiction where the master shall inhabit." This pro- 
vision, borrowed, with some modifications, from the " Massachusetts Funda- 
mentals," did not exempt heathen negroes and Indians from slavery. 

In Virginia, in 1692, an "act for suppressing outlying slaves," after setting 
forth in a preamble that " many times negroes, mulattoes, and other slaves un- 
lawfully absent themselves from their masters' and mistresses' service, and lie 
hid, and lurk in obscure places, killing hogs, and committing other injuries to 
the inhabitants of this dominion," authorizes any two justices, one being of 
the quorum, to issue their warrant to the sheriff for the arrest of any such out- 
lying slaves. "Whereupon the sheriff is to raise the necessary force, and if the 



374 SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

slaves resist, run away, or refuse to surrender, they may be lawfully killed and 
destroyed "by guns, or any other way whatsoever," the master, in such cases, 
to receive from the public four thousand pounds of tobacco for the loss of his 
slave. 

Individual runaways seem at times to have made themselves formidable. 
TVe find, a few years later, an act setting forth that one Billy, a negro, slave to 
John Tillet, "has several years unlawfully absented himself from his master's 
service, lying out, and lurking in obscure places, supposed within the counties 
of James City, York, and Kent, devouring and destroying the stocks and 
crops, robbing the houses of, and committing and threatening other injuries to 
several of his majesty's good and liege people within this his colony and do- 
minion of Virginia, in contempt of the good laws thereof;" wherefore the said 
Billy is declared by the act guilty of a capital offense ; and " whosoever shall 
kill and destroy the said negro slave Billy, and apprehend and deliver him to 
justice," is to be rewarded with a thousand pounds of tobacco ; and all per- 
sons entertaining him, or trading and trucking with him, are declared guilty of 
felony ; his master, if he be killed, to receive as compensation from the public 
four thousand pounds of tobacco. 

The same statute above cited for suppressing outlying slaves, contains the 
first provision to be fouud in the Virginia laws on the subject of the intermix- 
ture of the races : " For the prevention of that abominable mixture and spu- 
rious issue which hereafter may increase in this dominion, as well by negroes, 
mulattoes, and Indians intermarrying with English or other white women, as 
by their unlawful accompanying with one another," any free white man or wo- 
man intermarrying with a negro, mulatto, or Indian, was to be forever ban- 
ished a punishment changed a few years after to six mouths' imprisonment 

and a fine of ten pounds. White women having mulatto children without 
marriage were to pay fifteen pounds sterling, or be sold for five years, that pe- 
riod, if they were servants, to take effect from the expiration of their former 
term, the child to be bound out as a servant till thirty years of age. 

Another clause of this act placed a serious restraint upon emancipation, by 
enacting that no negro or mulatto slave shall be set free, unless the emancipa- 
tor pay for his transportation out of the country within six months. Yet the 
manumission was not void. The idea of reducing again to slavery persons 
once made free was not yet arrived at. A violation of the act exposed to a 
penalty of ten pounds, to be appropriated toward the transportation out of the 
colony of the freed slave. 

The practice of special summary tribunals for the trial of slaves charged 
with crimes was now first introduced — another remarkable deviation from the 
English law. Any slave guilty of any offense punishable by the law of Eng- 
land with death or loss of member, was to be forthwith committed to the county 
jail, there to be kept " well laden with irons," and upon notice of the fact, the 
governor was to issue a commission to any persons of the county he might see 
fit, before whom the prisoner was to be arraigned, indicted, tried " without the 
solemnity of a jury," and on the oath of two witnesses, or one witness "with 



PENNSYLVANIA. 375 

pregnant circumstances " or confession, was to be found guilty and sentenced. 
The same act, by another section, forbade slaves. to keep horses, cattle, or hogs. 
It also provided that the owner should be liable for damage done " by any ne- 
gro or other slave living at a quarter where there is no Christian overseer." 

These laws indicate the start which the slave-trade had recently received, 
and the rapid increase in Virginia of slave population. 

A fifth revision of the Virginia code, in progress for the last five years by a 
committee of the council and burgesses, was completed in 1705. This code 
provided that " all servants imported or brought into this country by sea or 
land, who were not Christians in their native country, (except Turks and 
Moors in amity with her majesty, and others who can make due proof of their 
being free in England or any other Christian country before they were shipped 
in order to transportation thither,) shall be accounted, and be slaves, notwith- 
standing a conversion to Christianity afterward," or though they may have 
been in England ; " all children to be bond or free, according to the condition 
of their mothers." ' 

By a humane provision of this code, slaves are made real estate, and thus, 
as it were, attached to the soil. Nor can it be said that the sole object was to 
shield them from seizure for debt — they remained liable to that as before. 
They were also to descend like personal property, but provision was made by 
which the heir of the plantation could buy out the inherited interest of others 
in the slaves. Such continued to be the law so long as Virginia remained a 
British colony. 

The export of Indian slaves from Carolina had been a subject of complaint 
in Pennsylvania. The importation of Indian slaves into that province, except 
such as had been a year domiciled in the family of the importer, had been 
prohibited, in 1705, by an act especially referring to this Carolina traffic, "as 
having given our neighboring Indians of this province some umbrage for sus- 
picion and dissatisfaction." A new act, in 1712, " to prevent the importation 
of negroes and slaves," alleging plots and insurrections, and referring in terms 
to a recent plot in New York, imposed a prohibitory duty of £20 upon all 
negroes and Indians brought into the province by land or water, a drawback 
to be allowed in case of reexportation within twenty days. Indulgence was 
also to be granted for a longer time, not exceeding six months, " to all gentle- 
men and strangers traveling in this province who may have negro or Indian 
slaves to attend them, not exceeding two for one person. " Runaways from 
the neighboring provinces, if taken back within twenty days after identifica- 
tion, were to be free of duty; otherwise, or if nbt claimed within twelve 
months, they were to be sold, and the proceeds paid into the treasury, the 
owner being entitled only to what remained after paying the duty and ex- 
penses. Very large powers were given to the collector to break all doors, 
and seize and sell all slaves suspected to be concealed with intent to evade the 
duty. This act, however, within a few months after its passage, was disal- 
lowed and repealed by the queen. 

A Massachusetts act on the same subject, August, 1712, recites "that di- 



37G SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

vers conspiracies, outrages, barbarities, murders, burglaries, thefts, and other 
notorious crimes and enormities, at sundry times, and especially of late, have 
been perpetrated and committed by Indians and other slaves within several of 
her majesty's plantations in America, being of a surly and revengeful spirit, rude 
and insolent in their behavior, and very ungovernable, the over great number and 
increase whereof within this province is likely to prove of pernicious and fa- 
tal consequences to her majesty's subjects and interest here unless speedily rem- 
edied, and is a discouragement to the importation of white Christian servants, 
this province being differently circumstanced from the plantations in the islands, 
and having great numbers of the Indian natives of the country within and 
about them, and at this time under the sorrowful effects of their rebellion and 
hostilities ;" in consideration of all which, the further import of Indian slaves 
is totally prohibited, under pain of forfeiture to the crown. 

Cotemporaueously with these prohibitory acts of Pennsylvania and Massa- 
chusetts, the first extant slave law of South Carolina was enacted, June, 1712, 
the basis of the existing slave code of that state. "Whereas," says the pre- 
amble of this remarkable statute, "the plantations and estates of this province 
can not be well and sufficiently managed and brought into use without the la- 
bor and service of negro and other slaves ; and forasmuch as the said negroes 
and other slaves brought unto the people of this province for that purpose are 
of barbarous, wild, savage natures, and such as renders them wholly unquali- 
fied to be governed by the laws, customs, and practices of this province ; but 
that it is absolutely necessary that such other constitutions, laws, and orders 
should in this province be made and enacted for the good regulation and or- 
dering of them as may restrain the disorders, rapine, and inhumanity to which 
they are naturally prone and inclined, and may also tend to the safety and se- 
curity of the people of this province and their estates," it is therefore enacted 
that " all negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes, or Indians, which at any time hereto- 
fore have been sold, and now are held or taken to be, or hereafter shall be 
bought or sold for slaves, are hereby declared slaves ; and they and their chil- 
dren are hereby made and declared slaves to all intents and purposes, except- 
ing all such negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes, and Indians which heretofore have 
been or hereafter shall be, for some particular merit, made and declared free, 
either by the governor and council of this province, pursuant to any act of this 
province, or by their respective masters and owners, and also excepting all 
such as can prove that they ought not to be sold for slaves." 

Every person finding a slave abroad without a pass was to arrest him if pos- 
sible, and punish him on the spot by " moderate chastisement," under a penalty 
of twenty shillings for neglecting it. All negro houses were to be searched 
once a fortnight for arms and stolen goods. A slave guilty of petty larceny, 
for the first offense was to be " publicly and severely whipped ;" lor tne second 
offense was to have " one of his ears cut off," or be " branded in the forehead 
with a hot iron, that the mark thereof may remain ;" for the third offense was 
to "have his nose slit;" for the fourth offense was "to suffer death, or other 
punishment," at the discretion of the court. Any justice of the peace, on 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 377 

complaint against any slave for any crime, from " chicken stealing" up to "in- 
surrection" and "murder," was to issue his warrant for the slave's arrest, and, 
if the accusation seemed to be well founded, was to associate with himself an- 
other justice, they two to summon in three freeholders. The five together, or, 
by an additional act, the majority of them, satisfactory evidence of guilt ap- 
pearing, were to sentence the culprit to death, or such lesser punishment as the 
offense might seem to deserve. In case of lesser punishment, "no particular 
law directing such punishment" was necessary. In case of death, "the kind 
of death " was left to " the judgment and discretion " of the court, execution 
to be forthwith done on their sole wan-ant, the owner to be indemnified at the 
public charge. This summary form of procedure in the trial of slaves remains 
in force in South Carolina to this day, and a very similar form was also adopt- 
ed, and still prevails, in North Carolina. 

He who enticed a slave, "by specious pretense of promising freedom in an- 
other country," or otherwise, to leave the province, if successful, or if caught 
in the act, was to suffer death ; and the same extreme penalty was to be in- 
flicted on slaves "running away with intent to get out of the province." Any 
slave running away for twenty days at once, for the first offense was to be " se- 
verely and publicly whipped." In case the master neglected to inflict this pun- 
ishment, any justice might order it to be inflicted by the constable, at the mas- 
ter's expense. For the second offense the runaway was to be branded with 
the letter R on the right cheek. If the master omitted it, he was to forfeit 
£10, and any justice of the peace might order the branding done. For the 
third offense, the runaway, if absent thirty days, was to be whipped, and have 
one of his ears cut off; the master neglecting to do it to forfeit £20 ; any jus- 
tice, on complaint, to order it done as before. For the fourth offense, the 
runaway, "if a man, was to be gelt," to be paid for by the province if he died 
under the operation ; if a woman, she was to be severely whipped, branded on 
the left cheek with the letter R, and her left ear cut off. Any master neglect- 
ing for twenty days to inflict these atrocious cruelties, was to forfeit his prop- 
erty in the slave to any informer who might complain of him within six months. 
Any captain or commander of a company, " on notice of the haunt, residence, 
and hiding-place of any runaway slaves," was "to pursue, apprehend, and take 
them, either alive or dead," being in either case entitled to a premium of from 
two to four pounds for each slave. All persons wounded or disabled on such 
expeditions were to be compensated by the public. If any slave under pun- 
ishment " shall suffer in life or member, which," says the act, " seldom happens, 
no person whatsoever shall be liable to any penalty therefor." Any person 
killing his slave out of "wantonness," "bloody-mindedness," or "cruel inten- 
tion," was to forfeit " fifty pounds current money," or, if the slave belonged to an- 
other person, twenty-five pounds to the public, and the slave's value to the 
owner. No master was to allow his slaves to hire their own time, or, by a sup- 
plementary act two years after, " to plant for themselves any corn, peas, or 
rice, or to keep any stock of hogs, cattle, or horses." 

" Since charity and the Christian religion which we profess," says the con- 



378 SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

eluding section of this remarkable act, " obligates us to wish well to the souls 
of men, and that religion may not be made a pretense to alter any man's pro- 
perty and right, and that no person may neglect to baptize their negroes or 
slaves for fear that. thereby they should be manumitted and set free," " it shall 
be and is hereby declared lawful for any negro or Indian slave, or any other 
slave or slaves whatsoever, to receive and profess the Christian faith, and to 
be thereunto baptized ; but, notwithstanding such slave or slaves shall receive 
or profess the Christian religion, and be baptized, he or they shall not thereby 
be manumitted or set free."* 

In the quarter of a century from the English Revolution to the accession of 
the house of LTanover, the population of the English colonies had doubled. 
The following table, compiled for the use of the Board of Trade, though proba- 
bly somewhat short of the truth, will serve to exhibit its distribution in 1715 : 

Whites. Negroes. Total. 

New Hampshire 9,500 150 9,650 

Massachusetts 94,000 2,000 96,000 

Rhode Island 8,500 500 9,000' 

Connecticut 46,000 1,500 47,000 

New York 27,000 4,000 31,000 

NewJersey 21,000 1,500 22,500 

Pennsylvania and Delaware 43,300 2,500 45,800 

Maryland 40,700 9,500 50,200 

Virginia 72,000 23,000 95,000 

North Carolina 7,500 3,700 11,200 

South Carolina 6,250 10,500 16,750 

375,750 58,850 434,600 

By a revisal of the Maryland code, in 1715, "all negroes and other slaves 
already imported, or hereafter to be imported, and all children now born, or 
hereafter to be born of such negroes and slaves, shall be slaves during their 
natural lives" — an act construed as sanctioning in Maryland, though without 
any express provision to that effect, the Virginia rule of determining the con- 
dition of the child by that of the mother. It was expressly provided that bap- 
tism should not confer freedom. The provisions, in a long act on the subject 
of slaves and servants, bear a very strong resemblance to those of the Virginia 
code ; but there were some peculiarities. " Any person whatsoever " traveling 
out of the county of his residence without a pass under the seal of the county, 
might be apprehended and carried before a magistrate, and if not sufficiently 
known, or unable to give a good account of himself, might, at the magistrate's 
discretion, be committed to jail for six months, or until the procurement of "a 
certificate or other justification that he or she is not a servant," Notwith- 
standing this certificate, no discharge was to be had till the jailor was paid ten 
pounds of tobacco, or one day's service for each day of imprisonment, and the 
person making the arrest, as a reward for his trouble, two hundred pounds of 

•Ilildreth's History United States. 



GEORGIA SETTLED. 379 

tobacco, or twenty days' service ! What is much more remarkable than the 
passage of this statute, it remains unrepealed to this day. 

On the banks of the Savannah a new colony was planted. Its founder was 
James Edward Oglethorpe, an officer of the English army, and member of the 
House of Commons. Desirous to provide a place in America for such dis- 
charged prisoners and others of the suffering poor as might be willing to com- 
mence there a life of industry and sobriety, Oglethorpe, in conjunction with 
several others, petitioned the king for a grant of territory. The charter was 
issued June 9, 1732. The right of legislation for the province was vested in 
a board of trustees. Oglethorpe superintended in person the planting of the 
colony. The use of rum was prohibited ; and, the better to exclude this source 
of demoralization, all trade with the West Indies was forbidden. The trustees 
did not wish to see their province " void of white inhabitants, filled with blacks, 
the precarious property of a few, equally exposed to domestic treachery and 
foreign invasion." They prohibited negro slavery, not only as unjust and 
cruel — for so it was beginning to be esteemed by all the more intelligent and 
humane — but as fatal to the interests of the poor white settlers, for whose 
special benefit the colony had been projected. 

The city of New York became, in 1741, the scene of a cruel and bloody 
delusion, less notorious, but not less lamentable than the Salem witchcraft. 
That city then contained some seven or eight thousand inhabitants, of whom 
twelve or fifteen hundred were slaves. Nine fires in rapid succession, most of 
them, however, merely the burning of chimneys, produced a perfect insanity of 
terror. An indented servant woman purchased her liberty and secured a 
reward of £100 by pretending to give information of a plot formed by a 
low tavern-keeper, her master, and three negroes, to burn the city and mur- 
der the whites. This story was confirmed and amplified by an Irish prostitute 
convicted of a robbery, who, to recommend herself to mercy, reluctantly turned 
informer. Numerous arrests had been already made among the slaves and free 
blacks. Many others followed. The eight lawyers who then composed the 
bar of New York all assisted by turns on behalf of the prosecution. The 
prisoners, who had no counsel, were tried and convicted upon most insufficient 
evidence. The lawyers vied with each other in heaping all sorts of abuse on 
their heads, and chief-justice Delancey, in passing sentence, vied with the law- 
yers. Many confessed to save their lives, and then accused others. Thirteen 
unhappy convicts were burned at the stake, eighteen were hanged, and seventy- 
one transported. 

The slow progress of Georgia for twenty years, furnished new proofs, if 
such were needed, that the colonization of a wilderness, even with abundant 
facilities for it, is, for the most part, a tedious process ; and, when undertaken 
by a company or the public, very expensive. 

The results of their own idleness, inexperience, and incapacity, joined to the 
inevitable obstacles which every new settlement must encounter, were obstinately 
ascribed by the inhabitants of Georgia to that wise but ineffectual prohibition 
of slavery, one of the fundamental laws of the province. The convenience of 



380 SLAVERY IN TIIE COLONIES. 

the moment caused future consequences to be wholly overlooked. Every means 
was made use of to get rid of this prohibition. Even WhitQeld and Haber- 
Bham, forgetful of their former scruples, strenuously pleaded with the trustees 
in favor of slavery, under the old pretense of propagating in that way the 
Christian religion. "Many of the poor slaves in America," wrote Haber- 
sham, " have already been made freemen of the heavenly Jerusalem." The 
Salzburgers for a long time had scruples, but were reassured by advice from 
Germany: "If you take slaves in faith, and with intent of conducting them to 
Christ, the action will not be a sin, but may prove a benediction." Thus, as 
usual, the religious sentiment and its most disinterested votaries were made 
tools of by avarice for the enslavement of mankind. Habersham, however, 
could hardly be included in this class. Having thrown ojf the missionary, and 
established a mercantile house at Savannah, the first, and for a long time the 
only one there, he was very anxious for exportable produce. The counselors 
of Georgia — for the president was now so old as to be quite incapacitated for 
business — winked at violations of the law, and a considerable number of negroes 
had been already introduced from Carolina as hired servants, under indentures 
for life or a hundred years. The constant toast at Savannah was, " The one 
thing needful," by which was meant negroes. The leading men both at New 
Inverness and Ebenezer, who opposed the introduction of slavery, were tra- 
duced, threatened, and persecuted. 

Thus beset, the trustees yielded at last, in 1150, on condition that all masters, 
under " a mulct of £5," should be obliged to compel their negroes " to attend 
at some time on the Lord's day for instruction in the Christian religion " — the 
origin, doubtless, of the peculiarly religious character of the negroes in and 
about Savannah. 

By custom, or by statute, says Hildreth, whether legal or illegal, slavery ex- 
isted as a fact in every one of the Anglo-American colonies. The soil and 
climate of New England made slaves of little value there except as domestic 
servants. In 1701, the town of Boston had instructed its representatives in 
the General Court to propose "putting a period to negroes being slaves." 
About the same time, Sewall, a judge of the Superior Court, aftewards chief- 
justice of Massachusetts, published "The Selling of Joseph," a pamphlet 
tending to a similar end. But these scruples seem to have been short-lived. 
With the increase of wealth and luxury, the number of slaves increased also. 
There were in Massachusetts in 1754, as appears by an official census, twenty- 
four hundred and forty-eight negro slaves over sixteen years of age, about a 
thousand of them in Boston — a greater proportion to the free inhabitants 
than is to be found at present in the city of Baltimore. Connecticut exceeded 
Massachusetts in the ratio of its slave population, and Rhode Island exceeded 
Connecticut. Newport, grown to be the second commercial town in New 
England, had a proportion of slaves larger than Boston. The harsh slave- 
laws in force in the more southern colonies were unknown, however, in New 
England. Slaves were regarded as possessing the same legal rights as appren- 
tices ; and masters, for abuse of their authority, were liable to indictment. 



STATUTES. 381 

Manumissious, however, were not allowed except upon security that the freed 
slaves should not become a burden to the parish. 

In the provinces of New York and New Jersey, negro slaves were employed 
to a certain extent, not only as domestic servants, but as agricultural laborers. 
In the city of New York they constituted a sixth part of the population. The 
slave code of that province was hardly less harsh than that of Virginia. 

In Pennsylvania, the number of slaves was small, partly owing to the ample 
supply of indented white servants, but partly, also, to scruples of conscience 
on the part of the Quakers. In the early days of the province, in 1688, some 
German Quakers, shortly after their arrival, had expressed the opinion that 
slavery was not morally lawful. George Keith had borne a similar testimony: 
but he was disowned as schismatic, and presently abandoning the society, was 
denounced as a renegade. When Penn, in 1699, had proposed to provide by 
law for the marriage, religious instruction, and kind treatment of slaves, he 
met with no response from the Quaker legislature. In 1712, to a petition in 
favor of emancipating the negroes, the Assembly replied, " that it was neither 
just nor convenient to set them at liberty." They imposed, however, a neavy 
duty, in effect prohibitory, and intended to be so, on the importation of negroes. 
This act, as we have seen, was negatived by the crown. The policy, however, 
was persevered in. New acts, passed from time to time, restricted importa- 
tions by a duty first of five, but lately reduced to two pounds per head. The 
Quaker testimony against slavery was renewed by Sandiford and Lay, who 
brought with them to Pennsylvania a strong detestation of the system of 
servitude which they had seen in Barbadoes in all its rigors. The same views 
began presently to be perseveringly advocated by Woodman and Benezet, 
whose labors were not without effect upon the Quakers, some of whom set the 
example of emancipating their slaves. Franklin was also distinguished as an 
early and decided advocate for emancipation. The greater part of the slaves 
of Pennsylvania were to be found in Philadelphia. A fourth part of the in- 
habitants of that city were persons of African descent, including many, how- 
ever, who had obtained their freedom. 

In the tobacco growing colonies, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, 
slaves constituted a third part or more of the population. In South Carolina, 
where rice was the principal produce, they were still more numerous, decidedly 
outnumbering the free inhabitants. 

The slave code of South Carolina, as revised and reenacted in a statute still 
regarded as having the force of law, had dropped from its phraseology some- 
thing of the extreme harshness of the former act. It contained, also, some 
provisions for the benefit of the slaves, but, on the whole, was harder than be- 
fore. "Whereas," says the preamble to the act of 1140, "in his majesty's 
plantations in America, slavery has been introduced and allowed, and the peo- 
ple commonly called negroes, Indians, mulattoes, and mestizoes have been 
deemed absolute slaves, and the subjects of property in the hands of particular 
persons, the extent of whose power over such slaves ought to be settled and 
limited by positive laws, so that the slaves may be kept in due subjection and 



382 SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

obedience, and the owners and other persons having the care and government 
of slaves may be restrained from exercising too great rigor and cruelty over 
them, and that the public peace and order of this province may bo preserved," 
it is therefore enacted that " all negroes, Indians, mulattoes, and mestizoes 
(free Indians in amity with this government, and negroes, mulattoes,' and mes- 
tizoes who are now free, excepted,) who now are or shall hereafter be in 
this province, and all their issue and offspring born and to be born, shall be, 
and they are hereby declared to be and remain forever hereafter absolute 
slaves, and shall follow the condition of the mother, and shall be claimed, held, 
taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal." This provision, 
which deprives the master of the power of manumission, and subjects to 
slavery the descendant of every slave woman, no matter how many degrees re- 
moved, nor who may have been the male ancestor, nor what the color, was 
subsequently adopted in the same terms by the Georgia Legislature as the law 
of that province. A suit for freedom might be brought by any white man who 
chose to volunteer for that purpose on behalf of any person claimed as a slave. 
But in all such suits, " the burden of proofs shall lay upon the plaintiff, and it shall 
always be presumed that every negro, Indian, mulatto, and mestizo is a slave, 
unless the contrary can be made to appear, the Indians in amity with this gov- 
ernment excepted, in which case the burden of proof shall lie on the defend- 
ant." Masters were forbidden to allow their slaves to hire their own time ; to 
let or hire any plantation ; to possess any vessel or boat ; to keep or raise any 
horses, cattle, or hogs ; to engage in any sort of trade on their own account ; 
to be taught to write ; or to have or wear any apparel (except livery servants) 
" finer than negro cloth, duffils, kerseys, osnaburgs, blue linen, check linen, or 
coarse garlix or calicoes, checked cotton or Scotch plaid ; " and any constable 
seeing any negro better clad, might seize the clothes and appropriate them to 
his own use. It was forbidden to work slaves on Sundays, under a penalty of 
five pounds ; for working them more than fifteen hours daily in summer, and 
fourteen in winter, a like penalty was imposed. Upon complaint to any jus- 
tice that any master does not provide his slaves with sufficient " clothing, cov- 
ering, or food," the justice might make such order in the premises as he saw 
fit, and fine the master not exceeding £20. "And whereas cruelty is not only 
highly unbecoming those who profess themselves Christians, but odious in the 
eyes of all men who have any sense of virtue and humanity," the fine for the 
willful murder of a slave was increased to £700 currency, with incapacity to 
hold any office, civil or military, and in case of inability to pay the fine, seven 
years' labor in a frontier garrison or the Charleston work-house. For killing 
a slave in the heat of passion, for maiming, or inflicting any other cruel pun- 
ishment "other than by whipping or beating with a horsewhip, cowskin, switch, 
or small stick, or by putting in irons or imprisonment," a fiue of £350 was im- 
posed ; and in case of slaves found dead, maimed, or otherwise cruelly pun- 
ished, the masters were to be held guilty of the act unless they make the con- 
trary appear. 
No statute of North Carolina seems ever to have declared who were or 



STATUTES. 383 

might be held as slaves in that province, the whole system being left to rest on 
usage or the supposed law of England. But police laws for the regulation 
of slaves were enacted similar to those of Virginia, and the Virginia prohibi- 
tion was also adopted of manumissions, except for meritorious services, to be 
adjudged by the governor and council. 

Among the ten acts of the Virginia revision rejected by the king in 1751, 
was one "concerning servants and slaves," a consolidation and reenaetment 
• of all the old statutes on that subject, the substance of which has been given 
in former pages. It appears from the address of the Assembly to the king on 
the subject of this veto, to have been a standing instruction to the governor 
not to consent to the reenaetment of any law once rejected by the king, with- 
out express leave first obtained upon representation of the reasons and neces- 
sity for it. Such a representation was accordingly made by the Assembly as 
to eight of the ten rejected laws. The act concerning servants and slaves was 
not of this number, yet we find it reenacted within a year after in the very 
same words. Why the royal assent had been refused does not appear. It 
could hardly have been from any scruples on the subject of slavery ; for among 
the acts expressly approved was one " for the better government of Indians, 
negroes, and mulattoes," which provided that the death of a slave under ex- 
tremity of correction should not be esteemed murder, unless it were proved by 
the oath of at least one "lawful and credible witness" that the slave was will- 
fully and maliciously killed ; persons indicted for the rnurder of a slave, and 
found guilty of manslaughter only, to "incur no forfeiture or punishment." 
Slaves set free without leave from the governor and council might be sold at 
auction by the church-wardens of any parish in which such freed slave might 
reside for the space of a month. The same statute also continued 4 .ag au- 
thority formerly given to the county courts to " dismember " disorderly slaves 
" notoriously guilty of going abroad in the night, or running away and laying 
out," and not to be reclaimed by the common methods — an authority very 
much abused, if we may judge by a subsequent statute, 1769, which declares 
this dismembering " to be often disproportioned to the offense, and contrary to 
the principles of humanity," and prohibits the castration of slaves except on 
conviction of an attempt to ravish a white woman. 

The negroes imported from the African coast, whose descendants now con- 
stitute a sixth part of the population of the United States, were not by any 
means of one nation, language, or race. A single slave-ship often brought to 
America a great variety of languages and customs, a collection of unfortunate 
strangers to each other, or perhaps of hereditary enemies, with no common 
bond except that of servitude. Hence a want of union and sympathy among 
the slaves, which, joined to their extreme ignorance and simplicity, prevented 
cooperation, and rendered it easy to suppress such outbreaks as occasionally 
occurred. Even in complexion and physiognomy, the most obvious character- 
istic of the negroes, there were great differences. Some were of a jet black, 
often with features approaching the European standard ; others of a mahogany 
or reddish black, with features less shapely and regular ; and others yet of a 
25 



384 SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 

tawny yellow, with flat noses and projecting jaws — an ugliness often, but er- 
roneously, esteemed characteristic of all the African races, but which seems to 
have been principally confined to the low and swampy grounds about the delta 
of the Niger. The negroes marked by these shapeless features were noted 
also for indomitable capacity of eudurance, and were esteemed, therefore, the 
best slaves. Intermixture among themselves, and a large infusion of Euro- 
pean blood, have gradually obliterated these differences, or made them less 
noticeable. 

Contrary to what happened in the West Indies, in the Anglo-North Ameri- 
can provinces the natural increase of the slave population was rapid. The 
women were seldom put to the severer labors of the field. The loug winter 
secured to both sexes a season of comparative rest. Such was the abundance 
of provisions, that it was cheaper to breed than to buy slaves. Those born in 
America, and reared up on the plantations, evidently surpassed the imported 
Africans both physically and intellectually. Of the imported slaves a few were 
Mohammedans, among whom were occasionally found persons of some educa- 
tion, who knew Arabic, and could read the Koran. But the great mass were 
pagans, in a condition of gross barbarism. They brought with them from 
Africa many superstitions, but these, for the most part, as well as the negro 
languages, very soon died out. 

Zealous for religion as the colonists were, very little effort was made to con- 
vert the negroes, owing partly, at least, to a prevalent opinion that neither 
Christian brotherhood nor the law of England would justify the holding Chris- 
tians as slaves. Nor could repeated colonial enactments to the contrary en- 
tirely root out this idea, for it was not supposed that a colonial statute could 
set aside the law of England. What, precisely, the English law might be on 
the subject of slavery, still remained a matter of doubt. Lord Holt had ex- 
pressed the opinion, in 1697, that slavery was a condition unknown to English 
law, and that every person setting foot in England thereby became free. 
American planters, on their visits to England, accompanied by their slaves, 
seem to have been annoyed by claims of freedom set up on this ground, and 
that, also, of baptism. To relieve their embarrassments, the merchants con- 
cerned in the American trade had obtained a written opinion from Yorke and 
Talbot, in 1729, the attorney and solicitor geueral of that day. According to 
this opinion, which passed for more than forty years as good law, not only was 
baptism no bar to slavery, but negro slaves might be held in England just as 
well as in the colonies. The two lawyers by whom this opinion was given, 
rose afterward, one of them to be chief justice of England, and both to be 
chancelors. Yorke, silting in the latter capacity with the title of Lord Hard- 
wicke, had recognized the doctrine of that opinion as sound law in 1749. He 
objects to Lord Holt's doctrine of freedom, secured by setting foot on English 
soil, that no reason could be found " why slaves should not be equally free 
when they set foot in Jamaica or any other English plantation." "All our 
colonies are subject to the laws of England, although as to some purposes 
they have laws of their own." His argument is, that if slavery be contrary to 



REVIEW. 385 

English law, no local enactments in the colonies could give it any validity. 
To avoid overturning slavery in the colonies, it was absolutely necessary to 
uphold it in England. At a subsequent period, as stated in a former chapter, 
the law of England was definitively settled in favor of liberty, the extra-judi- 
cial opinion of Talbot and Hardwicke being set aside by a solemn decision of 
the King's Bench. 

The remaining exclusive privileges of the Royal African Company having 
expired, the English government undertook to maintain, at their own expense 
the forts and factories on the African coast ; and thus the slave-trade was 
thrown open to free competition. The recent introduction of the cultivation 
of coffee into the West Iudies, and the increasing consumption in Europe of 
colonial produce, gave fresh impulse to this detestable traffic, and it now began 
to be carried on to an extent which soon roused against it 'the inUiguant hu- 
manity of an enlightened age. The West Indies were the chief market ; but 
the imports to Virginia and the Carolinas were largely increased. New Eng- 
land rum, manufactured at Newport, was profitably exchanged on the coast of 
Africa for negroes, to be sold in the southern colonies ; aud vessels sailed on 
the same business from Boston and New York. The trade, however, was prin- 
cipally carried on by the English merchants of Bristol and Liverpool. Except 
in Pennsylvania, the colonial duties levied on the import of slaves were intend- 
ed chiefly for revenue. They were classed in the instructions to the royal 
governors with duties on British goods, as impediments to British commerce 
not to be favored. On this ground several of these acts received the royal 
veto. Yet Virginia was allowed to impose such duties as she pleased, on the 
sole condition of making them payable by the buyer. 

The position of the Africans in the colonies was disastrous. Not only were 
they servants for life, which pos3ibly the law of England might have counte- 
nanced, but by colonial statute and usage this servitude descended to their 
children also. The few sot free by the good will or the scruples of their mas- 
ters seemed a standing reproach to slavery, and an evil example in the eyes of 
the rest. They became the objects of a suspicious legislation, which deprived 
them of most of the rights of freemen, and reduced them to a social position 
eery similar, in many respects, to that which inveterate prejudice in many parts 
of Europe has fixed upon the Jews. Hence, too, legislative restraints on the 
bounty or justice of the master in manumitting his slave. 

Intermarriage with the inferior race, whether bond or free, was prohibited 
Dy religion as a sin, by public opinion as a shame, and by law as a crime. But 
neither law, gospel, nor public opinion could prevent that amalgamation which, 
according to all experience, inevitably and extensively takes place whenever 
two races come into that close juxtaposition which domestic slavery of neces- 
sity implies. Falsehood and hypocrisy took the place of restraint and self- 
denial. The Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonists, less filled 
with pride of race, and less austere and pretending in their religious morality, 
esteemed that white mau mean and cruel who did not, so far as his ability per- 
mitted, secure for his colored children emancipation and some pecuniary pro- 



38G SLAVERY m THE COLONIES. 

vision. Laws were even found necessary, in some of those colonies, to limit 
what was esteemed a superfluity of parental tenderness. In the Anglo-Amer- 
ican colonies colored children were hardly less numerous But conventional 
decorum, more potent than law, forbade any recognition by the father. They 
followed the condition of the mother. They were born, and they remained 
slaves. European blood was thus constantly transferred into servile veins ; 
and hence, among the slaves sold and bought to-day in our American markets, 
may be found the descendants of men distinguished in colonial and national 
annals. — Hildreth's History United States. 

In Massachusetts a controversy arose as to the justice and legality of negro 
slavery, which was conducted by able writers. It began about 1766 and was 
continued until 1773, when the subject was very warmly agitated. In 1767 
and afterwa'rds, attempts were made in the legislature to restrict the further 
importation of slaves. It was even questioned whether, under the laws of 
Massachusetts, any person could be held as a slave. This point was carried 
before the superior court in a suit by a negro to recover wages from his alleged 
master. The negroes collected money among themselves to carry on the suit, 
and it terminated favorably. Other suits were instituted between that time 
and the revolution, and the juries invariably gave their verdict in favor of free- 
dom. The pleas on the part of the masters were, that the negroes were pur- 
chased in open market, and bills of sale were produced in evidence ; that the 
laws of the province recognized slavery as existing in it, by declaring that no 
person should manumit his slave without giving bond for his maintenance, &c. 
On the part of the blacks, it was pleaded that the royal charter expressly de- 
clared all persons born or residing in the province to be as free as the king's 
subjects in Great Britain ; that, by the law of England, no subject could be 
deprived of his liberty but by the judgment of his peers ; that the laws of the 
province respecting an evil, and attempting to mitigate or regulate it, did not 
authorize it ; and on some occasions the plea was, that though the slavery of 
the parents were admitted, yet no disability of that kind could descend to the 
children. * 

The view taken by the Massachusetts juries, was sanctioned about the same 
time in England by a solemn decision of the court of king's bench, in the cel- 
ebrated case of James Somersett, mentioned in a former chapter. Being 
brought before Lord Mansfield on a writ of habeas corpus, his case was re- 
ferred to the full court. After the argument, Lord Mansfield said : "In five 
or six cases of this nature, I have known it accommodated by agreement be- 
tween the parties. On its first coming before me I strongly recommended it 
here. But if the parties will have it decided, we must give our opiniou. 
Compassion will not on the one hand, nor inconvenience on the other, be to 
decide, but the law." " The question now is, whether any dominion, authority, 
or coercion can be exercised in this country on a slave according to the Amer- 
ican laws. The difficulty of adopting the relation, without adopting it in all 

* Belknap in Massachusetts Historical Collections. 



Mansfield's decision. 387 

its consequences, is indeed extreme ; yet many of those consequences are 
absolutely contrary to the municipal law of England. On the other 
hand should we think the coercive power cannot be exercised, it is 
now about fifty years since the opinion" to the contrary "by two of the 
greatest men of their own or any time." This referred to the opinion of Yorke 
and Talbot, subsequently recognized as law by Lord Hardwicke, sitting as 
chancelor. "The setting fourteen or fifteen thousand men" — the estimated 
number of negro slaves in England — "at once loose by a solemn opinion, is 
very disagreeable in the effects it threatens." But "if the parties will have 
judgment, fiat justitia ruat caelum, let justice be done, whatever be the con- 
sequence. Fifty pounds may not be a high price ; then a loss follows to the 
proprietors of above £100,000 sterling. How would the law stand in respect 
to their settlement — their wages ? How many actions for any slight coercion 
by the master 1 We can not in any of these points direct the law, the law 
must direct us." 

Afterward, in giving judgment, June 22, 1712, Lord Mansfield said: 
" The only question before us is whether the cause on the return is sufficient. 
If it is, the negro must be remanded ; if it is not, he must be discharged. 
The return states that the slave departed, and refused to serve, whereupon he 
was kept to be sold abroad. So high an act of dominion must be recognized 
by the law of the country where it is used. The power of a master 
over his slave has been exceedingly different in different countries. The 
state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on 
any reasons moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its 
force long after the reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence it was creat- 
ed is erased from memory. It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to sup- 
port it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from 
the decision, I can not say this case is allowed or approved by the law of Eng- 
land, and therefore the black must be discharged." 

The continental congress which assembled in Philadelphia in IT 84, made a 
declaration of colonial rights. As means of enforcing this claim of rights, 
fourteen articles were agreed to to form the basis of an "American Associa- 
tion," and in one of these articles the slave-trade was especially denounced ; 
and entire abstinence from it, and from any trade with those concerned in it, 
formed a part of the association. 



388 SLAVERY UNDER THE CONFEDERATION. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Slavery under the Confederation. — Emancipation bt the States. 

Number of Slaves in the United States at the period of the declaration of Independ- 
ence.' — Proportion in each of the thirteen States. — Declaration against slavery in the 
State Constitution of Delaware. — Constitutions of Massachusetts and New Hampshire 
held to prohibit slavery, by Supreme Courts, 1783. — Act of Pennsylvania Assembly, 
1780, forbids introduction of slaves, and gives freedom to all persons thereafter born 
in that State. — A similar law enacted in Connecticut and Rhode Island, 1784. — Vir- 
ginia Assembly prohibits further introduction of slaves, 177S, and emancipation en- 
couraged, 1782. — Maryland enacts similar laws, 17S3. — Opinions of Washington, Jef- 
ferson, and Patrick Henry. — New York and New Jersey prohibit further introduction 
of slaves. — North Carolina declares further introduction of slaves highly impolitic, 
1786, — Example of other States not followed by Georgia and South Carolina. — ActioD 
of Congress on the subject of the Territories, 1784. — Jefferson's provision excluding 
slavery, struck out of ordinance. — Proceedings of 1787. — Ordinance for the govern- 
ment of the territory north-west of the Ohio, including Jefferson's provision prohibit- 
ing slavery, passed by unanimous vote. 



T 



HE number of slaves in the United States at the time of the Declaration 
of Independence has been estimated at half a million. The following table 
exhibits their numbers in each state. It appears that slavery existed in all of 
the thirteen states at the commencement of the revolutionary war ; but shortly 
after its close, as we shall see hereafter, slavery and the slave-trade were abol- 
ished in some of the states : 

NUMBER OP SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1776. 

Massachusetts 3,500 Delaware 9,000 

Rhode Island 4,373 Maryland 80,000 

Connecticut 5,000 Virginia 165,000 

New Hampshire 629 North Carolina 75,000 

New York 15,000 South Carolina 110,000 

New Jersey 7,600 Georgia 16,000 

Pennsylvania 10,000 

No distinct provision on the subject of slavery appears in any of the state 
constitutions of the period, except in that of Delaware, which provided " that 
no person hereafter imported from Africa ought to be held in slavery under 
any pretense whatever;" and that "no negro, Indian, or mulatto slave ought 
to be brought into this state for sale from any part of the world. " 

Legal proceedings commenced in Massachusetts prior to the revolution to 
test the legality of slavery there, and though resulting in favor of the claim- 
ants of freedom, failed, however, to produce a general emancipation. Some 
attempts made at the commencement of the revolution to introduce the sub- 
ject into the provincial Congress of Massachusetts were defeated ; and that 
body seemed to recognize the legality of slavery by a resolution that no negro 
slave should be enlisted in the army. In 1777, a prize ship from Jamaica, with 
several slaves on board, was brought into Salem by a privateer. The slaves 
were advertised for sale ; but the General Court interfered, and they were set 
at liberty. The declaration, presently inserted into the Massachusetts BUI of 



EMANCIPATION. 389 

Rights, that "all men are bom free and equal," was held by the supreme 
court of that state to prohibit slavery. So it was decided in 1783, upon an 
indictment for assault and battery against a master for beating his alleged 
slave. A similar clause in the second constitution of New Hampshire was 
held to guarantee personal freedom to all born in that state after its adoption. 

An act of the Pennsylvania Assembly of 1180, passed principally through 
the efforts of George Bryan, and a little prior in date to the ratification of the 
constitution of Massachusetts, forbade the further introduction of slaves, 
and gave freedom to all persons thereafter bom in that state. Moderate as 
it was, this act did not pass without a good deal of opposition. Several mem- 
bers of Assembly entered a protest against it, acknowledging, indeed, "the 
humanity aud justice of manumitting slaves in time of peace," but denouncing 
the present act as "imprudent" and "premature," and likely to have, by way 
of example, a most dangerous effect on the southern states, whither the seat of 
war seemed about to be transferred. In 17S4, laws similar to that of Penn- 
sylvania were enacted in Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

The Virginia Assembly, on the motion of Jefferson, prohibited, in 1778, 
the further introduction of slaves. In 1782, the old colonial statute was re- 
pealed, which forbade emancipations except for meritorious services, to be ad- 
judged by the governor and council. This repeal remained in force for ten 
years, during which period private emancipations were very numerous. But 
for the subsequent reenactment of the old restrictions, the free colored popu- 
lation of Virginia might now have exceeded the slaves. Maryland followed 
the footsteps of Virginia both in prohibiting the further introduction of slaves 
and in removing the restraints on emancipation. 

That feeling which led in New England and Pennsylvania to the legal abo- 
lition of slavery, was strongly responded to by the most illustrious and enlight- 
ened citizens of Maryland aud Virginia. Jefferson denounced the whole sys- 
tem of slavery, in the most emphatic terms, as fatal to manners. and industry, 
and endangering the very principles on which the liberties of the state were 
founded — " a perpetual exercise of the most unremitting despotism on the one 
part, and degrading submission on the other. " Similar sentiments were en- 
tertained and expressed by Patrick Henry. "Would any one believe," he 
wrote, " that I am a master of slaves of my own purchase ? I am drawn along 
by the general inconvenience of living here without them. I will not — I can 
not justify it 1 I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered 
to abolish this lamentable evil. Every thing we can do is to improve it, if it 
happens in our day ; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with 
our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence of slavery." "Wash- 
ington avowed to all his correspondents " that it was among his first wishes to 
see some plan adopted by which slavery may be abolished by law." But these 
generous sentiments were confined to a few liberal and enlightened men. The 
uneducated and unreflecting mass did not sympathize with them. Jefferson, 
in his old age, in a letter on this subject, says : " From those of a former gen- 
eration, who were in the fullness of age when I came into public life, I soon 



390 SLAVERY UNDER THE CONFEDERATION. 

saw that nothing was to be hoped. Nursed and educated in the daily habit of 
seeing the degraded condition, both bodily and mental, of those unfortunate 
beings, not reflecting that that degradation was very much the work of them- 
selves and their fathers, few had yet doubted that they were as legitimate sub- 
jects of property as their horses and cattle. The quiet and monotonous course 
of colonial life had been disturbed by no alarm and little reflection on the value 
of liberty, and when; jalarm was taken at an enterprise on their own, it was not 
easy to carry them the whole length of the principles which they invoked for 
themselves. In the first or second session of the legislature after I became a 
member, I drew to this subject the attention of Colonel Bland, one of the old- 
est, ablest, and most respectable members, and he undertook to move for cer- 
tain moderate extension of the protection of the laws to these people. I sec- 
onded his motion, and, as a younger member, was more spared in the debate ; 
but he was denounced as an enemy to his country, and was treated with the 
greatest indecorum." With the advance of the revolution, the sentiments of 
Jefferson made a certain progress, resulting in the prohibition of the slave- 
trade and the freedom of emancipations, already mentioned ; yet, though the 
constitution of Virginia declared life, liberty, and property to be unalienable 
rights, no legal restraint was placed upon the exorbitant and despotic power 
hitherto exercised over those held as slaves ; and Washington, in 1785, com- 
plained in a letter to La Fayette that some " petitions for the abolition of slav- 
ery, presented to the Virginia Legislature, could scarcely obtain a hearing." 

New York and New Jersey followed the example of Virginia and Mary- 
land in prohibiting the further introduction of slaves — a prohibition extend- 
ed to the domestic as well as to the African slave trade. Neither of these states, 
however, declared a general emancipation until many years thereafter. Slav- 
ery did not wholly cease in New York until about 1830, and in New Jersey a 
few years later. 

The same generous sentiments had penetrated also into North Carolina, es- 
pecially among the Quaker population ; but the legislators of that state did 
not fully sympathize with them. Complaining of the frequency and danger of 
freedom given to slaves, the Assembly of 1777 reenacted the old restrictive law 
on the subject, with this modification, that, instead of the governor and coun- 
cil, the consent of the county court was made necessary to emancipations ; and 
all negroes emancipated without that consent were ordered to be resold into 
slavery. Yet in 1786, by an act which declared the introduction of slaves in- 
to the state to be " of evil consequences and highly impolitic," a duty of £5 
per head was imposed upon all future importations. South Carolina and 
Georgia omitted to follow the example of the other states in enacting laws to 
prevent or restrict the further introduction of slaves. So long, however, as 
the war lasted, an effectual stop, so far as importations from Africa were con- 
cerned, was put to that detestable traffic. Congress, indeed, never abrogated 
that part of the American Association by which the African slave-trade was 
totally renounced. 

The disposition of the territories belonging to the thirteen recent colonies, 



THE TERRITORIES. 391 

now confederated as independent states, became a subject of solicitude in the 
states and in Congress. By the terms of their charters, some of the colonies 
had an indefinite extension westwardly, and were only limited by the power 
of the grantor. Many of these charters conflicted with each other — the same 
territory being included within the limits of two or more totally distinct colo- 
nies. As the expenses of the revolutionary struggle began to bear heavily on 
the resources of the states, it was keenly felt by some that their share in the 
advantages of the expected triumph would be less than that of others'. Mass- 
achusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, 
laid claim to spacious dominions outside of their proper boundaries ; while 
New Hampshire, (save in Vermont,) Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, 
Delaware, and South Carolina, possessed no such boasted resources to meet 
the war-debts constantly augmenting. They urged, therefore, with obvious 
justice, that these unequal advantages ought to be surrendered, and all the 
lands within the territorial limits of the Union, but outside of the proper and 
natural boundaries of the several states, respectively, should be ceded to, and 
held by, Congress, in trust for the common benefit of all the states, and their 
proceeds employed in satisfaction of the debts and liabilities of the Confedera- 
tion. This reasonable requisition was ultimately, but with some reservations, 
responded to. Virginia reserved a sufficiency beyond the Ohio to furnish the 
bounties promised to her revolutionary officers and soldiers. Connecticut, a 
western reserve, since largely settled from the parent state. Massachusetts re- 
served five millions of acres, located in Western New York, which she claimed 
to be entitled by her charter to own. In either of these cases, the fee only was 
reserved, the sovereignty being surrendered. 

The cessions were severally made during, or directly after the close of the 
revolutionary war. And one of the most obvious duties devolved on the 
Continental Congress, which held its sessions in Philadelphia directly after the 
close of that exhausting struggle, was the framing of an act or ordinance for 
the government of the vast domain thus committed to its care and disposal. 

The responsible duty of framing this ordinance was devolved by Congress 
on a select committee, consisting of Mr. Jefferson of Va., (chairman,) Chase 
of Md., and Howell of R. I. ; who in due time reported a plan for the gov- 
ernment of the western territory, contemplating the whole region included 
within our boundaries west of the old thirteen states, and as far south as our 
31st degree of north latitude ; territory as yet partially ceded to the Confed- 
eration, but which was expected to be so, and embraciug several of our pres- 
ent slave states. This plan contemplated the ultimate division of this terri- 
tory into seventeen states, eight of them situated below the parallel of the 
Falls of the Ohio, (now Louisville,) and nine above it. Among other rules re- 
ported from this committee by Mr. Jefferson, for the government of this vast 
region, was the following : 

" That after the year 1800, of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude in any of the said states, otherwise than in punishment 
of crimes whereof the party shall have been convicted to be personally guilty." 



392 THE SLAVE TRADE. 

Congress having the aforesaid report under consideration, April 19, 1784, 
Mr. Spaight, of N. C, moved the striking out of the above paragraph. Mr. 
Read, of S. C, seconded tbe motion. The ayes and nays, being required by 
Mr. Howell, were ordered, and put in this form — " Shall the words moved to 
be stricken out stand ?" 

The question was lost, and the words were struck out, although six states 
voted aye to only three nay ; and though of the members present, fifteen voted 
for, to six against, Mr. Jefferson's proposition. But the articles of confedera- 
tion required a vote of nine states to carry a proposition ; and, failing to re- 
ceive so many, this comprehensive exclusion of slavery from the federal terri- 
tories was defeated. The ordinance, thus depleted, after undergoing some fur- 
ther amendments, was finally approved, April 23d— all the delegates, but those 
from South Carolina, voting in the affirmative. 

In 1187, the last Continental Congress, sitting in New York simultaneously 
with the Convention at Philadelphia which framed our Federal Constitution, 
took up the subject of the government of the western territory, raising a com- 
mittee thereon, of which Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was chairman. That 
committee reported (July 11th) " An Ordinance for the government of the Ter- 
ritory of the United States, Northwest of the Ohio " — the larger area contem- 
plated by Mr. Jefferson's bill not having been ceded by the southern states 
claiming dominion over it. This bill embodied many of the provisions origi- 
nally drafted and reported by Mr. Jefferson, but with some modifications, and 
concludes with six unalterable articles of perpetual compact, the last of them 
as follows : 

" There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said terri- 
tory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall be duly 
convicted." 

To this was added, prior to its passage, the stipulation for the delivery of 
fugitives from labor or service, soon after embodied in the Federal Constitu- 
tion ; and in this shape, the entire ordinance was adopted (July 13th) by a 
unanimous vote, Georgia and the Carolinas concurring. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Formation of the Constitution — Slavery Compromises. 

Conv. .ion assembles at Philadelphia, 1787. — Proceedings in reference to the slave hasis 
of representation, the second compromise of the Constitution. — Debate. — Remarks of 
Patterson, Wilson, King, Gouverneur Morris, and Sherman. — Debate on the Importa- 
tion of slaves, by Rutledge, Ellsworth, Sherman, C. Pinckney. — Denunciation of 
slavery by Mason of Virginia. — The third Compromise, the continuance of the African 
slave-trade for twenty years, and the unrestricted power of Congress to enact Naviga- 
tion laws. 

X HE convention of delegates from the several states to revise the Articles 
of Confederation, was legally assembled at Philadelphia, in 1787, and appoint- 




CAPITOL— RALEIGH. 



. 



SLAVERY COMPROMISES. 393 

ed George Washington its President. The result of its labors was the forma- 
tion of the present Constitution of the United States, though some amend- 
ments were afterwards made. 

The fourteenth of May was the day appointed for the meeting of the con- 
vention ; but seven states were not present till eleven days later, when the 
convention assembled in the chamber of the State House in Philadelphia, in 
which the Continental Congress, while resident in that city, had been accus- 
tomed to hold its sessions, and in which the independence of the United States 
had been declared. Washington was a member, and so was Franklin, for the 
two years since his return from Europe president of Pennsylvania. As Frank- 
lin could be the only competitor for the place of president of the convention, 
the nomination of Washington came gracefully from Robert Morris, on behalf 
of the Pennsylvania delegation. A secretary was chosen, and a committee 
appointed to report rules of proceeding. 

Upon the report of this committee rules were adopted, copied chiefly from 
those of Congress. As in Congress, each state was to have one vote ; seven 
states were to constitute a quorum ; all committees were to be appointed by 
ballot ; the doors were to be closed, and an injunction of secrecy, never re- 
moved, was placed on the debates. The members were not even allowed to 
take copies of the entries on the journal. 

Eleven states were soon represented by about fifty delegates from among 
the most illustrious citizens of the states — men highly distinguished for talents, 
character, practical knowledge, and public services. The aged Franklin had 
sat in the Albany convention of 1754, in which the first attempt had been 
made at colonial union. Dickinson, who sat in the present convention as one 
of the members from Delaware, William S. Johnson, of Connecticut, and John 
Rutledge, of South Carolina, had participated in the Stamp Act Congress of 
1765. Besides Washington, Dickinson, and Rutledge, who had belonged to 
the Continental Congress of 1774, there were also present, from among the 
members of that body, Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, William Livingston, 
governor of New Jersey, George Read, of Delaware, and George Wythe, of 
Virginia ; and of the signers of the Declaration of Independence — besides 
Franklin, Read, Wythe, and Sherman — Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, and 
Robert Morris, George Clymer, and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania. Eigh- 
teen members were at the same time delegates to the Continental Congress ; 
and of the whole number there were only twelve who had not sat at some time 
in that body. The officers of the revolutionary army were represented by 
Washington, Mifflin, Hamilton, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who ht. \ 
been colonel of one of the South Carolina regiments, and at one time an aii. 
de-camp to Washington. Of those members who had come prominently for- 
ward since the declaration of independence, the most conspicuous were Ham- 
ilton, Madison, and Edmund Randolph, who had lately succeeded Patrick 
Henry as governor of Virginia. The members who took the leading part in 
the debates were Madison, Mason, and Randolph, of Virginia ; Gerry, Gor- 
ham, and King, of Massachusetts ; Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, and Franklin, 



394 FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

of Pennsylvania ; Johnson, Sherman, and Ellsworth, of Connecticut ; Hamil- 
ton and Lansing, of New York ; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Charles 
Pinckney, of South Carolina — the latter chosen governor of that State the 
next year ; Patterson, of New Jersey ; Martin, of Maryland ; Dickinson, of 
Delaware ; and Williamson, of North Carolina. 

In settling a rule of apportionment, several questions were to be considered. 
What should be the number of representatives in the first branch of the legis- 
lature ? Ought the number from each state to be fixed, or to increase with 
the increase of population ? Ought population alone to be the basis of appor- 
tionment? or should property be taken into account? Whatever rule might 
be adopted, no apportionment founded upon population could be made until 
an enumeration of the inhabitants should have been taken. The number of 
representatives was, therefore, for the time being, fixed at sixty-five, and ap- 
portioned as directed by the constitution, Art. I. sec. 2. 

In establishing a rule of future apportionment, great diversity of opinion 
was expressed. Although slavery then existed in all the states except Massa- 
chusetts, the great mass of the slave population was in the southern states. 
These states claimed a representation according to numbers, bond and free, 
while the northern states were in favor of a representation according to the 
number of free persons only. This rule was forcibly urged by several of the 
northern delegates. Mr. Patterson, of New Jersey, regarded slaves only as 
property. They were not represented in the states ; why should they be in 
the general government ? They were not allowed to vote ; why should they 
be represented ? It was an encouragement of the slave-trade. Said Mr. 
Wilson, of Pennsylvania : " Are they admitted as citizens ? then why not on 
an equality with citizens ? Are they admitted as property ? then why is not 
other property admitted into the computation ? " A large portion of the 
members of the convention, from both sections of the Union, aware that neither 
extreme could be carried, favored the proposition to count the whole number 
of free citizens and three-fifths of all others. 

Prior to this discussion, a select committee, to whom this subject had been 
referred, had reported in favor of a distribution of the members on the basis 
of wealth and numbers, to be regulated by the legislature. Before the quesl ion 
was taken on this report, a proviso was moved and agreed to, that direct taxes 
should be in proportion to representation. Subsequently a proposition was 
moved for reckoning three-fifths of the slaves in estimating taxes, and making 
tay aon the basis of representation, which was adopted ; New Jersey and 
L/c'aware against it, Massachusetts and South Carolina divided ; New York 
iiot represented, her three delegates being all absent. 

To render the constitution acceptable to the southern states, which were the 
principal exporting states, the committee of detail had inserted a clause, pro- 
viding that no duties should be laid on exports, or on slaves imported ; and 
another, that no navigation act might be passed, except by a two-thirds vote. 
By depriving congress of the power of giving any preference to American over 
foreign shipping, it was designed to secure cheap transportation to southern 






SLAVERY COMPROMISES. 395 

exports. As the shipping was principally owned in the eastern states, their 
delegates were equally anxious to prevent any restriction of the power of con- 
gress to pass navigation laws. All the states, except North Carolina, South 
Carolina, and Georgia, had prohibited the importation of slaves; and North 
Carolina had proceeded so far as to discourage the importation by heavy duties. 
The prohibition of duties on the importation of slaves was demanded by the 
delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, who declared that, without a pro- 
vision of this kind, the constitution would not receive the assent of these states. 
The support which the proposed restriction received from other states, was 
given to it from a disposition to compromise, rather than from an approval of 
the measure itself. The proposition not only gave rise to a discussion of its 
own merits, but revived the opposition to the apportionment of representatives 
according to the three-fifths ratio, and called forth some severe denunciations 
of slavery. 

Mr. King, of Massachusetts, in reference to the admission of slaves as a 
part of the representative population, remarked : " He had not made a strenu- 
ous opposition to it heretofore, because he had hoped that this concession would 
have produced a readiness, which had not been manifested, to strengthen the 
general government. The report of the committee put an end to all those 
hopes. The importation of slaves could not be prohibited ; exports could not 
be taxed. If slaves are to be imported, shall not the exports produced by 
their labor supply a revenue to help the government defend their masters? 
There was so much inequality and unreasonableness in all this, that the people 
of the northern states could never be reconciled to it. He had hoped that 
some accommodation would have taken place on the subject ; that at least a 
time would have been limited for the importation of slaves. He could never 
agree to let them be imported without limitation, and then be represented in 
the national legislature. Either slaves should not be represented, or exports 
should be taxable." 

Gouverneur Morris, of Pa., pronounced slavery " a nefarious institution It 
was the curse of Heaven on the states where it prevailed. Compare the free 
regions of the middle states, where a rich and noble cultivation marks the 
prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty which 
overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other states hav- 
ing slaves. Travel through the whole continent, and you behold the prospect 
continually varying with the appearance and disappearance of slavery. The 
admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly explained, comes to 
this, that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina, who goes to the 
coast of Africa in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity, tears away 
his fellow-creatures from their dearest connections, and damns them to the most 
cruel bondage, shall have more votes in a government instituted for the protection 
of the rights of mankind, than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, who 
views with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice. And what is the proposed 
compensation to the northern states for a sacrifice of every principle of right, every 
impulse of humanity ? They are to bind themselves to march their militia for 



396 FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

the defense of the southern states, against those very slaves of whom they 
complain. The legislature will have indefinite power to tax them by excises 
and duties on imports, both of which will fall heavier on them than on the 
southern inhabitants ; for the Bohea tea used by a northern freeman, will pay 
more tax than the whole consumption of the miserable slave, which consists of 
nothing more than his physical subsistence and the rag which covers his naked- 
ness. On the other side, the southern states are not to be restrained from im- 
porting fresh supplies of wretched Africans, at once to increase the danger of 
attack and the difficulty of defense ; nay, they are to be encouraged to it by 
an assurance of having their votes in the national government increased in pro- 
portion, and, at the same time, are to have their slaves and their exports ex- 
empt from all contributions to the public service." Mr. Morris moved to make 
the free population alone the basis of representation. 

Mr. Sherman, of Ct., who had on other occasions manifested a disposition 
to compromise, again favored the southern side. He " did not regard the ad- 
mission of the negroes as liable to such insuperable objections. It was the 
freemen of the southern states who were to be represented according to the 
taxes paid by them, and the negroes are only included in the estimate of the 
taxes." 

After some farther discussion, the question was taken upon Mr. Morris' mo- 
tion, and lost, New Jersey only voting for it. 

With respect to prohibiting any restriction upon the importation of slaves, 
Mr. Martin, of Maryland, who moved to allow a tax upon slaves imported, 
remarked: " As five slaves in the apportionment of representatives were reck- 
oned as equal to three freemen, such a permission amounted to an encourage- 
ment of the slave-trade. Slaves weakened the union which the other parts 
were bound to protect ; the privilege of importing them was therefore unrea- 
sonable. Such a feature in the constitution was inconsistent with the principles 
of the revolution, and dishonorable to the American character." 

Mr. Rutledge, of S. C, "did not see how this section would encourage the 
importation of slaves. He was not apprehensive of insurrections, and would 
readily exempt the other states from every obligation to protect the south. 
Religion and humanity had nothing at all to do with this question. Interest 
alone is the governing principle with nations. The true question at present 
is, whether the southern states shall or shall not be parties to the union. If 
the northern states consult their interest, they will not oppose the increase of 
slaves, which will increase the commodities of which they will become the car- 
riers." 

Mr. Ellsworth, of Ct, said : " Let every state import what it pleases. The 
morality or wisdom of slavery is a consideration belonging to the states. 
What enriches a part enriches the whole, and the states are the best judges of 
their particular interests." 

Mr. C. Pinckney said : " South Carolina can never receive the plan if it 
prohibits the slave-trade. If the states be left at liberty on this subject, Soutb 



SLAVERY COMPROMISES. 397 

Carolina may perhaps, by degrees, do of herself what is wished, as Maryland 
and Virginia already have done." 

Mr. Sherman, of Ct., concurred with his colleague, (Mr. Ellsworth.) "He 
disapproved the slave-trade; but as the states now possessed the right, and 
the public good did not require it to be taken away ; and as it was expedient 
to have as few objections as possible to the proposed scheme of government, 
he would leave the matter as he found it. The abolition of slavery seemed to 
be going on in the United States, and the good sense of the several states 
would probably, by degrees, soon complete it." 

Mr. Mason, of Va., said : " Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. 
The poor despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the immi- 
gration of whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce 
a pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. 
They bring the judgment of heaven on a country. He lamented that some of 
our eastern brethren, from a lust of gain, had embarked in this nefarious traffic. 
As to the states being in possession of the right to import, that was the case 
of many other rights now to be given up. He held it essential, in every point 
of view, that the general government should have power to prevent the in- 
crease of slavery." 

Mr. Ellsworth, not well pleased with this thrust at his slave-trading friends 
at the north, by a slave-holder, tartly replied : " As I have never owned a 
slave, I can not judge of the effects of slavery on character ; but if slavery is 
to be considered in a moral light, the convention ought to go further, and free 
those already in the country." The opposition of Virginia and Maryland 
to the importation of slaves he attributed to the fact that, on account of the 
rapid increase in those states, " it was cheaper to raise them there than to im- 
port them, while in the sickly rice swamps foreign supplies were necessary. 
If we stop short with prohibiting their importation, we shall be unjust to South 
Carolina and Georgia. Let us not intermeddle. As population increases, 
poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery, in time, 
will not be a speck in our country." 

Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia repeated the declaration that, 
if the slave-trade were prohibited, these states would not adopt the constitu- 
tion. Virginia, it was said, would gain by stopping the importation, she hav- 
ing slaves to sell ; but it would be unjust to South Carolina and Georgia to 
be deprived of the right of importing. Besides, the importation of slaves 
would be a benefit to the whole union. The more slaves, the more produce, 
the greater carrying trade, the more consumption, the more revenue. 

"Williamson, of N. C, expressed his conviction that the two southern states, 
if prohibited to import slaves, would not become members of the union. "Wil- 
son, of Pa., suggested that, if negroes were the only imports not subject to a 
duty, such an exception would amount to a bounty. Gerry, of Mass., thought 
the convention had nothing to do with the conduct of the states as to slavery ; 
but they ought to be careful not to give any sanction to it. Dickinson and 
Langdon, of New Hampshire, maintained that neither honor, safety, nor good 
26 



398 FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

conscience would allow permission to the states to continue the slave-trade. 
King thought the subject should be considered in a political light only. If 
two southern states would not consent to the prohibition, neither would other 
states to the allowance. " The exemption of slaves from duty while every 
other import was subject to it, was an inequality that could not fail to strike 
the commercial sagacity of the northern and middle states." 

This hint about a tax was not thrown away. Charles Pinckney, of S. C, 
would consent to a tax equal to that imposed on other imports, and he moved 
a commitment with that view. Rutledge seconded the motion. Gouverneur 
Morris proposed that the whole article, including the clauses relating to navi- 
gation laws and taxes on exports, should be referred to the same committee. 
" These things," he remarked, "may form a bargain among the northern and 
southern states." Sherman suggested that a tax on slaves imported would 
make the matter worse, since it implied they were property. Randolph sup- 
ported the commitment in hopes that some middle ground might be hit upon. 
He would rather risk the constitution than support the clause as it stood. 
Ellsworth advocated the article as it was. " This widening of opinions had a 
threatening aspect. He was afraid we should lose two'states, with such others 
as might be disposed to stand aloof, should fly into a variety of shapes and di- 
rections, and most probably into several confederations — not without blood- 
shed." The motion for reference prevailed, and the article was referred to a 
graud committee of one from each state. The report of this committee re- 
tained the prohibition of export duties, but struck out the restriction on the 
enactment of navigation laws. Until the year 1800 it allowed the unrestrained 
migration or importation of such persons as the states might see fit to receive, 
subject, however, to the imposition of a duty by congress, the maximum of 
which was presently fixed at ten dollars. 

Williamson, of N. C, declared himself, both in opinion and practice, against 
slavei-y ; but he thought it more in favor of humanity, from a view of all cir- 
cumstances, to let in South Carolina and Georgia on these terms, than to ex- 
clude them from the union. Sherman, of Ct., again objected to the tax as 
acknowledging men to be property. Gorham, of Mass., replied that the duty 
ought to be considered, not as implying that men are property, but as a dis- 
couragement to their importation. Sherman said the duty was too small to 
bear that character. Madison thought it " wrong to admit, in the constitution, 
the idea that there could be property in a man," and the phraseology of one 
clause was subsequently altered to avoid any such implication. Gouverneur 
Morris objected that the clause gave congress power to tax freemen imported ; 
to which Mason replied that such a power was necessary to prevent the impor- 
tation of convicts. A motion to extend the time from 1800 to 1808, made by 
C. C. Pinckney and seconded by Gorham, was carried against the votes of 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia ; Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, and New Hampshire voting this time with Georgia and South Carolina. 
That part of the report which struck out the restriction on the enactment of 
navigation acts was opposed by Charles Pinckney in a set speech, in which he 



SLAVERY COMPROMISES. 399 

enumerated five distinct commercial interests : the fisheries and West India 
trade, belonging to New England ; the interest of New York in a free trade ; 
wheat and flour, the staples of New Jersey and Pennsylvania ; tobacco, the 
staple of Maryland and Virginia, and partly of North Carolina ; rice and 
indigo, the staples of South Carolina and Georgia. The same ground was 
taken by Williamson and Mason, and very warmly by Randolph, who declared 
that an unlimited power in congress to enact navigation laws " would complete 
the deformity of a system having already so many odious features that he hard- 
ly knew if he could agree to it." Any restriction of the power of congress 
over commerce was warmly opposed by Gouverneur Morris, Wilson, and Gor- 
ham. Madison also took the same side. C. C. Pinckney did not deny that 
it was the true interest of the south to have no regulation of commerce ; but, 
considering the commercial losses of the eastern states during the revolution, 
their liberal conduct toward the views of South Carolina (in the vote just 
taken, giving eight years' further extension to the slave-trade), and the inter- 
est of the weak southern states in being united with the strong eastern ones, 
he should go against any restrictions on the power of commercial regulation. 
" He had himself prejudices against the eastern states before he came here, 
but would acknowledge that he had found them as liberal and candid as any 
men whatever." Butler and Rutledge took the same ground, and the amend- 
ed report was adopted, against the votes of Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, and Georgia. 

Thus, by an understanding, or, as Gouverneur Morris called it, " a bargain," 
between the commercial representatives of the northern states and the dele- 
gates of South Carolina and Georgia, and in spite of the opposition of Mary- 
land and Virginia, the unrestricted power of congress to enact navigation laws 
was conceded to the northern merchants, and to the Carolina rice planters, as 
an equivalent, twenty years' continuance of the African slave-trade. This 
was the third great compromise of the constitution. The other two were the 
concession to the smaller states of an equal representation in the senate, and, 
to the slave-holders, the counting three fifths of the slaves in determining the 
ratio of representation. If this third compromise differed from the other two 
by iuvolving not merely a political, but a moral sacrifice, there was this partial 
compensation about it, that it was not permanent, like the others, but expired 
at the end of twenty years by its own limitation.* 

When the article came up providing for the mutual delivery of fugitives 
from justice, a motion was made by Butler, seconded by C. Pinckney, that 
fugitive slaves and servants be included. Wilson objected that this would re- 
quire a delivery at the public expense. Sherman saw no more propriety in 
the public seizing and surrendering a servant than a horse. Butler withdrew 
his motion ; but the next day he introduced a clause substantially the same 
with that now found in the constitution, which provides that " no person held 
to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, 

* Secret Debates. Hiklreth's History of U. S. Political History of D. S. 



400 FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

shall, iu consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from 
such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due." , 

The constitution bears date the 17th of September, 1187. It was iuimedi. 
ately transmitted to congress, with a recommendation to that body to submit 
it to state conventions for ratification, which was accordingly done. It was 
adopted by Delaware, December 7 ; by Pennsylvinia, December 12 ; by New 
Jersey, December 18 ; by Georgia, January 2, 1788 ; by Connecticut, January 
9 ; by Massachusetts, February 7 ; by Maryland, April 28 ; by South Caro- 
lina, May 23 ; by New Hampshire, June 21 ; which being the ninth ratifying 
state, gave effect to the constitution. Virginia ratified Juue 27 ; New York, 
July 26 ; and North Carolina, conditionally, August 7. Rhode Island did 
not call a convention. 

In Massachusetts, Virginia and New York, the constitution encountered a most 
formidable opposition, which rendered its adoption by these states for a time 
extremely doubtful. In their conventions were men on both sides who had 
been members of the national convention, associated with others of distin 
guished abilities. In Massachusetts there were several adverse influences 
which would probably have defeated the ratification in that state, had it not 
been accompanied by certain proposed amendments to be submitted by con. 
gress to the several states for ratification. The adoption of these by the con 
vention gained for the constitution the support of Hancock and Samuel 
Adams ; and the question on ratification was carried by one hundred and 
eighty-seven against one hundred and sixty-eight. 

In the Virginia convention, the constitution was opposed by Patrick Henry, 
James Monroe, and George Mason, the last of whom had been one of the 
convention framers. On the other side were John Marshall, Mr. Pendleton, 
Mr. Madison, George Wythe, and Edmund Randolph, the three last also hav- 
ing been members of the national convention. Mr. Randolph had refused to 
sign the constitution, but had become one of its warmest advocates. In the 
convention of this state, also, the ratification was aided by the adoption of a 
bill of rights and certain proposed amendments ; and was carried, eighty-eight 
yeas against eighty nays. 

In the convention of New York, the opposition embraced a majority of its 
members, among whom were Yates and Lansing, members of the general con- 
vention, and George Clinton. The principal advocates of the constitution 
were John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, and Mr. Hamilton. Strong efforts 
were made for a conditional ratification, which were successfully opposed, 
though not without the previous adoption of a bill of rights, and numerous 
amendments. With these, the absolute ratification was carried, thirty-one to 
twenty-nine. 

The ratification of North Carolina was not received by congress until 
January, 1790 ; and that of Rhode Island, not until June of the same 
year. 

The injunction of secrecy as to the proceedings of the convention was never 



SLAVERY COMPROMISES. 401 

removed. At the final adjournment, the Journal, in accordance with a pre- 
vious vote, was intrusted to the custody of Washington, by whom it was 
afterward deposited in the department of state. It was first printed by order 
of congress in 1818. Yates, one of the members from New York, took short 
notes of the earlier debates, which were publishad after his death in 1821. The 
more perfect notes of Madison, recently published, with the official Journal, 
the notes of Yates, and a representation to the legislature of Maryland 
made by Luther Martin, furnish materials for a view, tolerably complete, of 
the conflicting opinions by which the convention was divided, and of the pro- 
cess which gradually matured and brought into shape the federal constitution. 

The following are the provisions of the constitution which are presumed to 
relate to the subject of slavery : 

Preamble. " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the 
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of lib- 
erty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for 
the United States of America. 

"Art. 1. Sec. 1. All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in 
a congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of 
representatives. 

" Sec. 2. * * * Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned 
among the several states which may be included within this Union, according 
to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
number of free persons, including those bound to servitude for a term of years, 
and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. 

" Sec. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states 
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the con- 
gress prior to the year 1808 ; but a tax or duty may be imposed, not exceeding 
ten dollars on each person. 

" The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless 
when, in the cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. 

"No bill of attainder, or ex post facto laws, shall be passed. 

"Art. III. Sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in 
levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and 
comfort. 

"Art. IV. Sec. 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the 
privileges of citizens, in the several states. 

" No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, es- 
caping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of 
the party to whom such service or labor may be due. 

Sec. 3. New states may be admitted by the congress into this Union ; but 
no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other 
state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts 



402 FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as 
well as of the congress. 

" The congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the 
United States; and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to 
prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular ■: be 

" Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union 
a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against inva- 
sion ; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive when the legis- 
lature cannot be convened, against domestic violence. 

"Art. VI. This constitution, and the laws of the United States, which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all the treaties made, or which shall 
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law 
of the land ; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in 
the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." 

The above are all the clauses of the constitution that have been quoted, on 
one side or the other, as bearing upon the subject of slavery. 

It will be noted that the word " slave," or " slavery," does not appear there- 
in. Mr. Madison, who was a leading and observant member of the conven- 
tion, and who took notes of its daily proceedings, affirms that this silence was 
designed — the convention being unwilling that the constitution of the United 
States should recognize property in human beings. In passages where slaves 
are presumed to be contemplated, they are uniformly designated as "persons," 
never as property. Contemporary history proves that it was the belief of at 
least a large portion of the delegates that slavery could not long survive the 
final stoppage of the slave-trade, which was expected to (and did) occur in 
1808. 

The following among the amendments to the constitution proposed by the 
ratifying convention of one or more states, and adopted, are supposed by some 
to bear on the questions now agitated relative to slavery : 

"Art. I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of reli- 
gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of 
speech, or of the press ; or of the rights of the people peacefully to assemble, 
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

"Art. II. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a 
free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

"Art. V. No person shall be * * * deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use 
without just comoensation." 



SLAVERf IN THE UNITED STATES. 403 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Political History of Slavery in the United States from 1789 to 1800. 

First session of First Congress, 17S9. — Tariff bill — duty imposed on imported slaves. — 
The Debate — views of Roger Sherman, Fisher Ames, Madison, &e. — Review of the 
state of slavery in the States in 1790. — Second session. — Petitions from the Quakers 
of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York. — Petition of Pennsylvania Society, signed 
by Franklin. — Exciting debate — power of Congress over slavery. — Census of 1790. — 
Slave population. — Vermont the first State to abolish and prohibit slavery. — Consti- 
tution of Kentucky — provisions in respect to slavery. — Session of 1791. — Memorials 
for suppression of slave-trade, from Virginia, Maryland, New York, &c. — The Right of 
Petition discussed. — First fugitive slave law, 1793. — First law to suppress African Slave 
Trade, 1794. — The Quakers again, 1797 — their emancipated slaves reduced again to 
slavery, under expost facto law of North Carolina. — Mississippi territory — slavery 
clause debated. — Foreign slaves prohibited. — Constitution of Georgia — importation of 
slaves prohibited, 179S — provisions against cruelty to slaves. — New York provides for 
gradual extinguishment of slavery, 1799. — Failure of similar attempt in Kentucky. — 
Colored citizens of Pennsylvania petition Congress against Fugitive Slave law and 
slave-trade — their petition referred to a committee ; bill reported and passed, 1800. 



T 



HE first session of the new Congress was held in the city of New York in 
1789. A quorum was obtained for business on the 6th of April. A tariff bill 
having been reported, and being under discussion in the house on the question 
of its second reading, Parker, of Virginia, moved to insert a clause imposing a 
duty of ten dollars on every slave imported. " He was sorry the constitu- 
tion prevented Congress from prohibiting the importation altogether. It was 
contrary to revolution principles, and ought not to be permitted." The only 
state which seemed to have a direct pecuniary interest in this question was 
Georgia. In all the other states at present represented on the floor, the im- 
portation of slaves, whether from Africa or elsewhere, was prohibited. Even 
South Carolina, just before the meeting of the federal convention, had passed 
an act, as she had been accustomed to do occasionally in colonial times, when 
the prices of produce were too low to be remunerative, prohibiting, for one 
year, the importation of slaves — a prohibition since renewed for three years. 
But, notwithstanding this temporary prohibition, the same jealousy as to her 
right of importation, so strongly manifested in the federal convention, was now 
exhibited on the floor of the house. Smith, the representative from the Charles- 
ton district, " hoped that such an important and serious proposition would not 
be hastily adopted. It was rather a late moment for the first introduction of 
a subject so big with serious consequences. No one topic had been yet intro- 
duced so important to South Carolina and the welfare of the Union. " Sher- 
man, of Connecticut, threw out some suggestions similar to those he had offer- 
ed in the federal convention. He " approved the object of the motion, but did 
not think it a fit subject to be embraced in this bill. He could not reconcile 
himself to the insertion of human beings, as a subject of impost, among goods, 
wares, and merchandise. He hoped the motion would be withdrawn for the 
present, and taken up afterwards as an independent subject." 

Jackson, of Georgia, " was not surprised, however others might be so, at the 



404 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

quarter whence this motion came. Virginia, an old settled state, had her 
complement of slaves, and the natural increase being sufficient for her purpose, 
she was careless of recruiting her numbers by importation. But gentlemen 
ought to let their neighbors get supplied before they imposed such a burden. 
He knew this business was viewed in an odious light at the eastward, because 
the people there were capable of doing their own work, and had no occasion 
for slaves. But gentlemen ought to have some feeling for others. Surely 
they do not mean to tax us for every comfort and enjoyment of life, and, at 
the same time, to take from us the means of procuring them ! lie was sure, 
from the unsuitableness of the motion to the busiusss now before the house, 
and the Want of time to consider it, the gentleman's candor would induce him 
to withdraw it. Should it ever be brought forward again, he hoped it would 
comprehend the white slaves as well as the black, imported from all the jails 
of Europe ; wretches convicted of the most flagrant crimes, who were brought 
in and sold without any duty whatever. They ought to be taxed equally with 
Africans, and he had no doubt of the equal constitutionality and propriety of 
such a course." 

In reply to the suggestions of Sherman, Jackson, and others, Parker de- 
clared " that, having introduced the motion on mature reflection, he did not 
like to withdraw it. The gentleman from Connecticut had said that human 
beings ought not to be enumerated with goods, wares, and merchandise. Yet 
he believed they were looked upon by African traders in that light. He hoped 
congress would do all in their power to restore to human nature its inherent 
privileges ; to wipe off, if possible, the stigma under which America labored ; 
to do away the inconsistency in our principles justly charged upon us ; and to 
show, by our actions, the pure beneficence of the doctrine held out to the world 
in our Declaration of Independence." 

Sherman still " thought the principles of the bill and the principles of the 
motion inconsistent. The principle of the bill was to raise revenue ; it was 
the principle of the motion to correct a moral evil. Considering the proposed 
duty as having revenue for its object, it would be unjust, because two or three 
states would bear the burden. He should therefore vote against the present 
motion, though he had no objection to taking up the subject by itself on the 
principles of humanity and policy." Ames, of Massachusetts, " detested slav- 
ery from his soul ; but he had some doubts whether imposing a duty on their 
importation would not have an appearance of countenancing the practice." 
"It is the fashion of the day," said Jackson, "to favor the liberty of slaves. 
He believed them better off as they were, and better off than they had been 
in Africa. Experience had showu that liberated slaves would not work for a 
living. Thrown upon the world without property or connections, they can not 
live but by pilfering. Will Virginia set her negroes free ? When the prac- 
tice comes to be tried there, the sound of liberty will lose those charms which 
make it grateful to the ravished ear." 

Madison supported Parker's motion in an elaborate speech, in which he re- 
plied to all the various objections urged against it. " The confounding men 



MADISON. 405 

with merchandise might be easily avoided by altering the title of the bill ; it 
was, in fact, the very object of the motion to prevent men, so far as the power 
of congress extended, from being confounded with merchandise. The clause 
in the constitution allowing a tax to be imposed, though the traffic could uot be 
prohibited for twenty years, was inserted, he believed, for the very purpose of 
enabling congress to give some testimony of the sense of America with re- 
spect to the African trade. By expressing a national disapprobation of that 
trade, it is to be hoped we may destroy it, and so save ourselves from reproaches, 
and our posterity from the imbecility ever attendant on a country filled with 
slaves. This was as much the interest of South Carolina and Georgia as of 
any other states. Every addition they received to their number of slaves 
tended to weakness, and rendered them less capable of self-defense. In case 
of hostilities with foreign nations, their slave population would be a means, not 
of repelling invasions, but of inviting attack. It was the duty of the general 
government to protect every part of the Union against danger, as well inter- 
nal as external. Every thing, therefore, which tended to increase this danger, 
though it might be a local affair, yet, if it involved national expense or safety, 
became of concern to every part of the Union, and a proper subject for the 
consideration of those charged with the general administration of the govern- 
ment." Bland was equally decided with Madison and Parker iu support of 
the motion. Burke, of South Carolina, suggested that gentlemen were contend- 
ing about nothing ; for if not particularly mentioned, slaves would still fall 
under the general five per cent, ad valorem duty on all unenumerated articles, 
a duty just about equivalent to the one proposed. Madison replied that no 
collector of the customs would presume to apply the terms goods, wares, and 
merchandise to persons ; and in this he was supported by Sherman, who de- 
nied that persons were recognized any where in the constitution as property. 
He thought that the clause in the constitution on which the present motion 
was founded applied as much to other persons as to slaves, and that there were 
other persons to whom it ought to be applied, as convicts, for instance ; but 
the whole subject ought to be taken up by itself. Finally, upon Madison's 
suggestion, Parker consented to withdraw his motion, with the understanding 
that a separate bill should be brought in. A committee was appointed for that 
purpose ; but there the matter was suffered to rest. 

At the next session, 1790, the House became involved in an exciting discus- 
sion in reference to slavery and the slave-trade. Slavery still existed in every 
state of the Union except in Massachusetts. A clause in the constitution of 
that state, declaring all men to be born free and equal, inserted for the express 
purpose of tacitly abolishing slavery, had been judicially decided (1783) to 
have that effect. A few months previously to the final adoption of the con- 
stitution of Massachusetts, the state of Pennsylvania had passed an act (1780) 
introducing a system of gradual emancipation, prohibiting the further impor- 
tation of slaves, (and by a subsequent act their exportation,) and assuring free- 
dom to all persons thereafter born in that state, or brought into it, except 
runaways from other states and the servants of travelers and others not re- 



406 SLAVERY IN THE STATES. 

inaining above six mouths. This Pennsylvania system of gradual emancipi. 
tion had been imitated in the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New 
Hampshire. The other eight states retained their old colonial slave-holding 
systems. But New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia 
had prohibited the further importation of slaves, and in Virginia and Maryland 
the old colonial restrictions on emancipation had been repealed, leaving thereby 
full play, and not without considerable results, to the conscience and generosity 
of the slave-holders. Jefferson and Wythe, as commissioners to revise the 
statute law of Virginia, had agreed upon a bill for gradual emancipation ; but 
when the revision of the statutes came before the House of Delegates (1785), 
Jefferson was absent as minister at Paris, those who shared his opinions thought 
that the favorable moment had not arrived, and the bill was not brought for- 
ward. Even in New York, an attempt (1785) to pass an act for the gradual 
abolition of slavery had failed to succeed. Yet in all the states, from North 
Carolina northward, warm opponents of slavery and ardent advocates for eman- 
cipation were more or less numerous, including many distinguished citizens. 
Influenced, perhaps, by the sarcasms thrown out in the federal convention, 
Rhode Islaud, shortly after the adjournment of that body, had passed a law 
(Oct., 1787) forbidding its citizens to engage in the slave-trade. The kidnap- 
ping of three colored persons at Boston, enticed on board a vessel and carried 
to the West Indies, where they were sold as slaves, produced a great excite- 
ment in Massachusetts, and occasioned (1788) a similar prohibitory act there — 
an example speedily imitated by Connecticut and Pennsylvania. But as the 
federal constitution gave to congress the exclusive regulation of commerce, it 
had become very questionable whether these laws retained any force. 

Nor was the opposition to slavery confined to legislative acts alone. The 
united synod of New York and Philadelphia, while constituting themselves as 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, had issued a 
pastoral letter (1788), in which they strongly recommended the abolition of 
slavery and the instruction of the negroes in letters and religion. The Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, lately introduced and rapidly increasing, especially in 
Maryland and Virginia, had even gone so far as to disqualify slave-holders to 
be members of their communion. Coke, the first bishop, was exceedingly zeal- 
ous on this subject ; but the rule was afterwards relaxed. In consequence of 
the efforts and preaching of Woolman and others, opposition to slavery had 
come to be a settled tenet of the Quakers. 

The same opinions had been taken up as matters of humanity and policy as 
well as of religion. A society "for promoting the abolition of slavery, for 
the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and for improving the 
condition of the African race," had been organized in Philadelphia (1787), of 
which Franklin was president, and Dr. Rush and Tench Coxe secretaries. A 
similar society had been formed in New York, of which Jay was an active 
member ; and this example already had been or soon was imitated in all the 
states form Virginia northward.* 

*HildretVs History of the United States. 



FRANKLIN. 407 

A petition from the yearly meeting of the Quakers of Pennsylvania and 
Delaware, seconded by another from the Quakers of New York, had been laid 
before the House, in which it was suggested whether, notwithstanding " seem- 
ing impediments," occasioned by " the influence and artifice of particular per- 
sons, governed by the narrow, mistaken views of self-interest," it was not with- 
in the power of congress " to exercise justice and mercy, which, if adhered to," 
the petitioners could not doubt, " must produce the abolition of the slave- 
trade." 

Hartley moved the reference of this memorial to a special committee. Sup- 
ported by Madison and his colleagues, Parker, Page, and White, by Lawrence, 
Sedgwick, Boudiuot, Sherman, and Gerry, this motion was violently opposed 
by Smith of South Carolina, Jackson, Tucker, Baldwin, and Burke, not with- 
out many sneers at "the men in the gallery " — the Quaker deputation appoint- 
ed to look after the petition — " who had come here to meddle in a business 
with which they had nothing to do." Finally, on a suggestion of Clymer's, 
supported by one of the rules of the House, the memorial was suffered to lie 
over till the next day. 

At the opening of the session that next day, Feb. 12, another petition was 
presented relating to the same subject, coming from the Pennsylvania society 
for the abolition of slavery. It was signed by Franklin as president — one of 
the last public acts of his long and diversified career. He died within a few 
weeks afterward. " That mankind," said this memorial, " are all formed by 
the same Almighty Being, alike objects of his care, and equally designed for 
the enjoyment of happiness, the Christian religion teaches us to believe, and 
the political creed of Americans fully coincides with that position. Your me- 
morialists, particularly engaged in attending to the distresses arising from 
slavery, believe it their indispensable duty to present this subject to your notice. 
They have observed, with real satisfaction, that many important and salutary 
powers are vested in you for promoting the welfare and securing the blessings 
of liberty to the people of the "United States ; and as they conceive that these 
blessings ought rightfully to be administered, without distinctions of color, to 
all descriptions of people, so they indulge themselves in the pleasing anticipa- 
tion that nothing which can be done for the relief of the unhappy objects of 
their care will be either omitted or delayed. 

" From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, and is 
still the birthright of all men, and influenced by the strong ties of humanity 
and the principles of the constitution, your memorialists conceive themselves 
bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bonds of slavery, and pro- 
mote a general enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. Under these impres- 
sions, they earnestly entreat your serious attention to the subject of slavery, 
that you will be pleased to countenance the restoration of liberty to those un- 
happy men who alone, in this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual 
bondage, and who, amid the general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning 
in servile subjection ; that you will devise means for removing this inconsis- 
tency from the character of the American people ; that you will promote mercy 



408 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

and justice toward this distressed race ; and that you will step to the very 
verge of the power vested in you for discouraging every species of traffic in 
the persons of our fellow-men." 

Immediately after the reading of this petition, which could not have much 
tended to soothe the excitement of the day before, Hartley called up the Qua- 
ker memorial, and moved its commitment. In opposition to this motion, 
Tucker and Burke took the ground that the memorial contained an unconsti- 
tutional request, as congress had no power to meddle with the slave-trade for 
twenty years to come. Tucker pronounced it "a mischievous attempt, an im- 
proper interference, at the best, an act of imprudence." Burke was certain 
that the commitment "would sound an alarm and blow the trumpet of sedition 
through the southern states." 

"I cannot entertain a doubt," said Scott of Pa., in reply, "that the memo- 
rial is strictly agreeable to the constitution. It respects a part of the duty 
particularly assigned to us by that instrument. We can at present lay our 
hands on a small tax of ten dollars. I would take that ; and if that is all we 
can do, we must be content. I am sorry the trainers of the constitution did 
not go further, and enable us to interdict the slave-trade altogether, for I look 
upon it to be one of the most abominable things on earth ; and if there were 
neither God nor devil, I should oppose it on principles of humanity and the 
law of nature. For my part, I cannot conceive how any person can be said 
to acquire a property in another. The petitioners view the subject in a reli- 
gious light ; but I stand not in need of religious motives to induce me to rep- 
robate the traffic in human flesh, Perhaps, in our legislative capacity, we can 
go no further than to impose a duty of ten dollars ; but I do not know how 
far I might go if I was one of the judges of the United States, and these peo- 
ple were to come before me and claim their emancipation. I am sure I would 
go as far as I could." Jackson maintained, in reply, "the qualified property 
of the master in his slaves ;" he referred to the example of the republics of 
antiquity ; and relied " on the whole current of the Bible, from Genesis to 
Revelations," as proving that religion was not against slavery. 

Sherman "could see no difficulty in committing the memorial. It was prob- 
able the committee would understand their business, and perhaps they might 
bring in such a report as would be satisfactory to gentlemen on both sides of 
the House." Baldwin "was sorry that a subject of so delicate a nature, as 
respected some of the states, had been brought before congress. Such gentle- 
men as had been present at the formation of the constitution could not but 
recollect the pain and difficulty which this subject had then occasioned. So 
tender were the southern members on this point, that the convention had well- 
nigh broken up without coming to any determination. From extreme desire 
to preserve the Union and to establish an efficient government, mutual conces- 
sions had resulted, concessions which the constitution had jealously guarded. 
The moment we go to jostle on that ground, I fear we shall feel it tremble 
under our feet. The clause in the constitution, that no capitation or direct tax 
should be laid, except in proportion to the census, was intended to prevent 



DEBATE. 409 

congress from laying any special tax upon slaves, lest they might iu that way 
so burden the owners as to bring about a general emancipation. Gentlemen 
have said that this petition does not pray for the abolition of the slave-trade ; 
I think, sir, it prays for nothing else, and that, consequently, we have nothing 
m ire to do with it, than if it prayed us to establish an order of nobility or a 
national religion." 

The same ground, the unconstitutionality of the object prayed for, was relied 
upon by Smith of South Carolina, as a reason for not committing the memo- 
rial. "Notwithstanding all the calmness with which some gentlemen have 
viewed the subject, they will find that the mere discussion of it will create 
alarm. We have been told that, if so, we should have avoided discussion by 
saying nothing. But it was not for that purpose we were sent here. We look 
upon this measure as an attack upon property ; it is, therefore, our duty to 
oppose it by every means in our power. When we entered into a political 
connection with the other states, this property was there. It had been acquired 
under a former government conformably to the laws and constitution, and every 
attempt to deprive us of it must be in the nature of an ex post facto law, and, 
as such, forbidden by our political compact." Like the other speakers on that 
side, Smith indulged in a good many slurs on the Quakers. " His constituents 
wanted no lessons in religion and morality, and least of all from such teachers." 
Madison, Page, Gerry, and Boudinot advocated the commitment. As to the 
alarm which it was said would be produced by committing the memorial, Page 
thought there might be greater ground for alarm should they refuse to commit 
it. " Placing himself in the case of a slave, on hearing that congress had re- 
fused to listen to the decent suggestions of a respectable part of the commu- 
nity, he should infer that the general government, from which great good was 
expected to every class, had shut their ears against the voice of humanity. If 
anything could induce him to rebel, it must be a stroke like this, impressing on 
his mind all the horrors of despair. Were he told, on the other hand, that 
application was made in his behalf, and that congress were willing to hear what 
could be urged in favor of discouraging the importation of his fellow- wretches, 
he would still trust iu their justice and humanity, and patiently await their de- 
cision. Presuming that these unfortunate people would reason in the same 
way, he thought that to commit the petition was the likeliest means to avert 
danger. He lived in a state which had the misfortune to have iu her bosom a 
great number of slaves. He held many himself, and was, he believed, as much 
interested in the business as any gentleman in South Carolina or Georgia. 
Even were he determined to hold them in eternal bondage, he should feel no 
uneasiness at the reference of the memorial, relying on the virtue of congress, 
and their disinclination to exercise any unconstitutional power." "Though 
congress were restricted by the constitution from immediately abolishing the 
slave-trade, yet there were a variety of ways," so Madison remarked, "by 
which they might countenance the abolition of that traffic. They might, for 
example, respecting the introduction of slaves into the new states to be formed 
out of the western territory, make regulations such as were beyond their power 



410 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

in relation to the old settled states, an object which he thought well worthy of 
consideration." 

Gerry "never contemplated this subject without reflecting what his own feel- 
ings would be were himself, his children, or his friends placed in the same de- 
plorable circumstances. He thought the subject-matter of the memorial clear- 
ly within the powers of congress They had the power to lay at once a duty 
of ten dollars per head on imported slaves. They had the right, if they saw 
proper, to propose to the southern states to purchase the whole of their slaves, 
and their resources in the western territory might furnish them with the means. 
He did not intend to propose any scheme of that kind, but only referred to it, 
to show that congress had a right to deal with the matter." 

The question being taken by yeas and nays, the reference was carried, forty- 
three to eleven. Of these eleven, six were from Georgia and South Carolina, 
being all the members present from those two states, two were from Virginia, 
two from Maryland, and one from New York. North Carolina was not yet 
represented. 

The special committee to whom the memorial was referred, consisting of 
one member from each of the following states, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, after a 
month's delay, brought in a report consisting of seven resolutions : 1st. That 
the general government was expressly restrained, until the year 1808, from 
prohibiting the importation of any persons whom any of the existing states 
might till that time think proper to admit. 2d. That, by a fair construction 
of the constitution, congress was equally restrained from interfering to emancipate 
slaves within the states, such slaves having been born there, or having been 
imported within the period mentioned. 3d. That congress had no power to 
interfere in the internal regulation of particular states relative to the instruc- 
tion of slaves in the principles of morality and religion, to their comfortable 
clothing, accommodation, and subsistence, to the regulation of marriages or the 
violation of marital rights, to the separation of children and parents, to a 
comfortable provision in cases of age or infirmity, or to the seizure, transpor- 
tation, and sale of free negroes ; but entertained the fullest confidence in the 
wisdom and humanity of the state legislatures that, from time to time, they 
would revise their laws, and promote these and all other measures tending to 
the happiness of the slaves. The fourth asserted that congress had authority 
to levy a tax of ten dollars, should they see fit to exact it, upon every person 
imported under the special pei-mission of any of the states. The fifth de- 
clared the authority of congress to interdict or to regulate the African slave- 
trade, so far as it might be carried on by citizens of the United States for the 
supply of foreign countries, and also to provide for the humane treatment of 
slaves while on their passage to any ports of the United States into which they 
might be admitted. The sixth asserted the right of congress to prohibit for- 
eigners from fitting out vessels in the United States to be employed in the sup- 
ply of foreign countries with slaves from Africa. The seventh expressed an 



POWER OF CONGRESS. 411 

intention on the part of congress to exercise their authority to its full extent 
to promote the humane objects aimed at in the Quakers' memorial. 

After a warm speech against the injustice and unconstitutionality of med- 
dling with the question of slavery in any shape, Tucker moved to strike out 
the whole report, and substitute for it a simple resolution, refusing to take the 
memorial into consideration " as unconstitutional, and tending to injure some 
of the states of the Union." Jackson seconded the motion in a speech equal- 
ly warm, to which Viuing replied. But this motion of Tucker's, after a good 
deal of time spent, upon that point, was declared out of order. 

White, of Virginia, moved to strike out the first resolution, as containing a 
definition of the powers of congress, a subject not referred to the committee. 
His colleague, Moore, passing by the report, attacked the memorial and its 
authors, accusing the Quakers of harboring runaway slaves. He hoped eman- 
cipation would take place at a proper time, but he wished to have it brought 
about by other means than by the influence of people who had been inimical 
to independence. Burke was not an advocate for slavery, but he wished to 
preserve the tranquility of the Union, which this unnecessary and impolitic 
measure bade fair to throw into a state of confusion. The memorial was a 
reflection on the southern states. The negroes there lived better and in more 
comfortable houses than the poor of Europe. He referred to an advertisement 
which he had lately seen in a New York paper of a woman and child to be 
sold. That, he declared, was a species of cruelty unknown in the southern 
states. There the negroes have property, horses, cattle, hogs, and furniture. 
With respect to their ceremony of marriage, they took each other from love 
and friendship. Though eastern gentlemen expressed so great an antipathy to 
this species of property, many of them who settled in the south became as 
fond of it as any others — a fling to which Gerry subsequently replied that the 
eastern states could not be held responsible for the misdoings of their emigrant 
citizens, since it was no uncommon thing, even in the animal world, for exotics 
to degenerate. 

Smith, of South Carolina, exerted his utmost efforts in an elaborate defense 
of slavery and the slave-trade, the objections to which he considered to spring 
from a " misguided and misinformed humanity." The southern states required 
slaves to cultivate their lands, which could not be done by white people. A 
white laborer from the northern states asks two dollars per day when employed 
in any of the southern states. The low countries, in which rice and indigo 
are cultivated, would be deserted if emancipation took place ; and what would 
then become of the revenue ? To set the slaves loose would be a curse to 
them. A plan had been thought of in Virginia of shipping them off as soon 
as they were freed, and this was called humanity 1 Jefferson's scheme for 
gradual emancipation, as set forth in his Notes upon Virginia, was derided as 
impracticable. Emancipation would probably result in an exterminating war. 
If, on the other hand, a mixture of blood should take place, we should all be 
ruulattoes ! The very advocates of manumission held the blacks in contempt, 
and refused to associate with them. No scheme could be devised to stop the 



412 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

increase of the blacks, except a law to prevent the intercourse of the sexes, or 
Herod's scheme of putting the children to death. The toleration of slavery 
was said to bring down reproach upon America, but that reproach belongs 
only to those who tolerate it, and he was ready to bear his share. It was said", 
also, that slavery vitiates and debases the mind of the slave-holder j but where 
is the proof? Do the citizens of the south exhibit more ferocity in their man- 
ners, more barbarity in their dispositions, than those of the other states ? 
Slavery was first introduced into the West Indies by Las Casas from motives 
of humanity. The French promote the slave-trade by premiums ; and are not 
the French a polished people, sensible of the rights of mankind, and actuated 
by just sentiments ? The Spaniards encourage slavery, and they are people 
of the nicest honor, proverbially so. The Greeks and Romans held slaves, 
and are not their glorious achievements still held up as incitements to great 
and magnanimous actions ? Sparta teemed with slaves at the time of her 
greatest fame as a valiant republic. Much had been said of the cruel treat- 
ment of slaves in the southern states and the West Indies. As to the south- 
ern states, from experience and information, he denied the fact ; he believed in, 
his conscience that the slaves in South Carolina were a happier people than 
the lower order of whites in many countries he had visited. As to the 
West Indies, Lord Rodney and Admiral Barrington, both of whom had spent 
some time there, had lately declared in the house of commons that they had 
never heard of a negro being cruelly treated, and that they should rejoice ex- 
ceedingly if the English day-laborers were half as happy. 

The abolition of the slave-trade would cause an African massacre, for it was 
well known to be the custom to put to death all such slaves as were brought 
to the coast and not sold. The cruelty of the method of transportation was 
alleged as a motive for abolishing the traffic ; but surely the merchants would 
so far attend to their own interests as to preserve the lives and health of the 
slaves on the passage. All voyages must be attended with inconveniences, 
and those from Africa to America not less than others. The confinement on 
board was no more than was necessary. The space allowed was more than to 
soldiers in a camp ; for the cubical measurement of air breathed by encamped 
soldiers fell below that allowed in the slave-ships, in the ratio of seventeen to 
thirty. 

Baldwin " was in hopes that the experience of the house had convinced 
them of the impropriety of entering at all on this business. It was a reckless 
wandering without guidance, and the longer it was continued, the more inex- 
tricable their perplexities would become. The same memorial, he was in- 
formed, had been presented to the senate, but they had taken no notice of it. 
They had even negatived a motion that it should lie upon the table ; they 
would not blot their paper with the subject at all. He hoped this house would 
imitate the wisdom of the senate, and pursue the subject no further. The most 
important business of the Union, the plan for the support of the public credit, 
the division of North Carolina into collection districts, the post-office act, ad- 
ditional revenue act, on which nearly half the resources of the year depended, 



POWER, OF CONGRESS. 413 

were all pressing for early attention, and bad all been laid aside as of no ac- 
count, bad all been made to yield to this report. And yet no bill was brought 
forward to be enacted into a law ; nothing but a string of propositions in ex- 
position of different articles of the constitution, but which, in fact, concluded 
nothing. 

"Another reason for pursuing this business no further was the influence it 
manifestly had on the temper of the members. For several days the house 
had been in a constant storm. This subject contained materials of the most 
combustible character ; it had always been among the most contentious in the 
government of the country. In different parts of the Union there was a well 
known clashing of feelings and interests on this subject. It was long a doubt 
whether it would not form an insuperable bar to our union as one people, un- 
der one government. In the constitution that difficulty had been surmount- 
ed, and, so far as he had been informed, almost to universal satisfaction. The 
strength and violence of majority had been expected on this subject ; and as 
it was not unknown on which side the majority was, security against it was set- 
tled deep among the pillars of the government. He had not felt the least 
alarm that the rights of his constituents would be disturbed. The house, from 
its constitution, would be in some respects a mirror to reflect all the passions 
of the people. It was wise that the feelings of the people should have an op- 
portunity to bear a part in legislation ; and, though sometimes inconvenient, 
it would not be dangerous, since there was another branch of the legislature 
whose concurrence was necessary in all public measures. From the manner in 
which that body was constituted, and from the experience already had, he 
doubted not the senate would give to our government that wisdom and firm- 
ness which otherwise it would not possess. Acts of congress must also have 
the approbation of the man whom the people, in the remotest regions of the 
country, regard as their father. After all, should there be any doubt of the 
constitutionality of the measures of congress, they cannot be carried into effect 
without the approval of the supreme court of the United States, composed of 
six of our most venerable sages, forming one of the most respectable courts 
upon earth, possessing our confidence as well from the independence of their 
position as from the long experience we have had of their wisdom. On this, 
as on all other occasions, he should see the effects of majority and of public 
passion on this subject totally unconcerned. The uproar of contending waves 
was not pleasant, but they were dashing against a rock. " 

This speech of Baldwin's was on a motion of Benson's, which Baldwin had 
seconded, to recommit the report, with a view to give the whole matter the go- 
by. But the majority were not thus to be driven from their purpose. The 
motion to recommit was voted down, and the report was then taken np article 
by article. The three first resolutions (those relating to the power of con- 
gress over slavery in the states) were adopted, the second and third being com- 
pressed into one, dropping the somewhat offensive details, but retaining the 
substance. Upon the fourth resolution — that relating to the ten dollar tax on 
slaves imported — the struggle was renewed. Tucker moved to strike it out, in 
2f 



414 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

which he was supported by Baldwin, apparently on the ground that the reso- 
lution did not fairly express the sense of the constitution. Hartley took this 
occasion to defend the committee against some strictures of Burke's; but 
Burke still insisted that every clause in the report was drawn in ambiguous 
words, so as to involve in some measure such an interpretation as the Qua- 
kers wished. He acquitted the committee of any bad intention ; yet he could 
not but think that, throughout the whole business, the southern members had 
been very hardly dealt by. The demand of the Quakers, as iniquitous as it 
was impolitic, had been referred to a committee. The southern members drag- 
ged, as it were, in spite of their remonstrances, to the bar of the house, had 
been set to defend their reputation and property against the Quakers, for 
whose right to offer such petitions gentlemen had strenuously contended. He 
hoped not to be out of order in offering another remark. The southern states 
were able to defend, and he hoped would defend, their property. No doubt 
those states would pass laws punishing as incendiaries any Quakers or others 
who should be found exciting their domestics to conspiracies or insurrections. 
Page, of Virginia, was in favor of the ten dollar duty, not only as a proper 
regulation of commerce, but to show that congress, as far as lies in their pow- 
er, were disposed to discourage a shameful traffic. He was willing, however, 
to strike out the resolution, and that for two reasons. Without any such reso- 
lution, congress would still have the power to lay the tax. Should the power 
be asserted, and then the tax not be laid, it would look too much like tem- 
porizing, like seeming to yield to the demand of the Quakers, while in heart 
the house was still as much against it as those by whom the Quakers and their 
memorial had been so heartily abused. 

Smith, of South Carolina, believed that the committee had been desirous so 
to frame this report as to please all parties. Some clauses were meant to 
allay the fears of the southern members, others were calculated to gratify the 
memorialists. The clause now under consideration seemed to be intended for 
that purpose ; yet he was persuaded it would not be agreeable to the Quakers. 
Their nice feelings would not be gratified by a tax of this kind, the imposition 
of which would make slaves an article of commerce. He and his colleagues 
had been censured for making this business so serious. But was it reasonable 
to require them to give up the right to be heard ? Had the southern members 
been silent on this occasion, and not expressed themselves as they had done, 
they would have betrayed the charge intrusted to them. 

On the question of striking out the fourth resolution, the committee was 
equally divided, but the motion was carried by the casting vote of Benson, the 
chairman. 

The fifth resolution, affirming the power of congress to regnlate the slave- 
trade, was vehemently opposed by Jackson, Tucker, and Smith, as was also a 
modification of it offered by Madison. It was said that, under pretense of 
regulating the trade, congress might, in fact, prohibit it entirely. They might 
insist, for instance, on such expensive accommodations and such costly provis- 
ions as would deter merchants from engaging in it. They might prohibit ves- 



POWER OF CONGRESS. 415 

sels of less than six hundred tons burden to engage in the traffic, whereas no 
vessel of that size could get across Charleston bar. 

The patience of some of the northern members began at length to give way. 
Vining, of Delaware, thought the southern gentlemen ought to be satisfied 
with the alterations already made to please them. Some respect was due tc 
the committee which had framed the report, and to the prevailing sentiment of 
the country. All the states, from Virginia to New Hampshire, had passed 
laws against the slave-trade. lie entered also into a defense of the Quakers, 
many of whom were still present in the gallery, and whose treatment, by sev- 
eral gentlemen, he thought cruel and unjustifiable. Baldwin thought the reg- 
ulation of the slave-trade had better be left to the states that tolerate it. He 
insinuated some doubts, though he would not venture to express a decided 
opinion, how far the power to regulate commerce gave to congress the right to 
pursue an individual citizen in his business between one foreign nation and an- 
other. Tucker pushed this argument to a much greater extent, denying the 
right of congress over citizens trading out of their jurisdiction, any further 
than to deprive vessels so employed of their American character. But, in 
spite of all the objections urged against it, the resolution, as modified by Mad- 
ison, was adopted. 

On the sixth resolution, that relating to the foreign slave-trade carried on 
from ports of the United States, Scott made an elaborate speech. " This was 
a subject," he remarked, "which had agitated the minds of most civilized na- 
tions for a number of years, and therefore what was said, and more particular- 
ly what was done in congress at this time, would, in some degree, form the 
political character of America on the subject of slavery. 

"Most of the arguments advanced had gone against the emancipation of 
such as were slaves already. But that question was not before the committee. 
The report under consideration involves no such idea. It was granted on all 
hands that congress have no authority to intermeddle in that business. I be- 
lieve that the several states with whom that anthority really rests will, from 
time to time, make such advances in the premises as justice to the master and 
slave, the dictates of humanity and sound policy, and the state of society will 
require or admit, and here I rest content. 

" An advocate for slavery in its fullest latitude, in this age of the world, 
and on the floor of the American congress too, seems to me a phenomenon in 
politics. Yet such advocates have appeared, and many argumentative state- 
ments have been urged, to which I will only answer by calling on those who 
heard them to believe them if they can. With me they defy, yea, mock all 
belief." 

But, while conceding that slavery within the states was out of the constitu - 
tional reach of congress, Scott was not inclined to admit any limitation to the 
power of that body over the importation of slaves from abroad. " The clause 
relative to the free migration or importation, until 1808, of such persons as 
any of the states might see proper to admit, had indeed been urged as intend- 
ed to cover this very case of the slave-trade, and the ' persons ' referred to in 



410 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

that clause were said to be slaves. He could not think it satisfactory to be 
told that there was an understanding on this subject between the northern and 
southern members of the national convention. He trusted there was no traf- 
ficking in the convention. When considering our constitutional powers, we 
must judge of them by the face of the instrument under which we sit, and not 
by the certain understandings which the framers of that instrument may be 
supposed to have had with each other, but which never transpired. At any 
rate, the constitution was not obligatory until ratified by a certain number of 
state conventions, which can not be supposed to have been acquainted with 
the understanding in the national convention, but must be taken to have rati- 
fied the constitution on its own merits, as they appear on the face of the in- 
strument. He had the honor of a seat in one of those conventions, and gave 
his assent to the constitution on those principles. He did then, he did now, 
and he ever should, judge of the powers of congress by the words of the con- 
stitution, with as much latitude as if it were a thousand years old, and every 
man in the convention that framed it long since in his grave. 

"I acknowledge," he added, "that by this clause of the constitution con- 
gress is denied the power of prohibiting, for a limited period, the importation 
or migration of persons, but may impose a tax or duty ; and I say, as well on 
the white as on the black person. But some certain inadmissible qualities 
may be adherent to persons which, from the necessity of things, must and will, 
notwithstanding this provision, justify the exclusion of the persons themselves, 
such as a plague, or hostile designs against the union by armed immigrants. 
In such a case, if the importation were not prevented, I should be more in- 
clined to impute it to want of physical than of constitutional power. In con- 
sistency with this mode of reasoning, I believe that if congress should at any 
time be of opinion that a state of slavery attached to a person is a quality 
altogether inadmissible into America, they would not be bound by the clause 
above cited from prohibiting that hateful quality. As in the first case the 
plague, and in the second the enmity and arms, so in the third the state of 
slavery may, notwithstanding any thing in this clause, be declared by congress 
qualities, or conditions, or adherents, or what you please to call them, which, 
being attached to any person, the person himself can not be admitted. 

" By another clause of the constitution, congress have power to regulate 
trade. Under that head not only the proposition now under consideration, but 
any other or further regulation which to congress may seem expedient, is fully 
in their power. Nay, sir, if these wretched Africans are to be considered as 
property, as some gentlemen would have it, and, consequently, as subjects of 
trade and commerce, they and their masters so far lose the benefit of their per- 
sonality, that congress may at pleasure declare them contraband goods, and so 
prohibit the trade altogether. 

" Again, sir, congress have power to establish a rule of naturalization. This 
rule, it is clear, depends on the mere pleasure of congress. Whenever they 
may declare, by law, that any and every person, black or white, who from for- 
eign ports can only get his or her foot on the American shore, within the ter- 



POWER OF CONGRESS. 417 

ritory of the United States, shall, to all intents and purposes, be not only free 
persons, but free citizens. And that congress has such power is clearly proved 
by the very bill read this morning on the subject of naturalization, in which it 
is provided that the applicant shall be a "free white person," plainly implying 
that, but for that restriction, the slave black man, as well as the free white 
man, might avail himself of that law by fulfilling its conditions. 

" Moreover, congress have power to define and punish piracies and felonies 
on the high seas. Under this head, congress may, when they please, declare 
by law that an American going to the coast of Africa, and there receiving on 
board of any vessel any person in chains or fetters, or in any manner under 
confinement, or carrying such person, whether sold as a slave or not, to any 
part of the world, without his own free will and consent, to be certified as con- 
gress may direct, shall be guilty of piracy and felony on the high seas, and, on 
conviction thereof, shall suffer death without benefit of clergy ; and congress 
may, perhaps, go equally far with respect to foreigners who land slaves within 
the territory of the United States, in contravention of any regulation they 
may please to make. 

" So much as to the powers of congress. I desire that the world should 
know, I desire that those people in the gallery, about whom so much has been 
said, should know, that there is at least one member on this floor who believes 
that congress have ample powers to do all they have asked respecting the Af- 
rican slave-trade. Nor do I doubt that congress will, whenever necessity or 
policy dictate the measure, exercise those powers. I believe that the impor- 
tation of one cargo of slaves would go far toward inducing such action ; but I 
believe, also, that this necessity is not likely to happen. The states, I think, 
will severally do what is right in the premises. 

" If the question were, what will congress do ? not a member from the south 
is more ready than I to say, nothing. I think that as yet there is no necessity 
for acting. But the question being as to the powers of congress, those pow- 
ers, if expressed at all, should be fully expressed." 

Jackson, who rose in reply to Scott, after laboring to establish the divine 
origin of slavery by quotations from Moses, and its moral and political recti- 
tude by the example of the Greeks and Romans, addresed himself then to the 
constitutional question. " The gentleman trusted there was no trafficking in 
the convention. What he called trafficking I believe was necessary. In or- 
der that the constitution might be made agreeable to all parties, interests were 
to be mutually given up. In suffering a bare majority of congress to decide 
on laws relative to navigation, the south admitted what was injurious to them, 
in order to obtain security for their slave property ; and without it I believe 
the union would never have been completed. Break this tie, and you now 
dissolve it. Suppose congress were to forbid the eastern fishery, or to put re- 
strictions upon it ; would the eastern states submit ? Affect the southern 
property, and gentlemen may assure themselves of the same tendency. The 
gentleman is willing to let this business rest till it appears what the states will 
do. His alternative is, if you will not abolish slavery, we will. He hoped 



418 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

the house would be cautious how they adopted this language, how they de- 
stroyed that constitution which had been so happily established." 

Smith, of South Carolina, wished to see an end of this disagreeable busi- 
ness, and had determined to say nothing more on the subject, because he la- 
mented the waste of time already occasioned by it, and the ill humor it had 
produced among gentlemen heretofore accustomed to treat each other with 
politeness. But the observations made by the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Scott) required some answer. He agreed that congress had no greater right 
to levy a duty of ten dollars on slaves imported than on freemen, for the con- 
stitution made no difference. It spoke of migration as well as importation. 
But this remark he could not reconcile with another made by the gentleman, 
that, as congress had power to regulate trade, they might, therefore, regulate 
the trade in slaves ; for, if there was nothing in the constitution which held 
out the idea of slavery, how could these Africans be viewed in a light different 
from any other class of beings ? 

" But the gentleman had insisted that congress might prohibit the importa- 
tion of any species of persons of an inadmissible quality ; as, for instance, 
persous affected with a pestilential disorder ; and, as slavery was as bad as 
the plague, they might interdict the importation of slaves. The argument 
was new and ingenious, and, if well founded, would go much further ; for, if 
congress could interdict the bringing of a plague into the country, they had 
equal authority to drive a plague out of it ; and as the Quaker memorialists 
had been a great plague to them, and as sore a plague to the southern states 
as any whatever, these Quakers, under this power, might be exterminated. 

" The respectable name of Dr. Franklin had been mentioned as giving coun- 
tenance to these memorials, one of which was signed by him as president of 
the abolition society. It was astonishing to see that gentleman's name to an 
application which called upon congress, in explicit terms, to break a solemn 
compact to which he had himself been a party. The gentleman from Massa- 
chusetts (Gerry) had declared that it was the opinion of the select committee, 
of which he was a member, that the memorial from the Pennsylvania society 
asked congress to violate the constitution. And it was no less astonishing 
that Dr. Franklin had taken the lead in a business which looked so much like 
a persecution of the southern inhabitants, especially when he recollected the 
parable the doctor had written some time ago with a view to show the impro- 
priety of one set of men persecuting others for a difference of opinion." 

Boudinot " agreed to the general doctrines of Scott, but could not go so 
far as to say that the clause in the constitution relating to the importation or 
migration of such persons as the states now existing shall think proper to ad- 
mit, did not include the case of negro slaves. Candor required him to ac- 
knowledge that this was the express design of the constitution. He had been 
informed that the tax or duty of ten dollars was agreed to instead of five per 
cent, ad valorem, and that it was so expressly understood by all parties in the 
convention. It was, therefore, the interest and duty of congress to impose the 
tax, or it would not be doing justice to the states or equalizing the duties 



POWER OF CONGRESS. 419 

throughout the union. The gentlemen in opposition were justifiable in sup- 
porting the interests of heir constituents, but their warmth had been excessive. 
Yet even that warmth was not without excuse. It was an arduous task, in 
this enlightened age, to prove the legality of slavery. When gentlemen at- 
tempt to justify this unnatural traffic, or to prove the lawfulness of slavery, 
they ought to advert to the genius of our government and to the principles of 
the revolution. ' If it were possible for men who exercise their reason to be- 
lieve,' says the declaration of 1175, setting forth the causes and necessity for 
taking up arms, ' that the divine author of our existence intended a part of 
the human race to hold an absolute power in and an unbounded property over 
others, marked out by his infinite goodness and wisdom as the objects of a le- 
gal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the 
inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the parliament of 
Great Britain some evidence that this dreadful authority over them had been 
granted to that body.' By the declaration of independence, in 1716, congress 
declare ' these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that 
they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Such was the 
language of America in the day of her distress. 

" But there was a wide difference between justifying the African slave-trade 
and supporting a claim vested at the adoption of the constitution and guaran- 
teed by it ; nor would he be understood as contending for any right in congress 
to give freedom to those who are now held as slaves, or, at the present time, 
to prohibit the slave-trade. It would be a piece of inhumanity to turn these 
unhappy people loose, to murder each other or to perish for want of the nec- 
essaries of life. He never was an advocate for conduct so extravagant." 

After an elaborate vindication of the Quakers, Boudinot denied that the pe- 
tition signed by Franklin asked any thing contrary to the constitution. The 
request " was to go to the utmost verge of the constitution," not to go be- 
yond it. 

Jackson was by no means satisfied with the distinction attempted to be set 
up between the African slave-trade and the case of the slaves already in the 
country. " I am for none of these half-way consciences; if I was disposed to 
do any thing, I should be for total abolition. Let charity and humanity begin 
at home ; let the gentlemen in the northern states who own slaves and advo- 
cate their cause, set the example of emancipation. Let them prove their own 
humanity ; let them pull the beam out of their own eye previous to discover- 
ing the mote in their neighbor's. That is an argument that would speak for 
itself. Gentlemen have talked of our raising alarms ; but it is at a reality, 
not at a bug-bear. The whole tenor of the resolutions has been contrary to 
southern interests ; and manumission, emancipation, and abolition have been 
their intention. I give the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Scott) credit ; I ad- 
mit his candor ; he has boldly spoken out. I wish the same might be done by 
other members, who appear to me to conceal their real designs under the spe- 
cious pretext of concern for the interests of the southern states." 



420 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

Williamson thought the time of congress badly employed in passing ab- 
stract resolutions as to what they could or could not do, and still worse in dis- 
cussing, what appeared to be the general subject of debate, whether the Qua- 
kers were the worst or the best of all religious societies. As to their conduct 
in the present case, he believed they held themselves bound in conscience to 
bear a testimony against slavery. He revered all men who respect the dic- 
tates of conscience at the expense of time and money : such men are seldom 
bad members of society. " We, too, must regard the dictates of conscience ; 
we are bound to support the constitution, and to protect the property of our 
fellow-citizens ; and we are expressly prohibited by the constitution from giv- 
ing liberty to a single slave. That business remains with the individual states ; 
it is not committed to congress, who have no right to intermeddle with it." 
He was therefore opposed to all the resolutions. 

After some further debate, iu which the merits of the Quakers continued to 
hold a large place, the sixth resolution was agreed to. The seventh, pledging 
congress to exert their full powers for the restriction of the slave-trade — and, 
as it might also be understood, for the discountenancing of slavery— was struck 
out, The committee then rose, and reported the resolutions to the house. 

The next day, March 23d, as soon as the preliminary business had been dis- 
posed of, it was moved to take up this report. Ames expressed the opinion 
that the subject might rest at the stage it had reached. He regretted the time 
consumed, and the manner also in which the debate had been conducted. He 
reprobated the idea of a declaration of abstract propositions. Let the report 
lie on the files of the house, where it might be occasionally referred to. 

Ames was highly complimented by Jackson, who wished that more of the 
members from the eastward had acted in the same spirit. Madison thought 
the suggestion of Ames a good one, with this modification, that the report of 
the committee of the whole should be entered on the journals for the informa- 
tion of the public, and to quiet the fears of the south, by showing that congress 
claimed no power to prohibit the importation of slaves before 1808, and no 
power of manumission at any time. 

Burke " complained of this as an uncandid method of disposing of the busi- 
ness. He would rather it should pass regularly through the forms of the house. 
It was smuggling the affair to let it rest here, as it deprived the people of the 
counsel of their senate." Smith took the same ground. The precedents 
quoted of memorials entered on the journals were not applicable to the pres- 
ent question, which involved a discussion of the powers of congress. On a 
question as to those powers, the senate, composing one branch of the legisla- 
ture, should certainly be consulted. Both reports were now to be entered on 
the journals, without any declaration to show which had been approved and 
which rejected. They were precluded from having the yeas and nays on the 
report, and yet it would be called the act of the house. Madison contended 
that, as it was impossible to shut the door altogether upon this business, the 
method proposed was the most conciliatory, and the best adapted to the pres- 



POWER OF CONGRESS. 421 

«nt situation of things. The motion finally prevailed by a vote of twenty-nine 
to twenty-five, and the report was entered on the journal as follows : 

'" That the migration or importation of such persons as any of the states 
now existing shall think proper to admit, can not be prohibited by congress 
prior to -the year 1808. 

" That congress have no right to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or 
in the treatment of them, in any of the states, it remaining with the several 
states alone to provide any regulations therein which humanity and true policy 
require. 

"That congress have authority to restrain the citizens of the United States 
from carrying on the African slave-trade for the purpose of supplying foreign- 
ers with slaves, and of providing by proper regulations for the humane treat- 
ment, during their passage, of slaves imported by the said citizens into the 
said states admitting such importation. 

"That congress have also authority to prohibit foreigners from fitting out 
vessels in any port of the United States for transporting persons from Africa 
to any foreign port. " * 

On the 22d of December, 1789, North Carolina passed an act ceding, on 
certain conditions, all her territory lying west of her present limits, to the 
United States. Among the conditions is the following : 

" Provided always, that no regulations, made or to be made, by congress, 
shall tend to emancipate slaves." 

The conditions exacted were acceded to by congress in an act approved 
April 2, IT 90. No report of the debate on the passage of the act exists. 

SLAVE POPULATION.— CENSUS OF 1790. 

Connecticut 2,759 North Carolina 100,572 

Delaware 8,887 Pennsylvania 3,737 

Georgia 29,264 Rhode Island 952 

Kentucky 11,830 South Carolina 107,094 

Maryland 103,036 Vermont 17 

New Hampshire 158 Virginia 293,427 

New Jersey 11,423 Territory south of Ohio. 3,417 

New York 21,324 Aggregate, 697,897. 

Vermont was admitted into the Union Feb. 18, 1791. The constitution un- 
der which she came in was originally adopted in 1777, and had been slightly 
altered in 1785. The first article of the Bill of Rights declared that "no male 
person born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be bound by 
law to serve any person as a servant, slave, or apprentice after he arrives at 
the age of twenty-one years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives at 
the age of twenty-one years, unless they are bound by their own consent after 
they arrive at such age, or are bound by law for the payment of debts, dam- 
ages, fines, costs, or the like." This provision was contained in the constitu- 



* Annals of Congress. Hildreth's Hist. U. S. 



422 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

tion of 117 1, so that to Vermont the honor belongs of having been the first 
American state to abolish and prohibit slavery. 

Kentucky was admitted into the Union, by act of congress, Feb. 4, 1791, 
before any constitution had been formed for the state. In 1792, however, a 
constitution was framed. An article on the subject of slavery provided that 
the legislature should have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves 
without the consent of their owners, nor without paying therefor, previous to 
such emancipation, a full equivalent in money ; nor laws to prevent immigrants 
from bringing with them persons deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the 
United States, so long as any persons of like age and description should be 
continued in slavery by the laws of Kentucky. But laws might be passed pro- 
hibiting the introduction of slaves for the purpose of sale, and also laws to 
oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, to provide them 
with necessary clothing and provisions, and to abstain from all injuries extend- 
ing to life or limb ; and provision might be made, in case of disobedience to 
such laws, for the sale of the slave to some other owner, the proceeds to be 
paid over to the late master. The legislature was also required to pass laws 
giving to owners of slaves the right of emancipation, saving the rights of cred- 
itors, and requiring security that the emancipated slaves should not become a 
burden to the county. 

During the congressional session of 1791, the abolition society of Penn- 
sylvania presented a memorial, calling upon congress to exercise, for the sup- 
pression of the slave-trade, those powers which, by the report of the committee 
of the whole, entered on the journals of the house, congress had been de- 
clared to possess. Reenforced by others from the abolition societies of Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and from several local societies in 
Maryland, that memorial was referred to a special committee. As that com- 
mittee made no report, memorials were presented at the next session from the 
abolition societies of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, recalling the atten- 
tion of congress to the subject ; but these were suffered to lie upon the table 
without reference. Afterward a separate petition was presented from Warner 
Mifflin, a philanthropic Quaker of Delaware, on the general subject of negro 
slavery, its injustice, and the necessity of its abolition. At the time of its pre- 
sentation, this document was read and laid upon the table without comment. 
Two days after, Nov. 26, 1792, Steele, of North Carolina, called attention to 
it by observing "that, after what had passed at New York, he had hoped the 
house would have heard no more of that subject. To his surprise, he found 
the business started anew by a fanatic, who, not content with keeping his own 
conscience, undertook to be the keeper of the consciences of other men, and, 
in a manner not very decent, had obtruded his opinion on the house." After 
some complaints that such a petition should have been presented, Steele moved 
that it be returned to the petitioner by the clerk, and that the entry of it be 
erased from the journal. The petition, it chanced, had been presented by 
Ames, to whom Mifflin had applied for that purpose, as the Delaware member 
happened to be absent. Ames hastened to renew the declaration of his opin- 



FUGITIVE LAW. 423 

ion, expressed in the debate two years before, that congress could take no steps 
as to the matter to which the memorial related. Having been requested to 
present it, he had done so on the general principle that every citizen had a 
right to petition the legislature, and to apply to any member as the vehicle to 
convey his petition to the house. 

In seconding Steele's motion, Smith, of South Carolina, "admitted, to its 
full extent, the right of every citizen to petition for redress of grievances, and 
the duty of the house to consider such petitions. But the paper in question 
was not of that description. It was a mere rant and rhapsody of a meddling 
fanatic, interlarded with texts of Scripture, and without any specific prayer. 
The citizens of the southern states, finding that a paper of this sort had been 
received by the house, and formally entered on their journals, might justly be 
alarmed, and led to believe that doctrines were countenanced destructive of 
their interests. The gentleman who presented it, and who, he observed with 
regret, had not on this occasion displayed his usual regard for the southern 
states, had stated its contents to relate only to the slave-trade. Had he stated 
its real objects, namely, to create disunion among the states, and to excite the 
most horrible insurrections, the house would undoubtedly have refused its re- 
ception. After the proceedings at New York, his constituents had a right to 
expect that the subject would never be stirred again. These applications were 
not calculated to meliorate the condition of those who were their.objects, and 
who were at present happy aud contented. On the contrary, by alienating 
their affections from their masters, and exciting a spirit of restlessness, they 
tended to make greater severities necessary. He therefore earnestly called up- 
on the house, by agreeing to the present motion, to convince this troublesome 
enthusiast, and others who might be disposed to communicate their ravings and 
wild effusions, that they would meet the treatment they justly deserved. As 
the present application was disrespectful to the house, insulting to the southern 
members, aud a libel on their constituents, it ought no longer to remain on the 
table, but should be returned to its author with marked disapprobation." That 
part of the motion relating to the return of the petition was agreed to; the 
part respecting the erasure of the journal was withdrawn by the mover. 

An important act regulating the surrender of fugitives from justice and the 
restoration of fugitives from service, as provided for in the constitution, was 
passed in IT 93. 

Fugitives from justice, on the demand of the executive of the state whence 
they had fled upon the executive of any state in which they might be found, 
accompanied with an indictment or affidavit charging crime upon them, were 
to be delivered up and conveyed back for trial. This part of the act still re- 
mains in force. 

In case of the escape out of any state or territory of any person held to 
service or labor under the laws thereof, the person to whom such labor was due, 
his agent, or attorney, might seize the fugitive and carry him before any United 
States judge, or before any magistrate of the city, town, or county in which 
the arrest was made ; and such judge or magistrate, on proof to his satisfac- 



424 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY 

tion, either oral or by affidavit before auy other magistrate, that the person 
seized was really a fugitive, and did owe labor as alleged, was to grant a cer- 
tificate to that effect to the claimant, this certificate to serve as sufficient war- 
rant for the removal of the fugitive to the state whence he had fled. Any per- 
son obstructing in any way such seizure or removal, or harboring or conceal- 
ing any fugitive after notice, was liable to a penalty of $500, to be recovered 
by the claimant. 

This act, which originated with the senate, seems to have passed the house 
without any debate. At the time of its passage, and for many years after, the 
above provisions attracted little attention. At a later period, they were de- 
nounced not only as exceedingly harsh and peremptory, opening a door to 
great abuses, but as unconstitutional, in subjecting that most important of all 
juridical questions, the right of personal liberty, to a summary jurisdiction, 
without trial by jury, or any appeal on points of law. Availing themselves of 
a decision of the supreme federal court as to the want of power in congress to 
impose duties on state officers, most of the free states passed acts forbidding 
their magistrates, under severe penalties, to take any part in carrying this law 
into execution ; and it was thus substantially reduced to a dead letter.* 

In 1794, a convention was held in Philadelphia of delegates from all the 
abolition societies in the country. A memorial was drawn up by this conven- 
tion in such vl manner as to avoid constitutional objections, praying congress to 
do whatever they could for the suppression of the slave-trade. This memorial, 
with several Quaker petitions, was referred to a select committee, and the bill 
which they reported passed with little opposition. It prohibited the fitting 
out of vessels in the United States for supplying any foreign countries with 
slaves, under penalty of forfeiture of the vessel and a fine of $2,000. 

In 1*797, the subject of slavery was again brought before congress, by the 
presentation of a petition from the yearly meeting at Philadelphia of the Qua- 
kers. Among other matters, the memorial complained that certain persons of 
the African race, to the number of one hundred and thirty-four, set free by the 
Quakers, besides others whose cases were not so particularly known, had been 
reduced again into cruel bondage under the authority of an ex post facto law 
passed for that purpose by the state of North Carolina, in 1771, authorizing 
the seizure and resale, as slaves, of certain emancipated negroes. 

Any action upon this petition was vehemenently opposed by Harper, of S. C, 
who complained that this was not the first, second, nor third time that the 
house had been troubled by similar applications, which had a very dangerous 
tendency. This, and every other legislature onght to set their fa?es against 
memorials complaining of what it was impossible to alter. 

Thacher, of Massachusetts, suggested, in reply, that where persons considered 
themselves injured, they would not be likely to leave off petitioning till the 
house took some action upon their petitions. If the Quakers considered 

*Hildreth's History United States. 






QUAKER PETITION. 425 

themselves aggrieved, it was their right and their duty to present their memorial, 
not three, five, or seven times only, but seventy times seven, until redress was 
obtained ; therefore, gentlemen who wished not to be troubled again ought to 
be in favor of reading and reference. 

Lyon, of Vermont, observed that a grievance was complained of winch ought 
to be remedied, namely, that a certain number of black people who had been 
set at liberty by their masters were now held in slavery contrary to right ; he 
thought that ought to be inquired into. 

Rutledge, of South Carolina, would not oppose a reference if he were sure 
the committee would report as strong a censure as the memorial deserved; 
such a censure as a set of men ought to meet who attempt to seduce the ser- 
vants of gentlemen traveling to the seat of government, and who are inces- 
santly importuning congress to interfere in a business with which, by the con- 
stitution, they have no concern. At a time when other communities were wit- 
nesses of the most horrid and barbarous scenes, these petitioners were endeav- 
oring to excite a certain class to the commission of like enormities here. Were 
he sure that this conduct would be reprobated as it deserved, he would cheer- 
fully vote far a reference ; but not believing that it would be, he was for laying 
the memorial on the table or under the table, that the house might have done 
with the business, not for to-day, but forever. 

Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, by whom the memorial had been offered, main- 
tained that it was the practice of the house, whenever a petition was presented, 
to have it read a first and second time, and then to commit, unless it were ex- 
pressed in such indecent terms as to induce the house to reject it, or related to 
a subject upon which it had been recently determined by a large majority not 
to act. It was not best to decide under the influence of such passion as had 
just been exhibited, and that furnished an additional reason for a reference. 
He also vindicated the character of the Quakers against the aspersions in which 
Rutledge had very freely indulged. 

Sewall, of Massachusetts, suggested a third case, applicable, as he thought, 
to the present memorial, in which petitions might be rejected without a com- 
mitment, and that was when they related to matters over which the house had 
no cognizance, especially if they were of a nature to excite disagreeable sen- 
sations in a part of the members possessed of a species of property held under 
circumstances in themselves sufficiently uncomfortable. The present memorial 
seemed to relate to topics entirely within the jurisdiction of the states. 

Macon declared that there was not a man in North Carolina who did not 
wish that there were no blacks in the country. Negro slavery was a misfor- 
tune ; he considered it a curse ; but there was no means of getting rid of it. 
And thereupon he proceeded to inveigh against the Quakers, whom he accused 
not only of unconstitutional applications to congress, but of continually en- 
deavoring to stir up in the southern states insurrection among the negroes. 

Against these assaults on the petitioners, Livingston, of New York, warmly 
protested. There might be individuals such as had been described ; but as 
against the body of the Quakers these charges were false and unjust. 



426 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

Parker, of Virginia, and Blount, of North Carolina, warmly opposed the 
reference of the memorial. Nicholas, of Virginia, felt as much as other south- 
ern gentlemen on this subject, but as he thought the holders of slaves had 
nothing to fear from inquiry, he was in favor of a reference. So, also, was 
Smith, of Maryland. Finally, after a very warm debate, the reference was 
carried, and a special committee was appointed, of which Sitgreaves was chair- 
man, Dana, Smith, of Maryland, Nicholas, and Schureman, of New Jersey, 
being members. This committee, after hearing the petitions, subsequently re- 
ported leave to withdraw, in which the house concurred, on the ground, as set 
forth in the report, that the matter complained of was exclusively of judicial 
cognizance, and that congress had no authority to interfere. 

At the same session a bill was introduced for erecting all of that portion of 
the late British province of West Florida within the jurisdiction of the Uuited 
States into a government to be called the Mississippi Territory ; to be consti- 
tuted and regulated in all respects like the territory north-west of the Ohio, 
with the single exception that slavery would not be prohibited. 

While this section of the act was under discussion, Thacher, of Massachu- 
setts, having first stated that he intended to make a motion touching the rights 
of man, moved to strike out the exception as to slavery, so as to carry out the 
original project of Jefferson, as brought forward by him in the Continental 
Congress, of prohibiting slavery in all parts of the western territory of the 
TJnited States, south as well as north of the Ohio. 

Rutledge, of South Carolina, hoped that this motion would be withdrawn ; 
not that he feared its passing, but he hoped the gentleman would not indulge 
himself and others in uttering philippics against a usage of most of the states 
merely because his and their philosophy happened to be at war with it. Surely, 
if his friend from Massachusetts had recollected that the most angry debate of 
the session had been occasioned by a motion on this very subject, he would not 
again have brought it forward. Such debates led to more mischief in certain 
parts of the Union than the gentleman was aware of, and he hoped, upon that 
consideration, the motion would be withdrawn. The allusion, doubtless, was 
to the advantage taken of these debates by the opposition to excite hostility 
against the federal government in those southern states in which its friends 
were at best but too weak. 

Otis, of Massachusetts, very promptly responded to Rutledge in hoping that 
the motion would not be withdrawn ; he wanted gentlemen from his part of 
the country to have an opportunity to show by their votes how little they were 
disposed to interfere with the soufhern states as to the species of property re- 
ferred to. 

Thacher remarked, in reply, " that he could by no means agree with his col- 
league (Otis.) In fact, they seldom did agree, and to-day they differed very 
widely indeed. The true interest of the Union would be promoted by agree- 
ing to the amendment proposed, of which the tendency was to prevent the in- 
crease of an evil, acknowledged to be such by the very gentlemen themselves 
who held slaves. The gentleman from Virginia (Nicholas} had frequently told 



MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 427 

the bouse that slavery was an evil of very great magnitude. He agreed with 
that gentleman that it was so. He regarded slavery in the United States as 
the greatest of evils — an evil in direct hostility to the principles of our gov- 
ernment ; and he believed the government had a right to take all due measures 
to diminish and destroy that evil, even though in doing so they might injure 
the property of some individuals ; for he never could be brought to believe 
that an individual could have a right in any thing that went to the destruction 
of the government — a right in a wrong. Property in slaves is founded in 
wrong, and never can be right. The government must, of necessity, put a stop 
to this evil, and the sooner they entered upon the business the better. He did 
not like to hear much said about the rights of man, because of late there had 
been much quackery on that subject. But because those rights and the claim 
to them had been abused, it did not follow that men had no rights. Where 
legislators are chosen from the people and frequently renewed, and in case of 
laws which affect the interest of those who pass them, the rights of man are 
not likely to be often disregarded. But when we take upon us to legislate for 
men against their will, it is very proper to say something about those rights, 
and to remind gentlemen, at other times so eloquent upon this subject, that 
men, though held as slaves, are still men by nature, and entitled, therefore, to 
the rights of man — and hence his allusion to those rights in making the motion. 

" "We are about to establish a government for a new country. The govern- 
ment of which we form a part originated from, and is founded upon, the rights 
of man, and upon that ground we mean to uphold it. With what propriety, 
then, can a government emanate from us in which slavery is not only tolerated, 
but sanctioned by law ? It has indeed been urged that, as this territory will be 
settled by emigrants from the southern states, they must be allowed to have 
slaves ; as much as to say that the people of the south are fit for nothing but 
slave-drivers — that, if left to their own labor, they would starve ! 

"But if gentlemen thought that those now holding slaves within the limits 
of the proposed territory ought to be excepted from the operation of his amend- 
ment, he would agreeto such exception for a limited period." 

Thaeher's amendment was lost. Only twelve votes were given in favor of it 
A day or two after, Harper, of South Carolina, offered an amendment, which 
was carried without opposition, prohibiting the introduction into the new Miss- 
issippi territory of slaves from without the limits of the 'United States. 

In this year, 1798, the constitution of Georgia was revised. Following the 
example already set by the assembly of the two Carolinas, the further impor- 
tation of slaves " from Africa or any foreign place " was expressly prohibited. 
By a further provision, any person maliciously killing or dismembering a slave, 
was to suffer the same punishments as if the acts had been committed on a free 
white person, except in cases of insurrection, or " unless such death should hap- 
pen by accident, in giving such slave moderate correction." But while these 
concessions were made to the antipathy to slavery, that institution was sustain- 
ed by a clause copied from the constitution of Kentucky, but still more strin- 
gent, by which the legislature was forbidden to pass laws for the emancipation 



428 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

of slaves, except with the previous consent of the individual owners ; nor were 
immigrants to be prohibited from bringing with them " such persons as may be 
deemed slaves by the law of any one of the United States." 

In 1799, the legislature of New York passed a law for the gradual extin- 
guishment of slavery, a measure which Governor Jay had much at heart, and 
which, after three previous unsuccessful attempts, was now at last carried. 
Those who were slaves at the passage of the act were to continue so for life ; 
but all their children born after the 4th of July then following were to be free, 
to remain, however, with the owner of the mother as apprentices, males till 
the age of twenty-eight, and females till the age of twenty-five. The expor- 
tation of slaves was forbidden under a pecuniary penalty, the slave upon whom 
the attempt was made to become free at once. Persons removing into the state 
might bring with them slaves whom they had owned for a year previously ; but 
slaves so brought in could not be sold. 

In 1799, a convention met in Kentucky to revise the constitution of that 
growing state. An attempt was made to introduce a provision for the grad- 
ual abolition of slavery, which was supported by Henry Clay, a recent immi- 
grant from Virginia, a young lawyer, who commenced a political career of half 
a century by holding a seat in this convention. The attempt met, however, 
with very feeble support, and, so far as related to the subject of slavery, the 
constitution underwent no change. 

A similar proposition for the gradual abolition of slavery had been intro- 
duced a short time before into the Maryland assembly, but it found so little en- 
couragement there as to be withdrawn by the mover. Even in Pennsylvania, 
a proposition introduced into the assembly for the immediate and total aboli- 
tion of slavery, though supported by the earnest efforts of the Pennsylvania 
abolition society, failed of success. The contemporaneous act of the state of 
New York for the gradual abolition of slavery has been already mentioned. 

On the 2d of January, 1800, a petition from certain free colored inhabitants 
of the city and county of Philadelphia was presented to congress by Wain, the 
city representative, setting forth that the slave-trade to the coast of G uinea, 
for the supply of foreign nations, was clandestinely carried on from various 
ports of the United States ; that colored freemen were seized, fettered, and 
sold as slaves in various parts of the country ; and that the fugitive law of 
1793 was attended in. its execution by many hard and distressing circumstances. 
The petitioners, knowing the limits of the authority of the general government, 
did not ask for the immediate emancipation of all those held in bondage ; yet 
they begged congress to exert every means in its power to undo the heavy bur- 
dens, and to prepare the way for the oppressed to go free. Attention had re- 
cently been drawn to slavery and the slave-trade, not only by alleged violations 
of the act forbidding American vessels to assist in the supply of foreign slave- 
markets, but much more forcibly by a recent conspiracy, or alleged conspiracy, 
in Virginia, which had produced a great alarm, resulting in the execution of 
several slaves charged as having been concerned in it. A great clamor waa 
excited by Wain's motion to refer this petition to a committee already raised 



SLAVE TRADE. 429 

on the subject of the slave-trade ; a reference vehemently opposed, not only by 
Rutledge, Harper, Lee, Randolph, and other southern members, on the ground 
that the petition intermeddled with matters over which congress had no con- 
trol, but also by Otis, of Boston, and Brown, of Rhode Issland, whose vehe- 
mence was even greater, if possible, than that of the members from the south. 
Wain, Thacher, Smilie, Dana, and Gallatin argued, on the other hand, that, as 
parts of the petition were certainly within the jurisdiction of congress, it ought 
to be received and acted upon. The particulars of this debate are very im 
perfectly preserved ; but, as usual on this subject, it was a very warm one. 
Rutledge called for the yeas and nays, wishing, as he said, to show by how de- 
cisive a majority all interference had been declined, and so to allay any fear 
that the matter would ever again be agitated in congress. Wain, however, an- 
ticipated the vote by withdrawing his motion, and substituting another, for the 
reference of such parts of the petition as related to the laws of the United 
States touching fugitives from service, and the supply of foreign countries with 
slaves. Rutledge raised a point of order as to the reference of a part of a 
petition, but the speaker decided against him. Gray, of Virginia, then moved 
to amend by adding a declaration that the unreferred parts of the petition, in- 
viting congress to legislate on subjects over which the general government has 
no jurisdiction, " have a tendency to create disquiet and jealousy, and ought, 
therefore, to receive the pointed disapprobation of this house. " Objections be- 
ing stated to this amendment by Dana and Thacher, Gray agreed to modify 
it by substituting for the last clause, " ought therefore to receive no encourage- 
ment or countenance from this house." Against the amendment thus modified 
but one vote was given in the negative, that of Thacher, who had represented 
the district of Maine ever since the adoption of the constitution, and who had 
lost no opportunity to signalize his hostility to slavery. In the course of the 
session, the committee to whom the petition was referred brought in a bill 
which passed to be enacted, restricting, by more stringent provisions, the sup- 
ply of slaves to foreign countries by ships of the United States.* 



♦Hildreth's Hist. TJ. S. 
28 



430 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

CHAPT.ER XXV. 

Political History of Slavery in the United States, from 1800 to 1807. 

Slave population in 1800. — Georgia cedes territory — slavery clause. — Territory of Indiana 
— attempt to introduce Slavery in 1803 — Petition Congress— Com. of H. R. report 
against it. — Session of 1804, committee report in favor of it, limited to ten years. — No 
action on report. — Foreign slave-trade prohibited with Orleans Territory, 1804. — South 
Carolina revives slave-trade ; the subject before Congress. — New Jersey provides for 
gradual extinction of slavery, 1804. — Attempt to gradually abolish slavery in District 
of Columbia, unsuccessful in Congress. — Renewed attempt to introduce slavery into 
Territory of Indiana, 1806, unsuccessful. — Legislature of Territory in favor of it, 
1807— Congressional committee report against it. — Jefferson's Message— recommenda- 
tion to abolish African slave-trade — the subject before Congress — bill reported— the 
debate— Speeches of members — Act passed 1807, its provisions. 

J. HE total population' of the United States in 1800, was 5,305,925 persons, 
of whom 893,041 were slaves. The following table exhibits the number of 
slaves in each State : 

CENSUS OF 1S00— SLAVE POPULATION. 

District of Columbia. . 3,244 New Hampshire 8 

Connecticut 951 New York : 20,343 

Delaware 6,153 North Carolina 133,296 

Goorgia 59,404 Pennsylvania 1,706 

Indiana Territory 135 Rhode Island 381 

Kentucky 40,343 South Carolina 146,151 

Maryland 105,635 Tennessee 13,584 

Mississippi Territory. . 3,489 Virginia 345,796 

New Jersey 12,422 Aggregate, 893,041. 

Georgia, in 1802, April 2d, ceded the territory lying west of her present 
limits, now forming the states of Alabama and Mississippi. Among the con- 
ditions exacted by her, and accepted by the United States, is the following : 

"That the territory thus ceded shall become a state, and be admitted into 
the Union as soon as it shall contain sixty thousand free inhabitants, or, at an 
earlier period, if congress shall think it expedient, on the same conditions and 
restrictions, with the same privileges, and in the same manner, as provided in 
the ordinance of congress of the 13th day of July, 1787, for the government 
of the western territory of the United States : which ordinance shall, in all its 
parts, extend to the territory contained in the present act of cession, the article 
only excepted which forbids slavery." 

When Ohio was made a state in 1802-3, the residue of the territory con- 
veyed by the ordinance of 1787, was called the Indiana Territory, and "William 
Henry Harrison was appointed governor. The new territory made repeated 
efforts to procure a relaxatiou in her favor of the restrictive clause of the ordi- 
nance of 1787, one of them through the instrumentality of a convention as- 
sembled in 1802-3, and presided over by the territorial governor ; so he, with 



INDIANA TERRITORY. 431 

the great body of his fellow-delegates, memorialized congress, among other 
things, to suspend, temporarily, the operation of the sixth article of the ordi- 
nance aforesaid. This memorial was referred in the house to a select com- 
mittee of three, two of them from slave states, with the since celebrated John 
Randolph as chairman. On the 2d of March, 1803, Mr. Randolph made what 
appears to have been a unanimous report from this committee, of which we 
give so much as relates to slavery, as follows : 

" The rapid population of the state of Ohio suffi. - ntly evinces, in the 
opinion of your committee, that the labor of slaves is not ..eressary to promote 
the growth and settlement of colonies in that region. That this labor — demon- 
strably the dearest of any — can only be employed in the cultivation of products 
more valuable than any known to that quarter of the United States ; that the 
committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision 
wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the northwestern 
country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier. In the 
salutary operations of this sagacious and benevolent restraint, it is believed 
that the inhabitants of Indiana will, at no very distant day, find ample remu- 
neration for a temporary privation of labor, and of emigration." 

The committee proceed to discuss other subjects set forth in the prayer of 
the memorial, and conclude with eight resolves, whereof the only one relating 
to slavery is as follows : 

" Resolved, That it is inexpedient to suspend, for a limited time, the opera- 
tion of the sixth article of the compact between the original states and the 
people and states west of the river Ohio." 

This report, having been made at the close of the session, was referred at 
the next to a new committee, whereof Csesar Rodney, a new representative 
from Delaware, was chairman. Mr. Rodney, from this committee, reported, 
(February It, 1804)— 

" That, taking into their consideration the facts stated in the said memorial 
and petition, they are induced to believe that a qualified suspension, for a limit- 
ed time, of the sixth article of compact between the original states and the 
people and states west of the river Ohio, might be productive of benefit and 
advantage to said territory." 

The report goes on to discuss the other topics embraced in the Indiana me- 
morial, and concludes with eight resolves, of which the first (and only one rela- 
tive to slavery) is as follows : 

" That the sixth article of the ordinance of 1787, which prohibited slavery 
within the said territory, be suspended in a qualified manner, for ten years, so 
as to permit the introduction of slaves, born within the United States, from 
any of the individual states ; provided, that such individual state does not 
permit the importation of slaves from foreign countries : and provided further, 
that the descendants of all such slaves shall, if males, be free at the age of 
twenty-five years, and if female, at the age of twenty-one years." 

On this report no action was had ; but the subject, as we shall presently see, 
was not "'owed to rest here, being repeatedly urged on congress by the inhabi' 



432 POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY. 

tants of Indiana. Had the decision rested with them, both Indiana and Illinois 
would have come into the Union as slave states. 

The annual convention of delegates from the state societies for promoting 
the abolition of slavery and improving the condition of the African race, then 
in session at Philadelphia, presented a memorial, early in the session of 1804-5, 
praying congress to prohibit the further importation of slaves into the newly 
acquired region of Louisiana. The memorial was referred to the committee 
on the government of Louisiana, and a provision was inserted into the act or- 
ganizing the territory of Orleans, that no slaves should be carried thither, 
except from some part of the United States, by citizens removing into the ter- 
ritory as actual settlers. This provision not to extend to negroes introduced 
into the United States since 1198. The intention of the latter clause was to 
guard against the effect of a recent act of South Carolina reviving the African 
slave-trade, after a cessation of it as to that state for fifteen years. This act 
of South Carolina, if not guarded against, might open the way for introducing 
an indefinite number of slaves from Africa into the new territories of Missis- 
sippi and Orleans. 

In order to express the sense of the nation upon this act of South Carolina, 
Bard, of Pennsylvania, introduced at this session a resolution to impose a tax 
of ten dollars on every slave imported. In opposing this resolution in com- 
mittee of the whole, Lowndes, of S. C, apologized for the conduct of his 
state on the ground of an alleged impossibility of enforcing the prohibition. 
" Such was the nature of their coast, deeply penetrated by navigable rivers, 
that the people of South Carolina, especially as they had stripped themselves 
of means by giving up to the general government the duties on imports, could 
not restrain their ' eastern brethren,' who, in defiance of the authority of the 
general government, allured by the excitement of gain, had been engaged in 
this trade. The repeal had become necessary to remove the spectacle of the 
daily violation of the law." 

Lowndes added that, personally, he was opposed to the slave-trade, and that 
he wished the time were already arrived when it might be constitutionally pro- 
hibited by act of congress ; but the imposition of the proposed tax, so far 
from checking the traffic, would, he thought, rather tend to its increase, by 
seeming to give to it a congressional sanction. Another effect of the duty 
would be to lay so much additional and special taxation on South Carolina, 
which he thought very unjust. 

Bard defended his resolution on two grounds. The proposed tax was a 
constitutional and fair source of revenue. Since the African slave-trade made 
men articles of traffic, they must be subject to impost like other merchandise. 
The value of an imported slave being $400, a duty of ten dollars was only two 
and a half per cent, on the value. While this duty would add to the revenue, 
it would also accomplish a more important end, by showing the world that the 
general government was opposed to slavery, and ready to exercise its powers 
as far as they would go for preventing its extension. " We owe it indispen- 
sably to ourselves," said Bard, "and to the world whose eyes are upon us, to 





CANE FIELD. 



TAX ON SLAVES IMPORTED. 433 

maintain the republican character of our government." As additional reasons 
in favor of his resolution, he dwelt at length on the cruelty and immorality of 
the slave-trade, and the danger of slave insurrections, of which St. Domingo 
had furnished so striking an example, and two or three alarms of which had 
recently occurred in Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker Macon expressed the opinion that the morality or immorality 
of the slave-trade had nothing to do with the question before the house. " The 
question is not whether we shall prohibit the trade, but whether we shall tax 
it. Gentlemen think that South Carolina has done wrong in permitting the 
importation of slaves. That may be, and still this measure may also be wrong. 
Will it not look like an attempt in the general government to correct a state 
for the undisputed exercise of its constitutional power ? It appears to be 
something like putting a state to the ban of the empire." 

Lucas, of Pennsylvania, denied that South Carolina had any right to com- 
plain of the proposed duty. If she had the right, under the constitution, to 
permit the importation, congress, under the same constitution, had the right to 
impose the tax. If she chose to exercise her constitutional authority, why 
complain of a like exercise of it on the part of congress ? If she wished to 
avoid paying the tax, let her prohibit the importation. Nor did he admit 
that, by taxing the importation, congress legalized or countenanced the traf- 
fic. The importation was not legalized by congress, but by South Carolina, 
congress not yet having the power to prohibit it. The tax would tend to check 
a traffic which, in four years, might add a hundred thousand slaves to those 
already in the Union. The thirst for gain was more alive in the country than 
ever, and the opening of the trade by South Carolina would virtually amount 
to a general opening ; for, African slaves once introduced into one state, would 
find their way into all others in which slavery was allowed. 

Smilie wished to steer clear of the question of morality ; at the same time, 
he could not but think that the whole Union had a direct interest in the meas- 
ure adopted by South Carolina, inasmuch as it tended to weaken the common 
defense of the country. Every slave brought in must be regarded in the light 
of an imported enemy. 

Stanton, of Rhode Island, insisted strenuously on the tax. Nor did he con- 
fine his reprobation to the foreign slave-trade merely ; he described, in very 
strong terms, his emotions at meeting, on his way to the seat of government, 
twenty or thirty negroes chained together and driven like mules to market. 

Eppes, the son-in-law of Jefferson, zealously supported the resolution ; and, 
notwithstanding an attempt at postponement, on the ground that perhaps 
South Carolina would reenact her old prohibitory law, it was finally agreed to by 
the house, and was referred to a committee, to bring in a bill. That bill was 
reported, read twice, and referred to a committee of the whole. But the en- 
treaties of the South Carolina members, and their promises of what the state 
would do, arrested any further action. 

Just previous to the commencement of this debate, New Jersey, the seventh 
and the last of the old confederation to do so, had joined the circle of the free 



434 SLAVERY IN INDIANA TERRITORY. 

states, by an act, passed by an almost unanimous vote, securing freedom to all 
persons born in that state after the fourth of July next following ; the chil- 
dren of slave parents to become free, males at twenty-five, and females at 
twenty-one — a law which gave great satisfaction to Governor Bloomfield, who 
had been from the beginning a zealous member of the New Jersey society for 
the abolition of slavery. A new effort was also made in Pennsylvania to 
hasten the operation of the old act for gradual abolition, by giving immediate 
freedom to all slaves above the age of twenty-eight years ; but this attempt 
failed as before. 

In January, 1805, a proposition was brought before congress by Sloan, of 
New Jersey, that all children born of slaves within the District of Columbia, 
after the ensuing fourth of July, should become free at an age to be fixed upon. 
This proposition was refused reference to the committee of the whole, by a 
vote of sixty-five to forty-seven, and was then rejected, seventy-seven to thirty- 
one. 

At the session of 1805-6, the renewed African slave-trade with South Car- 
olina being carried on with great vigor, the question of a tax on slaves import- 
ed was again revived by Sloan. After some debate, in which the blame of 
the traffic was bandied about between South Carolina, by which the importa- 
tion was allowed, and Rhode Island, accused of furnishing ships for the busi- 
ness, a bill was ordered by a decided majority. But the subject was passed 
over to the next session, when it would be competent for congress to provide 
for abolishing the trade altogether. 

At the same session, the original memorial from Indiana, to suspend tem- 
porarily the operation of the sixth article of the ordinance of 1787, with sev- 
eral additional memorials of like purport, was again referred by the house to 
a select committee, whereof Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, was chairman, who, on 
the 14th of February, 180G, made a report in favor of the prayer of the peti- 
tioners, as follows : 

" That, having attentively considered the facts stated in the said petition 
and memorials, they are of opinion that a qualified suspension, for a limited 
time, of the sixth article of compact between the original states and the peo- 
ple and states west of the river Ohio, would be beneficial to the people of the 
Indiana territory. The suspension of this article is an object almost univer- 
sally desired in that territory. 

" It appears to your committee to be a question entirely different from that 
between slavery and freedom; inasmuch as it would merely occasion the re- 
moval of persons, already slaves, from one part of the country to another. 
The good effects of this suspension, in the present instance, would be to accel- 
erate the population of that territory, hitherto retarded by the operation of 
that article of compact, as slave-holders emigrating into the western country 
might then indulge any preference which they might feel for a settlement in 
the Indiana territory, instead of seeking, as they are now compelled to do, set- 
tlements in other states or countries permitting the introduction of slaves. 
The condition of the slaves themselves would be much ameliorated by it, as it 



REPORTS. 435 

is evident, from experience, that the more they are separated and diffused, the 
more care and attention are bestowed on them by their masters — each proprie- 
tor having it in his power to increase their comforts and conveniences, in pro- 
portion to the smallness of their numbers. The dangers, too, (if any are to 
be apprehended,) from too large a black population existing in any one section 
of country, would certainly be very much diminished, if not entirely removed. 
But, whether dangers are to be feared from this source or not, it is certainly an 
obvious dictate of sound policy to guard against them, as far as possible. If 
this danger does exist, or there is any cause to apprehend it, and our western 
brethren are not only willing but desirous to aid us in taking precautions 
against it, would it not be wise to accept their assistance ? We should benefit 
ourselves, without injuring them, as their population must always so far exceed 
any black population which can ever exist in that country, as to render the 
idea of danger from that source chimerical. " 

After discussing other subjects embodied in the Indiana memorial, the com- 
mittee close with a series of resolves, which they commend to the adoption of 
the house. The first is as follows : 

" Besolved, That the sixth article of the ordinance of 1787, which prohibits 
slavery within the Indiana territory, be suspended for ten years, so as to per- 
mit the introduction of slaves, born within the United States, from any of the 
individual states." 

This report and resolve were committed and made a special order on the 
Monday following, but were never taken into consideration. 

At the next session, a fresh letter from Governor William Henry Harrison, 
inclosing resolves of the legislative council and house of representatives in fa- 
vor of suspending, for a limited period, the sixth article of compact aforesaid, 
was received January 21st, 1807, and referred to a select committee, whereof 
Mr. B. Parke, delegate from said territory, was made chairman. The com- 
mittee consisted of Messrs. Alston, of North Carolina, Masters, of New York, 
Morrow, of Ohio, Parke, of Indiana, Rhea, of Tennessee, Sanford, of Ken- 
tucky, and Trigg, of Virginia. 

Mr. Parke, from this committee, made February 12th, a third report to the 
house in favor of granting the prayer of the memorialists. It is as follows : 

" The resolutions of the legislative council and house of representatives of 
the Indiana territory, relate to a suspension, for the term of ten years, of the 
sixth article of compact between the United States and the territories and 
states northwest of the river Ohio, passed the 13th of July, 1787. That 
article declares that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in 
the said territory. 

" The suspension of the said article would operate an immediate essential 
benefit to the territory, as emigration to it will be inconsiderable for many 
years, except from those states where slavery is tolerated. 

"And although it is not considered expedient to force the population of the 
territory, yet it is desirable to connect its scattered settlements, and, in admit- 
ted political rights, to place it on an equal footing with the different states. 



43G SLAVERY IN INDIANA TERRITORY. 

From the interior situation of the territory, it is not believed that slaves could 
ever become so numerous as to endanger the internal peace or future prosperity 
of the country. The current of emigration flowing to the western country, the 
territories should all be opened to their introduction. The abstract question 
of liberty and slavery is not involved in the proposed measure; as slavery now 
exists to a considerable extent in different parts of the Union, it would not 
augment the number of slaves, but merely authorize the removal to Indiana of 
such as are held in bondage in the United States. If slavery is an evil, means 
ought to be devised to render it least dangerous to the community, and by 
which the hapless situation of the slaves would be most ameliorated ; and to 
accomplish these objects, no measure would be so effectual as the one pro- 
posed. The committee, therefore, respectfully submit to the house the following 
resolution : 

" Resolved, That it is expedient to suspend, from and after the 1st day of 
January, 1808, the sixth article of compact between the United States and the 
territories and states northwest of the Ohio, passed the 13th day of July, 
1787, for the term of ten years." 

This report, with its predecessors, was committed, and made a special order, 
but never taken into consideration. 

The same letter of General Harrison, and resolves of the Indiana legisla- 
ture, were submitted to the senate January 21st, 1807. They were laid on the 
table "for consideration," and do not appear to have even been referred at 
that session ; but at the next, or first session of the fourth congress, which con- 
vened October 26th, 1807, the President, November 7th, submitted a letter 
from General Harrison and his legislature — whether a new or old one does not 
appear — and it was now referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs 
J. Franklin, of North Carolina, Kitchel, of New Jersey, and Tiffin, of Ohio. 

November 13th, Mr. Franklin, from said committee, reported as follows : 

" The legislative council and house of representatives, in their resolution, 
express their sense of the propriety of introducing slavery into their territory, 
and solicit the congress of the United States to suspend, for a given number 
of years, the sixth article of compact in the ordinance for the government of 
the territory northwest of the Ohio, passed the 13th day of July, 1787. That 
article declares : ' There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
within the said territory. ' 

" The citizens of Clark county, in their remonstrance, express their sense of 
the impropriety of the measure, and solicit the congress of the United States 
not to act on the subject, so as to permit the introduction of slaves into the 
territory ; at least, until their population shall entitle them to form a constitu- 
tion and state government. 

" Tour committee, after duly considering the matter, respectfully submit the 
following resolution : 

" Resolved, That it is not expedient at this time to suspend the sixth article 
of compact for the government of the territory of the United States northwest 
of the river Ohio. " 



RESOLUTIONS. 437 

Here ended the effort, so long and earnestly persisted in, to procure a sus- 
pension of the restriction in the ordinance of IT 81, so as to admit slavery, for 
a limited term, into the territory lying between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. 

The following is a copy of the resolutions above referred to, passed by the 
legislative council and house of representatives of the territory of Indiana, 
and laid before congress : 

Resolved, unanimously, by the legislative council and house of represen- 
tatives of the Indiana Territory, That a suspension of the sixth article of 
compact between the United States and the territories and states northwest of 
the river Ohio, passed the 13th day of July, 1181, for the term of ten years, 
would be highly advantageous to the said territory, and meet the approbation 
of at least nine-tenths of the good citizens of the same. 

Resolved, unanimously, That the abstract question of liberty and slavery 
is not considered as involved in a suspension of the said article, inasmuch as the 
number of slaves in the United States would not be augmented by the measure. 

Resolved, unanimously, That the suspension of the said article would be 
equally advantageous to the territory, to the states from whence the negroes 
would be brought, and to the negroes themselves. To the territory, because of 
its situation with regard to the other states ; it must be settled by emigrants 
from those in which slavery is tolerated, or for many years remain in its pres- 
ent situation, its citizens deprived of the greater part of their political rights, 
and, indeed, of all those which distinguish the American from the citizens and 
subjects of other governments. The states which are overburdened with ne- 
groes would be benefited by their citizens having an opportunity of disposing 
of the negroes which they cannot comfortably support, or of removing with 
them to a country abounding with all the necessaries of life ; and the negro 
himself would exchange a scanty pittance of the coarsest food for a plentiful 
and nourishing diet ; and a situation which admits not the most distant pros- 
pect of emancipation, for one which presents no considerable obstacle to bis 
wishes. 

Resolved, unanimously, That the citizens of this part of the former north- 
western territory consider themselves as having claims upon the indulgence of 
congress in regard to a suspension of the said article, because at the time of the 
adoption of the ordinance of 1181, slavery was tolerated, and the slaves generally 
possessed by the citizens then inhabiting the country, amounting at least to one- 
half the present population of Indiana, and because the said ordinance was 
passed in congress when the said citizens were not represented in that body, 
without their being consulted, and without their knowledge and approbation. 

Resolved, unanimously, That from the situation, soil, climate, and produc- 
tions of the territory, it is not believed that the number of slaves would ever 
bear such proportion to the white population as to endanger the internal 
peace and prosperity of the country. 

The remaining resolutions require copies of the above to be laid before con- 
gress, and instruct the delegate of the territory to use his best endeavors to 
obtain a suspension of the article. 



4S8 PROHIBITION OF SLAVE TRADE. 

In his message, at the commencement of the session of 1 80 6-7, President 
Jefferson suggested to congress the interposition of its authority for the abo- 
lition of the African slave-trade. He says : 

" I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which 
you may interpose your authority, constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of 
the United States from all further participation in those violations of human 
rights which have so long been continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Af 
rica, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our coun 
try have long been eager to proscribe." 

This portion of the message was referred to a select committee of the house 
consisting of Messrs. Early, of Georgia, T. M. Randolph, of Va., J. Camp 
bell, of Md., Thomas Kenan, of N. O, Cook, of Mass., Kelly, of Pa., and 
Van Ransellaer, of New York. 

The committee reported a bill " to prohibit the importation or bringing of 
slaves into the United States or the territories thereof after the 31st day of 
December, 1807." 

As originally reported by the committee, of which Early, of Georgia, was 
chairman, the bill provided that all negroes, mulattoes, and persons of Color 
illegally introduced, "should be forfeited and sold for life for the benefit of the 
United States." Sloan, of N. J., moved to substitute " shall be entitled to 
his or her freedom," an amendment very violently opposed by the southern 
members. Early maintained with great earnestness that the persons so ille- 
gally introduced must not only be forfeited, but must be sold as slaves and con- 
tinued as such. " What else can be done with them ? We of the south con- 
sider slavery a dreadful evil, but the existence of large numbers of free blacks 
among us as a greater evil ; and yet you would by this amendment turn loose 
all who may be imported. You can not execute such a law, for no man will 
inform who loves himself or his neighbor." 

The same view, the impossibility of enforcing the law, if negroes illegally 
imported were to become free, was urged by Macon, the speaker. Other ar- 
guments were added by his colleague, Willis Alston. " Should a state by 
law forbid the freeing of any slaves, congress could not contravene such a 
law." "Slaves being property by the laws of a state, congress could not, in 
opposition to those laws, consider them otherwise." 

On the other hand, Smilie, of Pa., called attention to the inconsistency of 
laying severe penalties, as this bill did, upon all concerned in buying or selling 
imported slaves, while, at the same time, the United States set themselves up 
as sellers 1 Barker, of Massachusetts, argued that the United States ought 
not only to declare all illegally imported Africans free, but to convey them 
safely back to their native country. That, Macon thought, would be imprac- 
ticable. Quincy opposed the amendment, because it was not right to say that 
a certain class of people should be free, who could not be so according to the 
laws of the state where they might be, and whose freedom might produce a 
fatal, injurious, or disagreeable effect. Only nineteen members voted in favor 
of Sloan's amendment ; but the next day, Pitkin, of Connecticut, urged some 



FORFEITED NEGROES. 439 

very strong objections against forfeiting imported Africans, and selling them 
at public auction like bales of goods. He admitted the inconvenience that 
might arise in some of the states from setting them free ; but that might be 
obviated by binding them out for terms of years, and appointing some proper 
officer to look after them. As the bill now stood, it authorized the selling of 
forfeited slaves even in Massachusetts, where slavery was totally prohibited. 
He moved to recommit the bill, and after an animated debate, that motion 
prevailed. 

When the bill came back from the select committee to which it had been re- 
ferred, some debate arose upon the punishment of death to be inflicted on 
those engaged in the slave-trade. This, Early said, had been introduced to 
gratify some of the committee, and test the sense of the house. He moved to 
strike it out, with a view to substitute imprisonment ; and, after some debate, 
that motion was carried. 

When the disposal of the forfeited negroes was again resumed, Findley ad- 
vocated binding them out for terms of years. Bidwell strongly opposed the 
forfeiture, as implicating the United States in the same crime with the traders. 
He hoped the statute book would never be disgraced by such a law. This ver- 
bal implication of the United States being, however, avoided, he was quite 
willing to leave the imported Africans to the laws of the states, whatever they 
might be. Quincy, of Mass., in reply, insisted on the forfeiture, not only be- 
cause the southern gentlemen regarded it as the only means of enforcing the 
law, but because it was also the only means by which the United States could 
obtain a control over these unfortunate creatures, so as to be certain that the 
best was done for them that circumstances would admit. It did not follow 
that they must be sold because they were forfeited. "May you not do with 
them what is best for human beings in that condition — naked, helpless, igno- 
rant of our laws, character, and manners 1 You are afraid to trust the nation- 
al government, and yet, by refusing to forfeit, you will throw them under the 
control of the states, all of which may, and some of which will and must 
retain them in slavery. The great objection to forfeiture is that it admits a 
title. But this does not follow. All the effect of forfeiture is, that whatever 
title can be acquired in the cargo shall be vested in the United States. If the 
cargo be such that, from the nature of the thing, no title can be acquired in it, 
then nothing vests in the United States. The only operation of the forfeiture 
is to vest the importer's color of title by the appropriate commercial term, 
perhaps the only term we can effectually use, to this purpose, without interfer- 
ing with the rights of the states. Grant that these persons have all the rights 
of man : will not those rights be as valid against the United States as against 
the importer ? And, by taking all color of title out of the importer, do we 
not place the United States in the best possible situation to give efficiency to 
the rights of man in the case of the persons imported ? 

" But let us admit that forfeiture does imply a species of title lost on 
one side and acquired on the other, such as we can not prevent being recog- 
nized in those states into which these importations will most frequently take 



440 PROHIBITION OF SLAVE TRADE. 

place : which is best ? which is most humane ? To admit a title, gain it for the 
United States, and then to make these miserable creatures free, under such 
circumstances and at such time as the condition into which they are forced per- 
mits, or, by denying the possibility of title, to leave them to be slaves ? But 
my colleague has a sovereign specific for this. We do not make them slaves, 
he says, we only leave them to the laws of the states. But if the laws of all 
the states may, and if some of them do and will make them slaves, by leaving 
them to the operation of the laws of those states, do we not as absolutely 
make them slaves as though we voted them to be so in express terras ? To 
my mind, if, when we have the power, we fail to secure to ourselves the means 
of giving freedom to them under proper modifications, we have an agency in 
making them slaves. To strike out the forfeiture, as it seems to me, will de- 
feat the very end its advocates have in view. " 

Fiske, of Vermont, denied that, in order to give the United States the de- 
sired control over Africans or others illegally imported, any forfeiture was 
necessary. It was never thought that shipwrecked people belonged to the 
finder. Just so with the alleged slaves brought here. It was our duty to 
take them into our custody, and, if they needed assistance, to provide for 
them ; and this might be done without seeming to recognize any title in the 
importer. He was inclined to the apprenticeship plan. 

Clay, of Philadelphia, and Macon, strongly urged the bill as it stood, on the 
ground that it was only as a commercial question that congress had any juris- 
diction over the slave-trade. Smilie, of Pa., insisted that this was something 
more than a mere commercial question, and that the bill could not be passed 
with this clause of forfeiture in it without damage to the national character. 
He quoted the declaration of independence ; to which Clay replied that the 
declaration of independence must be taken with great qualifications. It de- 
clared that men have an inalienable right to life — yet we hang criminals ; to 

liberty yet we imprison ; to the pursuit of happiness — and yet men must not 

infringe on the rights of others. If that declaration were to be taken in its 
fullest extent, it would warrant robbery and murder, for some might think even 
these crimes necessary to their happiness. Hastings, of Massachusetts, hoped 
the general government would never be disgraced by undertaking to sell hu- 
man beings like goods, wares and merchandise. Yet, in spite of all these ob- 
jections, the house refused to strike out the forfeiture, sixty-three to thirty- 
six. 

The debate then turned upon the punishment to be inflicted on the masters 
and owners of vessels engaged in the slave-trade. The substitution, which 
had been adopted in committee of the whole, of imprisonment for death, was 
warmly opposed by the greater part of the northern members, a few excepted, 
who professed scruples at inflicting capital punishment at all. "We have 
been repeatedly told," said Mosely, of Connecticut, "and told with an air of 
triumph, by gentlemen from the south, that their citizens have no concern in 
this infamous traffic ; that people from the north are the importers of negroes, 
and thereby the seducers of southern citizens to buy them. We have a right 



PENALTY DISCUSSED. 441 

to presume, then, that the citizens of the south will entertain no particular 
partiality for these wicked traffickers, but will be ready to subject them to the 
most exemplary punishment. So far as the people of Connecticut are con- 
cerned, I am sure that, should any citizen of the north be convicted under 
this law, so far from thinking it cruel in their southern brethren to hang them, 
such a punishment of such culprits would be acknowledged with gratitude as a 
favor. " 

The southern members all opposed the punishment of death as too severe to 
be carried into execution. " A large majority of the people in the southern 
states," said Early, "do not consider slaveholding as a crime. They do not 
believe it immoral to hold men in bondage. Many deprecate slavery as an 
evil — a political evil — but not as a crime. Reflecting men apprehend incalcu- 
lable evils from it some future day, but very few consider it a crime. It is 
best to be candid on this subject. If they considered the holding men in 
slavery as a crime, they would necessarily accuse themselves. I will tell the 
truth, a large majority of people in the southern states do not consider slavery 
even an evil. Let gentlemen go and travel in that quarter of the union, and 
they will find this to be the fact." 

Holland, of North Carolina, gave a similar account of the public sentiment 
of the south : " Slavery is generally considered a political evil, and, in that 
point of view, nearly all are disposed to stop the trade for the future. But 
has capital punishment been usually inflicted on offenses merely political ? 
Fine and imprisonment are the common punishments in such cases. The peo- 
ple of the south do not generally consider slaveholding as a moral offense. 
The importer might say to the informer, I have done no worse than you, nor 
even so bad. It is true, I have brought these slaves from Africa ; but I have 
only transported them from one master to another. I am not guilty of hold- 
ing human beings in bondage ; you are. You have hundreds on your planta- 
tion in that miserable condition. By your purchase you tempt traders to in- 
crease that evil which your ancestors introduced into the country, and which 
you yourself contribute to augment. And the same language the importer might 
hold to the judge or jury who might try him. Under such circumstances, the 
law inflicting death could not be executed. But if the punishment should be 
fine and imprisonment only, the people of the south will be ready to execute 
the law." Holland, like all the other southern speakers on this subject, wished to 
place the prohibition of the slave-trade on political, and not on moral grounds. 
The negroes, he said, brought from Africa were unquestionably brought from 
a state of slavery. All admitted that, as slaves, they were infinitely better off 
in America than in Africa. How, then, he argued, could the trade be im- 
moral ? 

The infliction of capital punishment was also objected to by Stanton, one of 
the democratic members from Rhode Island. " Some people of my state," 
he remarked, " have been tempted by the high price offered for negroes by the 
southern people to enter into this abominable traffic. I wish the law made 
strong enough to prevent the trade in future, but I can not believe that a man 



442 PROHIBITION OF SLAVE TRADE. 

ought to be hung for only stealing a negro I " — a declaration received by the 
house with a loud laugh. " Those who buy are as bad as those who import, 
and deserve hanging just as much." 

"We are told," said Theodore Dwight, of Connecticut, "that morality has 
nothing to do with this traffic ; that it is not a question of morals, but of pol- 
itics. The president, in his message at the opening of the session, has ex- 
pressed a very different opinion. He speaks of this traffic as a violation of 
human rights, which those who regarded morality, and the reputation and best 
interests of the country, have long been eager to prohibit. The gentleman 
from North Carolina has argued that, in importing Africans, we do them no 
harm ; that we only transfer them from a state of slavery at home to a state 
of slavery attended by fewer calamities here. Bu£ by what authority do we 
interfere with their concerns ? Who empowered us to judge for them which in 
the worse and which is the better state ? Have these miserable beings ever 
been consulted as to their removal ? Who can say that the state in which 
they were born, and to which they are habituated, is not more agreeable to 
them than one altogether untried, of which they have no knowledge, and about 
which they can not even make any calculations ? Let the gentleman ask his 
own conscience whether it be not a violation of human rights thus forcibly to 
carry these wretches from their home and their country ? " 

Clay insisted that capital punishment under this law could not be carried 
into execution even in Pennsylvania, of which state it had been the policy to 
dispense with the penalty of death in all cases except for murder in the first 
degree. But on this point Fiudley and Smilie expressed very decidedly an 
opposite opinion. This was a crime, they said, above murder ; it was man- 
stealing added to murder. In spite, however, of all efforts, the substitution of 
imprisonment for death prevailed by a vote of sixty-three to fifty-two. 

Another attempt was afterwards made by Sloan, of New Jersey, to strike 
out the forfeiture clause ; but he could not even succeed in obtaining the yeas 
and nays upon it. Three days after, the bill having been engrossed and the 
question being on its passage, the northern members seemed suddenly to recol- 
lect themselves. Again it was urged that by forfeiting the slaves imported, 
and putting the proceeds into the public treasury, the 1)01 gave a direct sanc- 
tion to the principle of slavery, and cast a stain upon the national character. 
In order that some other plan might be devised, consistent at once with the 
honor of the Union and the safety of the slave-holding states, it was moved 
to recommit the bill to a committee of seventeen — one from each state. This 
motion, made by Bedinger, of Kentucky, was supported not only by SIopd, 
Bidwell, Findley, and Smilie, but also by Quincy, of Boston, and Clay, of 
Philadelphia, who seemed at length to have taken the alarm at the extent to 
which they had been playing into the hands of the slaveholders. It was 
urged, on the other side, that the bill, as it stood, was satisfactory to nearly or 
quite all the members from the southern states, who alone were interested in 
the matter, and that to recommit a bill at this stage was very unusual. Tha 
motion to recommit was carried, however, seventy-six to forty-nine. 



SENATE BILL. 443 

The committee of seventeen proposed that all persons imported in violation 
of the act should be sent to such states as had prohibited slavery, or had en- 
acted laws for its gradual abolition, and should there be bound out as appren- 
tices for a limited time, at the expiration of which they were to become free. 

"When this report came up for discussion, a very extraordinary degree of 
excitement was exhibited by several of the southern members. Early declared 
that the people of the south would resist this provision with their lives ; and 
he moved, by way of compromise, as he said, to substitute for it a delivery of 
the imported negroes to the state authorities, to be disposed of as they might 
jsee fit — the same, in substance, with Bidwell's suggestion. This Smilie pro- 
nounced a new scene indeed ! Was the house to be frightened by threats of 
civil war ? Early denied having made any such threats. He merely meant to 
intimate that troops would be, necessary to enforce the act. The whole day, 
thus commenced, was consumed in a very violent debate, of which no detailed 
report has been preserved. 

While this subject had been under discussion in the house, the senate had 
passed and sent down a bill having the same object in view. The house bill, 
with the report of the committee, having been laid upon the table, the senate 
bill was taken up. That bill provided that neither the importer, nor any pur- 
chaser under him, should " have or gain " any title to the persons illegally im- 
ported, leaving them to be disposed of as the states might direct. Williams, 
of South Carolina, moved to substitute the word "retain " instead of the words 
" have or gain. : ' The motion to strike out prevailed, but, instead of " retain," 
the word " hold " was substituted ; whereupon Williams declared, in a very ve- 
hement speech, that he considered this word " hold " as leading to the destruc- 
tion and massacre of all the whites in the southern states ; and he attacked Bid- 
well with great violence as the author of this calamity. The punishment of 
death was also stricken from the bill, and, thus amended, it was reported to 
the house. These amendments being concurred in, the bill was passed, one 
hundred and thirteen to five, and was sent back to the senate. 

But, notwithstanding this concession to the south, the trouble was not yet 
over. Among other precautions against the transportation coastwise of im- 
ported slaves, the senate bill had forbidden the transport, for the purpose of 
sale, of any negro whatever on board any vessel under forty tons burden. A 
proviso had been added by the house, excluding from the operation of this 
section the coastwise transportation of slaves accompanied by the owner or his 
agent. The refusal of the senate to concur in this amendment called out John 
Randolph, who hitherto had hardly spoken. " If the bill passed without this 
proviso, the southern people," he said, "would set the act at defiance. He 
would set the first example. He would go with his own slaves, and be at the 
expense of asserting the rights of the slaveholders. The next step would be 
to prohibit the slaveholder himself going from one state to another. The bill 
without the amendment was worse than the exaction of ship-money. The pro- 
prietor of sacred and chartered rights was prevented from the constitutional 
use of his property." 
29 



444 PROHIBITION OF SLAVE TRADE. 

Other speeches were made in the same high strain, and finally a committee 
of conference was appointed, by which an amended proviso was agreed to, al- 
lowing the transportation of negroes, not imported contrary to the provisions 
of the act, in vessels of any sort on any river or inland bay within the juris- 
diction of the United States. This, however, was far from satisfying the more 
violent southern members. Randolph still insisted " that the provisions of the 
bill, so far as related to the coastwise transportation of slaves, touched upon 
the right of private property," and he expressed a fear lest at any future period 
this claim of power might be made the pretext for a general emancipation. 
" He would rather lose all the bills of the session, every bill passed since the 
establishment of the government, than submit to such a provision. It went to 
blow the constitution into ruins. If disunion should ever take place, the line 
of disseverance would not be between the east and the west, lately the topic of 
so much alarm, but between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding states." 
Early and Williams joined in these demonstrations ; but the report of the 
committee of conference was agreed to, sixty-three to forty-nine.* 

The act, as finally passed, imposed a fine of $20,000 upon all persons con- 
cerned in fitting out any vessel for the slave-trade, with the forfeiture of the 
vessel ; likewise a fine of $5,000, with forfeiture also of the vessel, for taking 
on board any negro, mulatto, or person of color in any foreign country, with 
the purpose of selling such person within the jurisdiction of the United States 
as a slave. For actually transporting from any foreign country and selling as 
a slave, or to be held to service or labor within the United States, any such 
person as above described, the penalty was imprisonment for not less than five 
nor more than ten years, with a fine not exceeding $10,000 nor less than $1,000. 
The purchaser, if cognizant of the facts, was also liable to a fine of $800 for 
every fieraon so purchased. Neither the importer nor the purchaser were to 
hold any right or title to such person, or to his or her service or labor ; but all 
such persons were to remain subject to any regulations for their disposal, not 
contrary to the provisions of this act, which might be made by the respective 
states and territories. Coasting vessels transporting slaves from one state to 
another were to have the name, age, sex, and description of such slaves, with 
the names of the owners, inserted in their manifests, and certified also by the 
officers of the port of departure ; which .manifests, before landing any of the 
slaves, were to be exhibited and sworn to before the officer of the port of 
arrival, under pain of forfeiture of the vessel, and a fine of $1,000 for each 
slave as to whom these formalities might be omitted. No vessel of less than 
forty tons burden was to take any slaves on board except for transportation on 
the inland bays and rivers of the United States ; and any vessel found hover- 
ing on the coast with slaves on board, in contravention of this act, was liable 
to seizure and condemnation ; for which purpose the president was authorized 
to employ the ships of the navy, half the proceeds of the captured vessels and 
their cargoes to go to the captors. The masters of vessels so seized were lia- 



* Annals of Congress, 1S06-7 : Galos & Seaton.— Hildreth's Hist. U. S. 



STATE LEGISLATION. 445 

ble to a fine of $10,000, and imprisonment for not less than two nor more than 
four years. The negroes found on board were to be delivered to such persons 
as the states might respectively appoint to receive them, or, in default of such 
appointment, to the overseers of the poor of the place to which they might be 
brought ; and if, under state regulations, they should be " sold or disposed of," 
the penalties of this act upon the seller and purchaser were not to attach in 
such cases. 

" The importation of Africans into South Carolina," says Hildreth, " during 
the four years from the reopening of the traffic up to the period when the law 
of the United States went into effect, amounted to about 40,000, of whom half 
were brought by English vessels. A very large proportion of the remainder 
seem to have been introduced by Rhode Islanders. The English act for the 
abolition of the slave-trade, and especially the commercial restrictions which 
went into operation simultaneously with the American act, contributed to give 
it an efficacy which otherwise it might not have had. At a subsequent period, 
after the reestablishment of freedom of navigation, additional provisions, as 
we shall see, became necessary. 

" The convention of delegates from the various abolition societies had con- 
tinued, since its institution in 1793, to meet annually at Philadelphia; but of 
late the delegations from the south had greatly fallen off, and the convention 
of the present year resolved that its future meetings should be only triennial. 
That spirit, twin-born with the struggle for liberty and independence, which 
had produced in three states (Massachusetts, Vermont, and Ohio,) the total 
prohibition of slavery, in six others provisions for its gradual abolition, and, in 
spite of the efforts of the people of Indiana for its temporary introduction, 
(efforts renewed again at the present session, but again, notwithstanding the 
favorable report of a committee, without success,) its continued prohibition in 
the territories northwest of the Ohio, culminating now in the total prohibition 
of the foreign slave-trade, seems to have become, for a considerable interval, 
less active, or at least, less marked in its manifestations. The greater part of 
the societies whence the delegates came gradually died out, and even the tri- 
ennial convention presently ceased. Jefferson preserved, with all his zeal on 
this subject, a dead silence. In his private letters he sometimes alluded to the 
necessity of steps for getting rid of the evil of slavery ; but he took good care 
not to hazard his popularity at the south by any public suggestions on the 
subject. 

" That dread of and antipathy to free negroes which had been evinced in 
the debate on the slave-trade prohibition act had not been without its influence 
upon the legislation of the states. Indeed, it had led to some serious infrac- 
tions of these alleged rights of property, but a very distant approach to which 
by the general government had thrown Randolph into such excitement. In 
1796, North Carolina had reenforced and reenacted her law prohibiting eman- 
cipation except for meritorious services and by allowance of the county courts. 
South Carolina, in 1800, had prohibited emancipation except by consent of a 
justice of the peace and of five indifferent freeholders. Another South Caro- 



446 STATE LEGISLATION. 

lina act of the same year had declared it unlawful for any number of slavea, 
free negroes, mulattoes, or mestizoes to assemble together, even though in the 
presence of white persons, "for mental instruction or religious worship." The 
same influences were felt in Virginia, aggravated, perhaps, by two successive 
alarms of insurrection, one in 1799, the other in 1801. The freedom of eman- 
cipation allowed by the act of 1782 was substantially taken away in 1805, by 
a provision that thenceforward emancipated slaves remaining in the state for 
twelve months after obtaining their freedom should be apprehended _ and sold 
for the benefit of the poor of the county — a forfeiture given afterward to the 
literary fund. Overseers of the poor, binding out black or mulatto orphans as 
apprentices, were forbidden to require their masters to teach them reading, 
writing, or arithmetic. Free blacks coming into the state were to be sent back 
to the places whence they came. The legislature of Kentucky presently (1808) 
went so far as to provide that free negroes coming into that state should give 
security to depart within twenty days, and on failure to do so should be sold 
for a year — the same process to be repeated if, twenty days after the end of the 
year, they were still found within the state. ' Such is the fate,' exclaims Mar- 
shall, the historian of Kentucky, indignant at this barbarous piece of legisla- 
tion, ' of men not represented, at the hands of law-makers, often regardless of 
the rights of others, and even of the first principles of humanity.' Yet this 
statute remains in force to the present day, and many like ones, in other states, 
have since been added to it. Whether the excessive dread of the increase of 
free negroes, which still prevails, and which seems every day to grow more and 
more rabid throughout the southern states, has any better foundation than mere 
suspicion and fear, is not so certain. In Delaware and Maryland the free col- 
ored population is far greater in proportion than elsewhere ; yet life and prop- 
erty are more secure in those than in any other slaveholding states, nor are 
they inferior in wealth and industry."* 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 447 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Political History of Slavery in the United States from 1807 to 1820. 

Slave population in 1810. — Period of the war. — John Randolph's denunciations. — Pro- 
clamation of Admiral Cochrane to the slaves. — Treaty of Peace — arbitration on slave 
property. — Opinions of the domestic slave-trade by southern statesmen. — Constitution 
of Mississippi — slave provisions. — The African slave-trade and fugitive law. — Missouri 
applies for admission— proviso to prohibit slavery. — Debate — speeches of Fuller, Tall- 
madge, Scott, Cobb, and Livermore. — Proceedings, 1820. — Bill for organizing Arkansas 
Territory — proviso to prohibit slavery lost. — Excitement in the North. — Public meet- 
ings. — Massachusetts memorial. — Resolutions of State Legislatures of New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Kentucky. — Congress — the Missouri struggle re- 
newed. — The compromise. — Proviso to exclude slavery in territory north of 36° 30' 
carried. — Proviso to prohibit slavery in Missouri lost. — Opinions of Monroe's cabinet. 
Reflections of J. Q. Adams. — State Constitution of Missouri — final struggle. — Missouri 
admitted as a slave state. 

IN the period between 1800 and 1810, the slave population of the states and 
territories increased 298,323, exhibiting a total in 1810 of 1,191,364, a rate 
of increase of about 33 per cent. 

CENSUS OF 1810.— SLAVE POPULATION. 

District of Columbia 5,395 Georgia 105,218 

Rhode Island 108 Maryland 111,502 

Connecticut 310 North Carolina 168,824 

Pennsylvania 795 South Carolina 196,365 

Delaware 4,177 Virginia 392,518 

New Jersey 10,851 Mississippi Territory 17,088 

New York 15,017 Indiana Territory 237 

Louisiana 34, 660 Louisiana Territory 3,011 

Tennessee 44, 535 Illinois Territory 168 

Kentucky 80,561 Michigan Territory 24 

About this period the foreign relations of the country absorbed the attention 
of congress, and the subject of slavery was only incidentally alluded to. 
John Randolph, of Virginia, in a speech in opposition to the contemplated 
war with England, in his usual discursive style, thus denounces the slavery 
agitation and the " infernal principles " of the French democracy, as inconsis- 
tent with the safety of the south : 

" No sooner was the present report laid on the table, than the vultures came 
flocking round their prey — the carcass of a great military establishment. Men 
of tainted reputation, of broken fortunes (if they ever had any), of battered 
constitutions, 'choice spirits, tired of the dull pursuits of civil life,' seeking 
after agencies and commissions, and wishing to light the public candle at both 
ends. 

" Such a war might hold out inducements to gentlemen from Tennessee and 
Genesee (Grundy and Porter). Western hemp would rise in the market, and 
western New York might grow rich by provisioning our armies ; not to mention 
\e political interest which that state had in the acquisition of Canada. But 



448 JOHN RANDOLPH. 

how absurd to commence a war for maritime rights by invading that province, 
while our whole sea-coast lay exposed to the enemy ; not a spot on all the 
shores of Chesapeake bay, the city of Baltimore alone excepted, safe from at- 
tack or capable of defense ! 

"If it were true that Britain had stimulated the late Indian hostilities, that 
might justify the proposed invasion ; but that was a rash charge, with no 
foundation beyond suspicion and surmise. There was, indeed, an easy and 
natural solution of the events on the Wabash, without resort to any such con- 
jecture. It was our own thirst for territory, our want of moderation that had 
driven those sons of nature to despair. 

"But this Canadian campaign, it seems, is to be a holiday matter. There 
is to be no expense of blood or treasure on our part. Canada is to conquer 
herself— is to be subdued by the principles of French fraternity ! We are to 
succeed by this French method ! Our whole policy, indeed, is French ! But 
how dreadfully might not this sort of warfare be retorted on our own southern 
states 1 

" During the war of the revolution, so fixed among the slaves was the habit 
of obedience, that while the whole country was overrun by the enemy, who in- 
vited them to desert, no fears were entertained of insurrection. But should 
we therefore be unobservant spectators of the progress of society with the last 
twenty years ? Even the poor slaves have not escaped. The French revolu- 
tion has polluted even them. Nay, there have not been wanting members of 
this house — witness our legislative Legendre, the butcher — [this referred to 
Sloan, who 'had proposed the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia] 
to preach upon this very floor the doctrine of imprescriptible rights to a 
crowded audience of blacks in the galleries ; teaching them that they are equal 
to their masters ; in other words, advising them to cut their masters' throats 1 
Similar doctrines are spread throughout the south by Yankee peddlers ; and 
there are even owners of slaves so infatuated, as by the general tenor of their 
conversation, by contempt of order, morality, and religion, unthinkingly to 
cherish these seeds of destruction. And what has been the consequence ? 
Within the last ten years repeated alarms of slave insurrections, some of them 
awful indeed. By the spreading of this infernal doctrine, the whole south has 
been thrown into a state of insecurity.- Men dead to the operation of moral 
causes have taken from the poor slave those habits of loyalty and obedience 
which lightened his servitude by a double operation, beguiling his own labors 
and disarming his master's suspicions and severity ; and now, like true empi- 
rics in politics, you propose to trust to the mere physical strength of the 
shackle that holds him in bondage. You have deprived him of all moral re- 
straint ; you have tempted him to eat of the tree of knowledge just enough 
to perfect him in wickedness ; you have opened his eyes to his nakedness ; you 
have roused his nature against the hand that has fed him, and has clothed him, 
and has cherished him in sickness — that hand which, before he became a pupil 
in your school, he was accustomed to press to his lips with respectful affection ; 
you have done all this — and now you point him to the whip and the gibbet 



COMPENSATION FOR SLAVES. 449 

as incentives to a sullen, reluctant obedience. God forbid that the southern 
states should ever see an enemy on their shores with these infernal principles 
of French fraternity in the van ! While talking of Canada, we have too 
much reason to shudder for our own safety at home. I speak from facts when 
I say that the night-bell never tolls for fire in Richmond that the frightened 
mother does not hug her infant the more closely to her bosom, not knowing 
what may have happened. I have myself witnessed some of the alarms in tli6 
capital of Virginia." 

The infernal principles spoken of by Randolph, were, it seems, reduced tc 
practice in 1814 by admiral Cochrane, of the Chesapeake blockading squadron, 
who issued a proclamation, addressed to the slaves, under the denomination of 
" persons desirous to emigrate." They were offered a reception, with their 
families, on board the British vessels of war, with the choice of entering into 
the service, or of being sent to the British possessions as free settlers. "There 
is reason, indeed, to believe," says Hildreth, " that a plan suggested by some 
of the British officers, for taking possession of the peninsula between Delaware 
and Chesapeake bays, and then training a black army, was only rejected because 
the British, being then slaveholders themselves, did not like to encourage in- 
surrection elsewhere." 

Subsecpient to the ratification of the treaty of peace, a cpiestiou arose whether 
the United States were entitled, under the treaty, to compensation for slaves 
within the territory or places occupied by the British forces at the time of 
the making of the treaty, and directed by that treaty to be restored to the 
United States. The question was referred, by agreement, to the emperor of 
Russia, who gave his decision as follows : 

"That the United States were entitled to indemnification for all the slaves 
carried away by the British forces from places and territories which the treaty 
stipulated to restore, in quitting these same places and territories : That all 
slaves were to be considered as having been so carried away, who had been 
transferred from these territories to British vessels within the said territories, 
and who for this reason had not been restored : But that for slaves carried away 
from territories which the treaty did not stipulate to restore, the United States 
are not entitled to indemnification. The emperor also appointed two of his 
privy councilors, Count Nesselrode and Count Capodistrias, together with 
Henry Middleton, the American minister at St. Petersburgh, and Charles 
Bagot, the British minister at the same place, to provide the mode of ascer- 
taining the value of the slaves, and of other private property unlawfully car- 
ried away, and for which indemnification was to be made. 

The settlement of the southwest proceeded rapidly after the war. The 
great profits derived from the cultivation of cotton, kept the African slave- 
trade, alive in spite of the prohibitory laws. The domestic slave-trade increased, 
and Washington became a great resort of the traders, who were engaged in 
buying up slaves in Maryland and Virginia for transportation to the south- 
west John Randolph, of Virginia, in congress denounced this new traffic as 
heinous and abominable, inhuman and illegal, and moved a committee of in- 



450 DOMESTIC SLAVE TRADE. 

quiry, whose report justified some of the epithets. Governor Williams, of 
South Carolina, in a message to the legislature, denounced "this remorsless 
and merciless traffic, this ceasless dragging along the streets and highways of 
a crowd of suffering victims to minister to insatiable avarice," as condemned 
alike by "enlightened humanity, wise policy and the prayers of the just." The 
legislature accordingly passed an act forbidding the introduction of slaves 
from abroad ; which was repealed, however, in two years. 

About this time the American Colonization Society sprung into existence, 
as related in a former chapter. 

The new state of Mississippi was admitted into the Union December 10, 
1817. By one of the provisions of its constitution, grand juries were dispensed 
with in the indictment of slaves ; and slaves were not allowed trial by jury 
except in capital cases. 

At the session of 1811-18, the Maryland Quakers sent in a petition to con- 
gress praying further provisions for the security of free persons of color against 
the increased danger of being kidnapped, growing out of the domestic slave- 
trade. The Quaker memorial was referred, and Burrell, of Rhode Island, 
moved instructions to the committee, also to inquire into the expediency of 
additional provisions for the suppression of the African slave-trade, and espe- 
cially of concert with other nations for that purpose. 

At this session, Pindall, of Virginia, obtained a committee, which brought 
in a bill to give new stringency to the old fugitive slave act. The bill provided 
for assimilating the proceedings in the case of fugitives from labor to those in 
the case of fugitives from justice. The claimant, having made out a title be- 
fore some judge of his own state, was then to be entitled to an executive demand 
on the governor of the state where the fugitive was, with the imposition of 
heavy penalties upon those who refused to aid in the arrest. 

Strong, Fuller, and Whitman, of Massachusetts, Williams, of Connecticut, 
Livermore, of New Hampshire, and several Pennsylvania representatives, 
warmly opposed this bill, as going entirely beyond the constitutional provision 
on the subject of fugitives from labor. The old law, in their opinion, went 
quite far enough already. The personal rights of one class of citizens were 
not to be trampled upon to secure the rights of property of other citizens. 
The question of servitude ought to be tried in the state where the fugitive was. 
A motion was made by Sergeant to modify the bill in accordance with this 
idea ; but it did not succeed. On the other hand, the bill was supported by 
Cobb, of Georgia, as a right of the slaveholders secured by the constitution, 
by Mr. Speaker Clay, and by Baldwin, of Pennsylvania. The bill was also 
supported by Holmes, of Massachusetts, by Storrs, of New York, who thought 
that, for the sake of union and harmony, northern men must learn to sacrifice 
their prejudices ; and by Mason, the new Boston representative, who professed, 
indeed, a personal interest in the question, from his fear lest, if the bill failed 
to pass, his own town of Boston might be inconveniently infested by southern 
runaways. Thus sustained; the bill passed the house, 84 to 69. Among the 
yeas were ten from New York, still a slaveholding state, five from Massachu 



FUGITIVE ACT. 451 

setts, four from Pennsylvania, and one from New Jersey, that oF the late gov- 
ernor and general, Bloomfield, in his earlier days a most zealous member of the 
New Jersey society for the abolition of slavery. 

Having reached the senate, this bill was referred to a committee, of which 
Crittenden was chairman. He reported it back with several amendments, one 
of which provided that the identity of the alleged fugitive, after being carried 
back, should be established by some testimony other than that of the claimant. 
Thus amended, the bill was carried in the senate ; but not without a very warm 
debate, of which, however, not a syllable has been preserved. The vote stood 
17 to 13, the Delaware senators against it; Otis, of Massachusetts, Sanford, 
of New York, and Taylor, of Indiana, for it. But by the time the bill got 
back to the house, its northern supporters seem to have taken some alarm ; 
and, in spite of repeated efforts of its authors to get some action upon it, it 
was suffered to lie and to die on the table. 

Burrell's resolution in the senate, especially that part of it relating to coop- 
eration with foreign nations, was strongly opposed by Barbour and Troup, as 
leading to foreign entanglements, and involving a pledge which congress had 
no right to give. Morrell, a new democratic senator from New Hampshire, 
launched out, in reply, into a most emphatic denunciation of slavery. King 
defended the resolution, since the concert which it suggested was one, not of 
arms, but of opinion, example, and influence, to prevail on Spain and Portugal 
to join in the abolition of the traffic ; but he suggested that the debate had 
taken quite too wide a range, the subject of the resolution being, not slavery 
in general, a topic, as he remarked, always alluded to in the senate with very 
great reserve, but the abolition of the slave-trade, as to which they were all 
agreed. The resolution was adopted ; and the committee to which it was re- 
ferred reported a bill, which became a law, throwing the burden of proof, in all 
cases where negroes were found on board a ship, on those in possession ; and 
extending the penalties of the prohibitory act to the fitting out of vessels for 
the slave-trade, or the transporting slaves to any country whatever. 

At the session of 1818-19, an act was passed allowing a premium of fifty 
dollars to the informer for every illegally-imported African seized within the 
United States, and half as much for those taken at sea ; with authority to the 
president to cause them to be removed beyond the limits of the United States, 
and to appoint agents on the coast of Africa for their reception. An attempt 
was also made to punish slave-trading with death, as had been contended for 
at the time of the original abolition act. Such a provision passed the house, 
but was struck out in the senate. 

In March, 1818, the delegate from Missouri presented petitions from sundry 
inhabitants of that territory, praying for the admission of Missouri into the 
Union as a state. These petitions were referred to a select committee, which 
reported a bill to authorize the people of that territory to form a constitution 
and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on 
an equal footing with the original states. The bill was read the first and 
second time and sent to the committee of the whole, where it slept the remain- 



452 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

der of the session. At the next session, on the 13th February, 1819, the house 
went into committee of the whole, Gen. Smith, of Maryland, in the chair, and 
took up the Missouri bill, which was considered through that sitting, and also 
on Monday, the 15th. Gen. Tallmadge, of New York, moved the following 
amendment: ■ 

"And provided that the introduction of slavery, or involuntary servitude, be 
prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party has been 
duly convicted, and that all children born within the said state, after the ad- 
mission thereof into the Union, shall be declared free at the age of twenty-five 
years." 

Mr. Fuller, of Massachusetts, said, that in the admission of new states into 
the Union, he considered that congress had a discretionary power. By the 
4th article and 3d section of the constitution, congress are authorized to ad- 
mit them ; but nothing in that section, or in any part of the constitution, en- 
joins the admission as imperative, under any circumstances. If it were other- 
wise, he would request gentlemen to point out what were the circumstances or 
conditions precedent, which being found to exist, congress must admit the 
new state. All discretion would, in such case, be taken from congress, Mr. 
Fuller said, and deliberation would be useless. The honorable speaker (Mr. 
Clay) has said that congress has no right to prescribe any condition whatever 
to the newly-organized states, but must admit them by a simple act, leaving 
their sovereignty unrestricted. [Here the speaker explained — he did not in- 
tend to be understood in so broad a sense as Mr. Fuller stated.] With the 
explanation of the honorable gentleman, Mr. Fuller said, I still think his 
ground as untenable as before. We certainly have a right, and our duty to 
the nation requires, that we should examine the actual state of things in the 
proposed state ; and, above all, the constitution expressly makes a republican 
form of government in the several states a fundamental principle, to be pre- 
served under the sacred guarantee of the national legislature. — [Art. 4, sec 
4.] It clearly, therefore, is the duty of congress, before admitting a new sister 
into the Union, to ascertain that her constitution or form of government u re- 
publican. Now, sir, the amendment proposed by the gentleman from New 
York, Mr. Tallmadge, merely requires that slavery shall be prohibited in Mis- 
souri. Does this imply anything more than that its constitution shall be re- 
publican ? The existence of slavery in any state is, so far, a departure from 
republican principles. The Declaration of Independence, penned by the illus- 
trious statesman then, and at this time, a citizen of a state which admits slave- 
ry, defines the principle on which our national and state constitutions are all 
professedly founded. The second paragraph of that instrument begins thus : 
"We hold these truths to be self-evident — that all men are created equal — that 
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Since, then, it cannot 
be denied that slaves are men, it follows that they are, in a purely republican 
government, born free, and are entitled to liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. [Mr. Fuller was here interrupted by several gentlemen, who thought it 



DEBATE. 453 

improper to question in debate the republican character of the slaveholding 
states, which had also a tendency, as one gentleman (Mr. Colston, of Virginia,) 
said, to deprive those states of the right to hold slaves as property, and he ad- 
verted to the probability that there might be slaves in the gallery, listening to 
the debate.] Mr. Fuller assured the gentleman that nothing was farther from 
his thoughts, than to question on that floor, the right of Virginia and other 
states, which held slaves when the constitution was established, to continue to 
hold them. With that subject the national legislature could not interfere, and 
ought not to attempt it. But, Mr, Fuller continued, if gentlemen will be pa- 
tient, they will see that my remarks will neither derogate from the constitu- 
tional rights of the states, nor from a due respect to their several forms of gov- 
ernment. Sir, it is my wish to allay, and not to excite local animosities, but 
I shall never refrain from advancing such arguments in debate as my duty re- 
quires, nor do I believe that the reading of our Declaration of Independence, 
or a discussion of republican principles on any occasion, can endanger the 
rights, or merit the disapprobation of any portion of the Union. 

My reason, Mr. Chairman, for recurring to the Declaration of our Independ- 
ence, was to draw from an authority admitted in all parts of the Union, a 
definition of the basis of republican government. If, then, all men have equal 
rights, it can no more comport with the principles of a free government to ex- 
clude men of a certain color from the enjoyment of " liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness," than to exclude those who have not attained a certain portion of 
wealth, or a certain stature of body, or to found the exclusion on any other 
capricious or accidental circumstance. Suppose Missouri, before her admission 
as a state, were to submit to us her constitution by which no person could elect, 
or be elected to any office, unless he possessed a clear annual income of twenty 
thousand dollars ; and suppose we had ascertained that only five, or a very 
small number of persons had such an estate, would this be anything more or 
less than a real aristocracy, under a form nominally republican ? Election 
and representation, which some contend are the only essential principles of re- 
publics, would exist only in name — a shadow without substance, a body with- 
out a soul. But if all the other inhabitants were to be made slaves, and mere 
property of the favored few, the outrage on principle would be still more pal- 
pable. Yet, sir, it is demonstrable that the exclusion of the black popula- 
tion from all political freedom, and making them the property of the whites, 
is an equally palpable invasion of right, and abandonment of principle. If 
we do this in the admission of new states, we violate the constitution, and we 
have not now the excuse which existed when our national constitution was es- 
tablished. Then, to effect a concert of interests, it was proper to make con- 
cessions. The states where slavery existed not only claimed the right to con- 
tinue it, but it was mauifest that a general emancipation of slaves could not 
be asked of them. Their political existence would have been in jeopardy ; 
both masters and slaves must have been involved in the most fatal conse- 
quences. 

To guard against such intolerable evils, it is provided in the constitution 



454 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

" that the migration or importation of such persons, as any of the existing 
states think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited till 1808." — Art. 1, sec. 
9. And it is provided elsewhere, that persons held to service by the laws of 
any state, shall be given up by other states, to which they may have escaped, 
etc. — Art. 4, sec. 2. 

These provisions effectually recognized the right in the states, which at the 
time of framing the constitution held the blacks in slavery, to continue so to 
hold them until they should think proper to meliorate their condition. The 
constitution is a compact among all the states then existing, by which certain 
principles of government are established for the whole, and for each individual 
state. The predominant principle in both respects is, that all men are free, 
and have an equal right to liberty, and all other privileges ; or, in other 
words, the predominant principle is republicanism, in its largest sense. But, 
then, the same compact contains certain exceptions. The states then holding 
slaves are permitted, from the necessity of the case, and for the sake of union, 
to exclude the republican principle so far, and only so far, as to retain their 
slaves in servitude, and also their progeny, as had been the usage, until they 
think it proper or safe to conform to the pure principle, by abolishing slavery. 
The compact contains on its face the general principle and the exceptions 
But the attempt to extend slavery to the new states, is in direct violation of 
the clause, which guarantees a republican form of government to all the states. 
This clause, indeed, must be construed in connection with the exceptions be- 
fore mentioned ; but it cannot, without violence, be applied to any other states 
than those in which slavery was allowed at the formation of the constitution. 

The honorable speaker cites the first clause in the 2d section of the 4th ar- 
ticle, " the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and im- 
munities of citizens of the several states," which he thinks would be violated 
by the condition proposed in the constitution of Missouri. To keep slaves, to 
make one portion of the population the property of another, hardly deserves 
to be called a privilege, since what is gained by the masters must be lost by 
the slaves. But, independently of this consideration, I think the observations 
already offered to the committee, showing that holding the black population in 
servitude is an exception to the general principles of the constitution, and can 
not be allowed to extend beyond the fair import of the terms by which that 
exception is provided, are a sufficient answer to the objection. The gentleman 
proceeds in the same train of reasoning, and asks if congress can require one 
condition, how many more can be required, and where these conditions will 
end ? With regard to a republican constitution, congress are obliged to re- 
quire that condition, and that is enough for the present question ; but I con- 
tend, further, that congress has a right, at their discretion, to require any other 
reasonable condition. Several others were required of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois 
and Mississippi. The state of Louisiana, which was a part of the territory 
ceded to us at the same time with Missouri, was required to provide in her con- 
stitution for trials by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, the principles of civil 
and religious liberty, with several others, peculiar to that, state. These, cer- 



MR. FULLER. 455 

tainly, are none of them more indispensable ingredients in a republican form 
of government than the equality of privileges of all the population ; yet these 
have not been denied to be reasonable, and warranted by the national constitu- 
tion in the admission of new states. Nor need gentlemen apprehend that con- 
gress will set no reasonable limits to the conditions of admission. In the ex- 
ercise of their constitutional discretion on this subject, they are, as in all 
other cases, responsible to the people. Their power to levy direct taxes is not 
limited by the constitution. They may lay a tax of one million of dollars, or 
of a hundred millions, without violating the letter of the constitution ; but if 
the latter enormous and unreasonable sum were levied, or even the former, 

without evident necessity, the people have the power in their own hands a 

speedy corrective is found in the return of the elections. This remedy is so 
certain, that the representatives of the people can never lose sight of it ; and, 
consequently, an abuse of their powers to any considerable extent can never be 
apprehended. The same reasoning applies to the exercise of all -the powers 
entrusted to congress, and the admission of new states into the Union is in no 
respect an exception. 

One gentleman, however, has contended against the amendment, because it 
abridges the rights of the slaveholding states to transport their slaves to the 
new states, for sale or otherwise. This argument is attempted to be enforced 
in various ways, and particularly by the clause in the constitution last cited. 
It admits, however, of a very clear answer by recurring to the 9th section of 
article 1st, which provides that "the migration or importation of such persons 
as any of the states then existing shall admit, shall not be prohibited by con- 
gress till 1808." This clearly implies that the migration and importation 
may be prohibited after that year. The importation has been prohibited, but 
the migration has not hitherto been restrained ; congress, however, may re- 
strain it when it may be judged expedient. It is, indeed, contended by some 
gentlemen, that migration is either synonymous with importation, or that it 
means something different from the transportation of slaves from one state to 
another. It certainly is not synonymous with importation, and would not 
have been used had it been so. It cannot mean exportation; which is also a 
definite and precise term. It cannot mean the reception of free blacks from 
foreign countries, as is alleged by some, because no possible reason existed for 
regulating their admission by the constitution ; no free blacks ever came from 
Africa, or any other country to this; and to introduce the provision by 
the side of that for the importation of slaves, would have been absurd in the 
highest degree. What alternative remains but to apply the term "migration" 
to the transportation of slaves from those states where they are admitted to be 
held, to other states? Such a provision might have in view a very natural ob- 
ject. The price of slaves might be affected so far by a sudden prohibition to 
transport slaves from state to state, that it was as reasonable to guard against 
that inconvenience as against the sudden interdiction of the importation. 
Hitherto it has not been found necessary for congress to prohibit migration or 
transportation from state to state. But now it becomes the right and duty of 



456 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

congress to guard against the further extension of the intolerable evil and the 
crying enormity of slavery. 

The expediency of this measure is very apparent. The opening of an ex- 
tensive slave market will tempt the cupidity of those who, otherwise, perhaps, 
might gradually emancipate their slaves. "We have heard much, Mr. Chairman, 
of the colonization society ; an institution which is the favorite of the humane 
gentlemen in the slaveholding states. They have long been lamenting the 
miseries of slavery, and earnestly seeking for a remedy compatible with their 
own safety and the happiness of their slaves. At last the great desideratum 
is found — a colony in Africa for the emancipated blacks. How will the gen- 
erous intentions of these humane persons be frustrated if the price of slaves is 
to be doubled by a new and boundless market ? Instead of emancipation of 
the slaves, it is much to be feared that unprincipled wretches will be found kid- 
napping those who are already free, and transporting and selling the hapless 
victims into hopeless bondage. Sir, I really hope that congress will not con- 
tribute to discountenance and render abortive the generous and philanthropic 
views of this most worthy and laudable society. Rather let us hope that 
the time is not very remote, when the shores of Africa, which have so long 
been a scene of barbarous rapacity and savage cruelty, shall exhibit a race of 
free and enlightened people — the offspring, indeed, of cannibals or F.laves ; but 
displaying the virtues of civilization and the energies of independent freemen. 
America may then hope to see the development of a germ, now scarcely visi- 
ble, cherished and matured under the genial warmth of our country's protec- 
tion, till the fruit shall appear in the regeneration and happiness of a boundless 
continent. 

One argument still remains to be noticed. It is said that we are bound, by 
the treaty of cession with France, to admit the ceded territory into the Union 
" as soon as possible. " It is obvious that the president and the senate, the 
treaty-making power, cannot make a stipulation with any foreign nation in 
derogation of the constitutional powers and duties of this house, by making it 
imperative on us to admit the new territory according to the literal tenor of 
the phrase ; but the additioual words in the treaty, " according to the princi- 
ples of the constitution," put it beyond all doubt that no such compulsory 
admission was intended, and that the republican principles of our constitution 
are to govern us in the admission of this, as well as all the new states in the 
national family. 

Mr. Tallmadge, of New York, rose : Sir, said he, it has been my desire and 
my intention to avoid any debate on the present painful and unpleasant subject. 
When I had the honor to submit to this house the amendment now under con- 
sideration, I accompanied it with a declaration that it was intended to confine 
its operation to the newly acquired territory across the Mississippi ; and I 
then expressly declared that I would in no manner intermeddle with the slave- 
holding states, nor attempt manumission in any one of the original states in 
the Union. Sir, I even went further, and stated that I was aware of the deli- 
cacy of the subject, and that I had learned from southern gentlemen the diffi- 



MB. TALLMADGE. 457 

culties and the dangers of having free blacks intermingling with slaves ; and, 
on that account, and with a view to the safety of the white population of the 
adjoining states, I would not even advocate the prohibition of slavery in the 
Alabama territory ; because, surrounded as it was by slaveholding states, and 
with only imaginary lines of division, the intercourse between slaves and free 
blacks could not be prevented, and a servile war might be the result. While 
we deprecate and mourn over the evils of slavery, humanity and good morals 
require us to wish its abolition, under circumstances consistent with the safety 
of the white population. Willingly, therefore, will I submit to an evil which 
we cannot safely remedy. I admitted all that had been said of the danger of 
having free blacks visible to slaves, and therefore did not hesitate to pledge 
myself that I would neither advise nor attempt coercive manumission. But, 
sir, all these reasons cease when we cross the banks of the Mississippi, into a 
territory separated by a natural boundary — a newly acquired territory, never 
contemplated in the formation of our government, not included within the 
compromise or mutual pledge in the adoption of our constitution — a new ter- 
ritory acquired by our common fund, and ought justly to be subject to our 
common legislation. 

Sir, when I submitted the amendment now under consideration, accompanied 
with these explanations, and with these avowals of my intentions and of my 
motives, I did expect that gentlemen who might differ from me in opinion 
would appreciate the liberality of my views, and would meet me with modera- 
tion, as upon a fair subject for general legislation. I did expect, at least, that 
the frank declaration of my views would protect me from harsh expressions, 
and from the unfriendly imputations which have been cast out on this occasion. 
But, sir, such has been the character and the violence of this debate, and ex- 
pressions of so much intemperance and of an aspect so threatening have been 
used, that continued silence on my part would ill become me who had submit- 
ted to this house the original proposition. While this subject was under de- 
bate before the committee of the whole, I did not take the floor, and I avail 
myself of this occasion to acknowledge my obligations to my friends (Mr. 
Taylor and Mr. Mills) for the manner in which they supported my amendment, 
at a time when I was unable to partake of the debate. I had only on that 
day returned from a journey, long in extent and painful in its occasion ; and 
from an affection of my breast I could not then speak. I cannot yet hope to 
do justice to the subject ; but I do hope to say enough to assure my friends 
that I have not left them in the controversy, and to convince the opponents of 
the measure that their violence has not driven me from the debate. 

Sir, the hon. gentleman from Missouri, (Mr. Scott,) who has just resumed 
his seat, has told us of the ides of March, and has cautioned us to " beware of 
the fate of Caesar and of Rome." Another gentleman, (Mr. Cobb,) from 
Georgia, in addition to other expressions of great warmth, has said that if we 
persist, the Union will be dissolved ; and with a look fixed on me, has told us, 
"we have kindled a fire which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, 
which seas of blood can only extinguish." 



458 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

Language of this sort has no effect on me ; my purpose is fixed, it is inter- 
woven with my existence ; its durability is limited with my life ; it is a great 
and glorious cause, setting bounds to a slavery the most cruel and debasing 
the world has ever witnessed ; it is the freedom of man ; it is the cause of un- 
redeemed and unregenerated human beings. 

If a dissolution of the Union must take place, let it be so ! If a civil war, 
which gentlemen so much threaten, must come, I can only say, let it come !■ 
My hold on life is probably as frail as that of any man who now hears me ; 
but while that hold lasts, it shall be devoted to the service of my country — to 
the freedom of man. If blood is necessary to extinguish any fire which I have 
assisted to kindle, I can assure gentlemen, while I regret the necessity, I shall 
not forbear to contribute my mite. Sir, the violence to which gentlemen have 
resorted on this subject will not move my purpose, nor drive me from my place. 
I have the fortune and the honor to stand here as the representative of free- 
men, who possess intelligence to know their rights — who have the spirit to 
maintain them. Whatever might be my 6*wu private sentiments on this sub- 
ject, standing here as the representative of others, no choice is left me. I 
know the will of my constituents, and, regardless of consequences, I will avow 
it — as their representative, I will proclaim their hatred to slavery in every 
shape — as their representative, here will I hold my stand, till this floor, with 
the constitution of my country which supports it, shall sink beneath me — if I 
am doomed to fall, I shall, at least, have the painful consolation to believe that 
I fall, as a fragment, in the rains of my country. 

Sir, the gentleman from Yirginia (Mr. Colston) has accused my honorable 
friend from New Hampshire (Mr. Livermore) of " speaking to the galleries," 
and by his " language endeavoring to excite a servile war ; " and has ended 
by saying, " he is no better than Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and deserves no 
better fate." When I hear such language uttered upon this floor, and within 
this house, I am constrained to consider it as hasty and unintended language, 
resulting from the vehemence of debate, and not really intending the personal 
indecorum the expression would seem to indicate. [Mr. Colston asked to ex- 
plain, and said he had not distinctly understood Mr. T. Mr. Livermore called 
on Mr. C. to state the expressions he had used. Mr. C. then said he had no 
explanation to give.] Mr. T. said he had none to ask — he continued to say, 
he would not believe any gentleman on this floor would commit so great an 
indecorum against any member, or against the dignity of this house, as to use 
such expressions, really intending the meaning which the words seem to import, 
ami which had been uttered against the gentleman from New Hampshire. 
[Mr. Nelson, of Virginia, in the chair, called to order, and said no personal 
remarks would be allowed.] Mr. T. said he rejoiced the chair was at length 
aroused to a sense of its duties. The debate had, for several days, progressed 
with uneqnaled violence, and all was in order ; but now, when at length this 
violence on one side is to be resisted, the chair discovered it is out of order. 
I rejoice, said Mr. T , at the discovery, I approve of the admonition, while I 
am proud to say it has no relevancy to me. It is my boast that I have never 



MR. TALLMADGE. 459 

tittered an unfriendly personal remark on this floor ; but I wish it distinctly 
understood, that the immutable laws of self-defense will justify going to great 
lengths, and that, in the future progress of this debate, the rights of defense 
would be regarded. 

Sir, has it already come to this, that in the congress of the United States 

that, in the legislative councils of republican America, the subject of slavery 
has become a subject of so much feeling, of such delicacy, of such danger, 
that it cannot safely be discussed ? Are members who venture to express their 
sentiments on this subject to be accused of talking to the galleries, with inten- 
tion to excite a servile war ; and of meriting the fate of Arbuthnot and Am- 
brister ? Are we to be told of the dissolution of the Union, of civil war, and 
seas of blood ? And yet, with such awful threatenings before us, do gentlemen 
in the same breath insist upon the encouragement of this evil — upon the ex- 
tension of this monstrous scourge of the human race ? An evil so fraught 
with such dire calamities to us as individuals, and to our nation, and threaten- 
ing, in its progress, to overwhelm^he civil and religious institutions of the 
country, with the liberties of the nation, ought at once to be met, and to be 
controlled. If its power, its influence, and its impending dangers have already 
arrived at such a point that it is not safe to discuss it on this floor, and it can- 
not now pass under consideration as a proper subject for general legislation, 
what will be the result when it has spread through your widely-extended domain? 
Its present threatening aspect, and the violence of its supporters, so far from 
inducing me to yield to its progress, prompt me to resist its march. Now is 
the time. It must now be met, and the extension of the evil must now be 
prevented, or the occasion is irrecoverably lost, and the evil can never be con- 
trolled. 

Sir, extend your view across the Mississippi, over your newly-acquired ter- 
ritory — a territory so far surpassing, in extent, the limits of your prespnt coun- 
try, that that country which gave birth to your nation, which achieved your 
revolution, consolidated your Union, formed your constitution, and has subse- 
quently acquired so much glory, hangs but as an appendage to the extended 
empire over which your republican government is now called to bear sway. 
Look do *vn the long vista of futurity ; see your empire, in extent unequaled, 
in advantageous situation without a parallel, and occupying all the valuable 
part of one continent. Behold this extended empire, inhabited by the hardy 
sons of American freemen, knowing their rights, and inheriting the will to pro- 
tect them — owners of the soil on which they live, and interested in the institu- 
tions which they labor to defend ; with two oceans laving your shores, and 
tributary to your purposes, bearing on their bosoms the commerce of our peo- 
ple ; compared to yours, the governments of Europe dwindle into insignifi- 
cance, and the whole world is without a parallel. But, sir, reverse this scene ; 
people this fair domain with the slaves of your planters ; extend slavery, this 
bane of man, this abomination of heaven, over your extended empire, and you 
prepare its dissolution ; you turn its accumulated strength into positive weak- 
ness ; you cherish a canker in your breast ; you put poison in your bosom : you 
30 



460 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

place a vulture preying on your heart — nay, you whet the dagger and place it 
in the hands of a portion of your population, stimulated to use it by every tie, 
human and divine. The envious contrast between your happiness and their 
misery, between your liberty and their slavery, must constantly prompt them 
to accomplish your destruction. Tour enemies will learn the source and the 
cause of your weakness. As often as external dangers shall threaten, or inter- 
nal commotions await you, you will then realize, that by your own procure- 
ment, you have placed amidst your families, and in the bosom of your country, 
a population producing at once the greatest cause of individual danger, and of 
national weakness. With this defect, your government must crumble to pieces, 
and your people become the scoff of the world. 

Sir, we have been told, with apparent confidence, that we have no right to 
annex conditions to a state, on its admission into the Union ; and it has been 
urged that the proposed amendment, prohibiting the further introduction of 
slavery, is unconstitutional. This position, asserted with so much confidence, 
remains unsupported by any argument, or^by any authority derived from the 
constitution itself. The constitution strongly indicates an opposite conclusion, 
and seems to contemplate a difference between the old and the new states. 
The practice of the government has sanctioned this difference in many respects. 

The third section of the fourth article of the constitution says, " new states 
may be admitted by the congress into this Union," and it is silent as to the 
terms and conditions upon which the new states may be so admitted. The fair 
inference from this is, that the congress which might admit, should prescribe 
the time and the terms of such admission. The tenth section of the first arti- 
cle of the constitution says, " the migration or importation of such persons 
as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be 
prohibitedby the congress prior to the year 1808." The words "now exist- 
ing " clearly show the distinction for which we contend. The word slave is 
no where mentioned in the constitution ; but this section has always been con- 
sidered as applicable to them, and unquestionably reserved the right to prevent 
their importation into any new state before the year 1808. 

Congress, therefore, have power over the subject, probably as a matter of 
legislation, but more certainly as a right, to prescribe the time and the condi- 
tion upon which any new state may be admitted into the family of the Union. 
Sir, the bill now before us proves the correctness of my argument. It is filled 
with conditions and limitations. The territory is required to take a census, 
and is to be admitted only on condition that it have 40,000 inhabitants. I have 
already submitted amendments preventing the state from taxing the lands of 
the United States, and declaring that all navigable waters shall remain open 
to the other states, and be exempt from any tolls or duties. And my friend 
(Mr. Taylor) has also submitted amendments prohibiting the state from taxing 
soldiers' lands for the period of five years. And to all these amendments we 
have heard no objection — they have passed unanimously. But now, when an 
amendment prohibiting the further introduction of slavery is proposed, the 
whole house is put in agitation, and we are confidently told it is unconstitu- 



MR. TALLMADGE. 461 

tional to annex conditions to the admission of a new state into the union. The 
result of all this is, that all amendments and conditions are proper, which suit 
a certain class of gentlemen, but whatever amendment is proposed, which does 
not comport with their interests or their views, is unconstitutional, and a fla- 
grant violation of this sacred charter of our rights. In order to be consistent, 
gentlemen must go back and strike out the various amendments to which they 
have already agreed. The constitution applies equally to all, or to none. 

Sir, we have been told that this is a new principle for which we contend, 
never before adopted, or thought of. So far from this being correct, it is due 
to the memory of our ancestors to say, it is an old principle, adopted by them 
as the policy of our country. Whenever the United States have had the right 
and the power, they have heretofore prevented the extension of slavery. The 
states of Kentucky and Tennessee were taken off from other states, and were 
admitted into the Union without condition, because their lands were never 
owned by the United States. The territory northwest of the Ohio is all the 
land which ever belonged to them. Shortly after the cession of those lands to 
the Union, congress passed, in 178?, a compact, which was declared to be un- 
alterable, the sixth article of which provides that "there shall be neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in 
the punishment for crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly con- 
victed.' 1 ' 1 In pursuance of this compact, all the states formed from that territory 
have been admitted into the Union upon various conditions, and, amongst 
which, the sixth article of this compact is included as one. 

Let gentlemen also advert to the law for the admission of the state of Louisi- 
ana into the Union ; they will find it filled with conditions. It was required 
not only to form a constitution upon the principles of a republican government, 
but it was required to contain the "fundamental principles of civil and religions 
liberty." It was even required, as a condition of its admission, to keep its 
records, and its judicial and its legislative proceedings in the English language ; 
and also to secure the trial by jury, and to surrender all claim to unappropri- 
ated lands in the territory, with the prohibition to tax any of the United States' 
lands. 

After this long practice and constant usage to annex conditions to the admis- 
sion of a state into the Union, will gentlemen yet tell us it is unconstitutional, 
and talk of our principles being novel and extraordinary? It has been said 
that if this amendment prevails, we shall have a union of states possessing 
unequal rights. And we have been asked, whether we wished to see such a 
"checkered union ? " Sir, we have such a union already. If the prohibition 
of slavery is a denial of a right, and constitutes a checkered union, gladly 
would I behold such rights denied, and such a checker spread over every state 
in the Union. It is now spread over the states northwest of the Ohio, and 
forms the glory and the strength of those states. I hope it will be extended 
from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. 

Sir, we have been told that the proposed amendment cannot be received, 
because it is contrary to the treaty and cession of Louisiana. " Article 3. The 



462 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the 
United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of 
the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and im- 
munities of citizens of the United States, and in the mean time they shall be 
maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, their property, 
and the religion which they profess." I find nothing, said Mr. T., in this ar- 
ticle of the treaty incompatible with the proposed amendment. The rights, 
advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States are guaranteed to 
the inhabitants of Louisiana. If one of them should choose to remove into 
"Virginia, he could take his slaves with him ; but if he removes to Indiana, or 
any of the states northwest of the Ohio, he cannot take his slaves with him. 
If the proposed amendment prevail, the inhabitants of Louisiana, or the citi- 
zens of the United States, can neither of them take slaves into the state of 
Missouri. All, therefore, may enjoy equal privileges. It is a disability, or 
what I call a blessing, annexed to the particular district of country, and in no 
manner attached to the individual. But, wllile I have no doubt that the treaty 
contains no solid objection against the proposed amendment, if it did, it would 
not alter my determination on the subject. The senate, or the treaty-making 
power of our government, have neither the right nor the power to stipulate 
by a treaty, the terms upon which a people shall be admitted into the Union. 
This house have a right to be heard on the subject. The admission of a state 
into the Union is a legislative act, which requires the concurrence of all the 
departments of legislative power. It is an important prerogative of this house, 
which I hope will never be surrendered. 

The zeal and the ardor of gentlemen, in the course of this debate, have in- 
duced them to announce to this house, that, if we persist and force the state of 
Missouri to accede to the proposed amendment, as the condition of her admis- 
sion into the Union, she will not regard it, and, as soon as admitted, will alter 
her constitution, and introduce slavery into her territory. Sir, I am not pre- 
pared, nor is it necessary, to determine what would be the consequence of such 
a violation of faith — of such a departure from the fundamental condition of 
her admission into the Union. I would not cast upon a people so foul an im- 
putation, as to believe they would be guilty of such fraudulent duplicity. The 
states northwest of the Ohio have all regarded the faith and the conditions of 
their admission ; and there is no reason to believe the people of Missouri will 
not also regard theirs. But, sir, whenever a state admitted into the Union 
shall disregard and set at naught the fundamental conditions of its admission, 
and shall, in violation of all faith, undertake to levy a tax upon lands of the 
United States, or a toll upon their navigable waters, or introduce slavery, 
where congress have prohibited it, then it will be in time to determine the con- 
sequence. But, if the threatened consequence were known to be the certain 
result, yet would I insist upon the proposed amendment. The declaration of 
this house, the declared will of the nation to prohibit slavery would produce 
its moral effect, and stand as one of the brightest ornaments of our country. 

Sir, it has been urged with great plausibility, that we should spread the slaves 



MR. TALLMADGE. 463 

now in our country, and thus spread the evil, rather than confine it to its pres- 
ent districts. It has been said we should thereby diminish the dangers from 
them, while we increase the means of then - living, and augment their comforts. 
But, you may rest assured, that this reasoning is fallacious, and that, while 
slavery is admitted, the market will be supplied. Our coast, and its contiguity 
to the West Indies and the Spanish possessions, render easy the introduction 
of slaves into our country. Our laws are already highly penal against their 
introduction, and yet it is a well-known fact, that about fourteen thousand 
slaves have been brought into our country this last year. 

Since we have been engaged in this debate, we have witnessed an elucidation 
of this argument, of bettering the condition of slaves, by spreading them over 
the country. A slave-driver, a trafficker in human flesh, as if sent by provi- 
dence, has passed the door of your capitol, on his way to the west, driving 
before him about fifteen of these wretched victims of his power, collected in 
the course of his traffic, and by their removal, torn from every relation and 
from every tie which the human heart can hold dear. The males, who might 
raise the arm of vengeance, and retaliate for their wrongs, were hand-cuffed 
and chained to each other, while the females and children were marched in 
their rear, under the guidance of the driver's whip ! Yes, sir, such has been 
the scene witnessed from the windows of congress hall, and viewed by members 
who compose the legislative councils of republican America I 

In the course of the debate on this subject, we have been told that, from the 
long habit of the southern and western people, the possession of slaves has be- 
come necessary to them, and an essential requisite in their living. It has been 
urged, from the nature of the climate and soil of the southern countries, that 
the lands cannot be occupied or cultivated without slaves. It has been said 
that the slaves prosper in those places, and that they are much better off there 
than in their own native country. We have ever been told that if we succeed 
and prevent slavery across the Mississippi, we shall greatly lessen the value of 
property there, and shall retard, for a long series of years, the settlement of 
that country. 

Sir, said Mr. T., if the western country cannot be settled without slaves, 
gladly would I prevent its settlement till time shall be no more. If this class 
of arguments is to prevail, it sets all morals at defiance, and we are called to 
legislate on this subject as a matter of mere personal interest. If this is to 
be the case, repeal all your laws prohibiting the slave-trade ; throw open this 
traffic to the commercial states of the east ; and if it better the condition of 
these wretched beings, invite the dark population of benighted Africa to be 
transplanted to the shores of republican America. But I will not cast upon 
this or upon that gentleman an imputation so ungracious as the conclusion to 
which their arguments would necessarily tend. I do not believe any gentleman 
on this floor would here advocate the slave-trade, or maintain in the abstract 
the principles of slavery. I will not outrage the decorum, nor insult the dig- 
nity of this house, by attempting to argue in this place, as an abstract propo- 
sition, the moral right of slavery. How gladly would the "legitimates of 



4G4 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

Europe chuckle," to find an American congress in debate on such a question ! 
As an evil brought upon us without our own fault, before the formation of 
our government, and as oue of the sins of that nation from which we have 
revolted, we must, of necessity, legislate upon this subject. It is our business 
so to legislate as never to encourage, but always to control this evil ; and, 
while we strive to eradicate it, we ought to fix its limits, and render it subor- 
dinate to the safety of the white population, and the good order of civil society 

Sir, on this subject the eyes of Europe are turned upon you. You boast of 
the freedom of your constitution and your laws ; you have proclaimed, in the 
Declaration of Independence, " that all men are created equal ; that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights — that amongst 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ;" and yet you have 
slaves in your country. The enemies of your government, and the legitimates 
of Europe, point to your inconsistencies, and blazon your supposed defects. 
If you allow slavery to pass into territories where you have the lawful 
power to exclude it, you will justly take upon yourself all the charges of in- 
consistency ; but confine it to the original slaveholding states, where you found 
it at the formation of your government, and you stand acquitted of all imputa- 
tion. 

This is a subject upon which I have great feeling for the honor of my coun- 
try. In a former debate upon the Illinois constitution, I mentioned that our 
enemies had drawn a picture of our country, as holding in one hand the Decla- 
ration of Independence, and with the other brandishing a whip over our af- 
frighted slaves. I then made it my boast that we could cast back upon Eng- 
land the accusation — that she had committed the original sin of bringing slaves 
into our country. I have since received, through the post-office, a letter post- 
marked in South Carolina, aud signed "A native of England," desiring that, 
when I had occasion to repeat my boast against England, I would also state 
that she had atoned for her original sin by establishing in her slave-colonies a 
system of humane laws, meliorating their condition, and providing for their 
safety, while America had committed the secondary sin of disregarding their 
condition, aud had even provided laws by which it was not murder to kill a 
slave. Sir, I felt the severity of the reproof ; I felt for my country. I have 
inquired on the subject, and I find such were formerly the laws in some of the 
slaveholdiug states ; and that even now, in the state of South Carolina, by law, 
the penalty of death is provided for stealing a slave, while the murder of a 
slave is punished with a trivial fine. Such is the contrast and the relative value 
which is placed, in the opinion of a slaveholding state, between the property 
of the master and the life of a slave. 

Sir, gentlemen have undertaken to criminate, and to draw odious contrasts 
between different sections of our country — I shall not combat such arguments ; 
I have made no pretense to exclusive morality on this subject, either for myself 
or my constituents ; nor have I cast any imputations on others. On the con- 
trary, I hold that mankind under like circumstances are alike, the world over. 
The vicious and unprincipled are confined to no district of country ; and it is 



MR TALLMADGE. . 465 

for this portion of the community we are bound to legislate. When honorable 
gentlemen inform us we overrate the cruelty and the dangers of slavery, and 
tell us that their slaves are happy and contented, and would even contribute to 
their safety, they tell us but very little ; they do not tell us that, while their 
slaves are happy, the slaves of some depraved and cruel wretch in their neigh- 
borhood may be stimulated to revenge, and thus involve the country in 
ruin. If we had to legislate only for such gentlemen as are now embraced 
within my view, a law against robbing the mail would be a disgrace upon the 
nation ; and, as useless, I would tear it from the pages of your statute book ; 
yet sad experience has taught us the necessity of such laws — and honor, just- 
ice, and policy teach us the wisdom of legislating to limit the extension of 
slavery. 

In the zeal to draw sectional contrasts, we have been told "by one gentleman, 
that gentlemen from one district of country talk of their morality, while those 
of another practice it. And the superior liberality has been asserted of south- 
ern gentlemen over those of the north, in all contributions to moral institu- 
tions, for bible and missionary societies. Sir, I understand too well the pur- 
suit of my purpose, to be decoyed and drawn off into the discussion of a col- 
lateral subject. I have no inclination to controvert these assertions of com- 
parative liberality. Although I have no idea that they are founded in fact, 
yet, because it better suits the object of my present argument, I will, on this 
occasion, admit them to the fullest extent. And what is the result ? South- 
ern gentlemen, by their superior liberality in contributions to moral institu- 
tions, justly stand in the first rank, and hold the first place in the brightest page 
in the history of our country. But turn over this page, and what do you be- 
hold ? You behold them contributing to teach the doctrines of Christianity 
in every quarter of the globe. You behold them legislating to secure the ig- 
norance and stupidity of their own slaves ! You behold them prescribing, by 
law, penalties against the man that dares teach a negro to read. Such is the 
statute law of the state of Virginia. [Mr. Bassett and Mr. Tyler said that 
there was no such law in Virginia.] 

No, said Mr. T., I have mis-spoken myself; I ought to have said, such is 
the statute law of the state of Georgia. Yes, while we hear of a liberality 
which civilizes the savages of all countries, and carries the gospel alike to the 
Hottentot and the Hindoo, it has been reserved for the republican state of 
Georgia, not content with the care of its overseers, to legislate to secure the 
oppression and the ignorance of their slaves. The man who there teaches a 
negro to read is liable to a criminal prosecution. The dark, benighted beings 
of all creation profit by our liberality — save those of our own plantations. 
Where is the missionary who possesses sufficient hardihood to venture a resi- 
dence to teach the slaves of a plantation ? Here is the stain ! Here is the 
stigma ! which fastens upon the character of our country ; and which, in the 
appropriate language of the gentleman from Georgia, (Mr. Cobb,) all the wa- 
ters of the ocean cannot wash out; which seas of blood can only takeaway. 

Sir. there is yet another, and an important point of view, in which this sub- 



466 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

ject ought to be considered. We have been told by those who advocate the 
extension of slavery into the Missouri, that any attempt to control this subject 
by legislation is a violation of that faith and mutual confidence upon which our 
Union was formed, and our constitution adopted. This argument might be 
considered plausible if the restriction was attempted to be enforced against 
any of the slaveholding states which had been a party in the adoption of the 
constitution. But it can have no reference or application to a new district of 
country recently acquired, and never contemplated in the formation of govern- 
ment, and not embraced in the mutual concessions and declared faith upon 
which the constitution was adopted. The constitution provides that the rep- 
resentatives of the several states to this house shall be according to their num- 
ber, including three-fifths of the slaves in the respective states. This is an 
important benefit yielded to the slaveholding states, as one of the mutual sac- 
rifices for the Union. On this subject, I consider the faith of the Union pledg- 
ed, and I never would attempt coercive manumission in a slaveholding state. 

But none of these causes which induced the sacrifice of this principle, and 
which now produce such an unequal representation on this floor, of the free 
population of the country, exist as between us and the newly-acquired terri- 
tory across the Mississippi. That portion of country has no claims to such an 
unequal representation, unjust in its results upon the other states. Are the 
numerous slaves in extensive countries, which we may acquire by purchase, and 
admit as states into the Union, at once to be represented on this floor, under a 
clause of the constitution, granted as a compromise and a benefit to the south- 
ern states which had borne part in the revolution ? Such an extension of that 
clause in the constitution would be unjust in its operations, unequal in its re- 
sults, and a violation of its original intention. Abstract from the moral effects 
of slavery, its political consequences in the representation under this clause of 
the constitution, demonstrate the importance of the proposed amendment. 

Sir, I shall bow in silence to the will of the majority, on whichever side it 
shall be expressed ; yet I confidently hope that majority will be found on the 
side of an amendment, so replete with moral consequences, so pregnant with 
important political results. 

Mr. Scott, of Missouri, said he trusted that his conduct, during the whole 
of the time in which he had the honor of a seat in the house, had convinced 
gentlemen of his disposition not to obtrude his sentiments on any other subjects 
than those on which the interest of his constituents, and of the territory he rep- 
resented, were immediately concerned. But when a question such as the amend- 
ments proposed by the gentlemen from New- York, (Messrs. Tallmadge and 
Taylor,) was presented for consideration, involving constitutional principles to 
a vast amount, pregnant with the future fate of the territory, portending de- 
struction to the liberties of that people, directly bearing on their rights of prop- 
erty, their state rights, their all, he should consider it a dereliction of his duty, 
as retreating from his post, nay, double criminality, did he not raise his voice 
against their adoption. After the many able and luminous views that had been 
taken of this subject, by the speaker of the house, and other honorable gentle- 



MR. SCOTT. 467 

men, lie had not the vanity to suppose that any additional views which he could 
offer, or any new dress in which he could clothe those already advanced, would 
have the happy tendency of inducing any gentleman to change his vote. But, 
if he stood single on the question, and there was no man to help him, yet, 
while the laws of the land and the rules of the house guaranteed to him the 
privilege of speech, he would redeem his conscience from the imputation of 
having silently witnessed a violation of the constitution of his country, and an 
infringement on the liberties of the people who had intrusted to his feeble abil- 
ities the advocation of their rights. He desired, at this early stage of his re- 
marks, in the name of the citizens of Missouri territory, whose rights on other 
subjects had been too long neglected and shamefully disregarded, to enter his 
solemn protest against the introduction, under the insidious form of amend- 
ment, of any principle in this bill, the obvious tendency of which would be to 
sow the seeds of discord in, and perhaps eventually endanger the Union. 

Mr. S. entertained the opinion that, under the constitution, congress had not 
the power to impose this, or any other restriction, or to require of the people 
of Missouri their assent to this condition, as a pre-requisite to their admission 
into the Union. He contended this from the language of the constitution it- 
self, from the practice in the admission of new states under that instrument, 
and from the express terms of the treaty of cession. The short view he in- 
tended to take of those points would, he trusted, be satisfactory to all those 
who were not so anxious to usurp power as to sacrifice to its attainment the 
principles of our government, or who were not desirous of prostrating the 
rights and independence of a state to chimerical views of policy or expediency. 
The authority to admit new states into the Union was granted in the third sec- 
tion of the fourth article of the constitution, which declared that " new states 
may be admitted by the congress into the Union." The only power given to 
the congress by this section appeared to him to be that of passing a law for 
the admission of the new state, leaving it in possession of all the rights, privi- 
leges, and immunities enjoyed by the other states ; the most valuable and prom- 
inent of which was that of forming and modifying their own state constitution, 
and over which congress had no superintending control, other than that ex- 
pressly given in the fourth section of the same article, which read, " the United 
States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of gov- 
ernment." This end accomplished, the guardianship of the United States over 
the constitutions of the several states was fulfilled ; and all restrictions, limi- 
tations, and conditions beyond this, was so much power unwarrantably assumed. 
In illustration of this position, he would read an extract from one of the essays 
written by the late President Madison, contemporaneously with the constitu- 
tion of the United States, and from a very celebrated work : " In a confed- 
eracy founded on republican principles, and composed of republican members, 
the superintending government ought clearly to possess authority to defend the 
system against aristocratic or monarchical innovations. The more intimate the 
nature of such a union may be, the greater interest have the members in the 
political institutions of each other, and the greater right to insist that the forms 



4b O MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

of government under which the compact was entered into, should be substan- 
tially maintained. But this authority extends no further than to a guarantee 
of a republican form of government, which supposes a preexisting govern- 
ment of the form which is to be guaranteed. As long, therefore, as the exist- 
ing republican forms are continued by the states, they are guaranteed by the 
federal constitution. Whenever the states may choose to substitute other re- 
publican forms, they have a right to do so, and to claim the federal guarantee 
for the latter. The only restriction imposed on them is, that they shall not 
exchange republican for anti-republican constitutions ; a restriction which, it is 
presumed, will hardly be considered as a grievance." 

Mr. S. thought that those two clauses, when supported by such high author- 
ity, had they been the only ones in the constitution which related to the powers 
of the general government over the states, and particularly at their formation 
and adoption into the Union, could not but be deemed satisfactory to a reason- 
able extent ; but there were other provisions in the constitution, to which he 
would refer, that beyond all doubt, to his mind, settled the question. One of 
those was the tenth article in the amendments, which said that " the powers 
not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to 
the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people." He be- 
lieved that, by common law and common usage, all grants giving certain de- 
fined and specific privileges or powers, were to be so construed as that no oth- 
ers should be intended to be given but such as were particularly enumerated in 
the instruments themselves, or indispensably necessary to carry into effect those 
designated. In no part of the constitution was the power proposed to be ex- 
ercised, of imposing conditions on a new state, given, either in so many words, 
or by any justifiable or fair inference ; nor in any portion of the constitution 
was the right prohibited to the respective states to regulate their own internal 
police, of admitting such citizens as they pleased, or of introducing any de- 
scription of property that they should consider as essential or necessary to their 
prosperity ; and the framers of that instrument seem to have been zealous, lest, 
by implication or by inference, powers might be assumed by the general gov- 
ernment over the states and people, other than those expressly given : hence 
they reserve in so many terms to the states and the people, all powers not del- 
egated to the federal government. The ninth article of the amendments to 
the constitution still further illustrated the position he had taken ; it read that 
"the enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to 
deny or disparage others retained by the people. " Mr. S. believed it to be a 
just rule of interpretation, that the enumeration of powers delegated to con- 
gress weakened their authority in all cases not enumerated ; and that beyond 
those powers enumerated they had none, except they were essentially neces- 
sary to carry into effect those that were given. The second section of the 
fourth article of the constitution, which declared that "the citizens of each 
state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the 
several states," was satisfactory, to his judgment, that it was intended the citi- 
zens of each state, forming a part of one harmonious whole, should have, in 



MR. SCOTT. 469 

all things, equal privileges ; the necessary consequence of which was, that 
every man, in his own state, should have the same rights, privileges, and pow- 
ers, that any other citizen of the United States had in his own state ; other- 
wise discontent and murmurings would prevail against the general government 
who had deprived him of the equality. 

For example, if the citizens of Pennsylvania, or Virginia, enjoyed the right, 
in their own state, to decide the question whether they would have slavery or 
not, the citizens of Missouri, to give them the same privileges, must have the 
same right to decide whether they would or would not tolerate slavery in their 
state ; if it were otherwise, then the citizens of Pennsylvania and Virginia 
would have more rights, privileges, and powers in their respective states, than 
the citizens of Missouri would have in theirs. Mr. Scott said he would make 
another quotation from the same work he had before been indebted to, which 
he believed had considerable bearing on this question. " The powers delegated 
by the proposed constitution to the federal government, are few and defined ; 
those which are to remain in the state governments, are numerous and indefi- 
nite ; the former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, 
negotiation, and foreign commerce, with which last the powers of taxation 
will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several 
states will extend to all the objects, which in the ordinary course of affairs con- 
cern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, 
improvement, and prosperity of the state." The applicability of this doctrine 
to the question under consideration was so obvious, that he would not detain 
the house to give examples, but leave it for gentlemen to make the application. 
He would, however, make one other reference to the constitution, before he 
proceeded to speak of the practice under it ; in the second section of that in- 
strument it was provided, that " representatives, and direct taxes, shall be ap- 
portioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, 
according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to 
the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term 
of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons." 
This provision was not restricted to the states then formed, and about to adopt 
the constitution ; but to all those states which might be included within this 
Union, clearly contemplating the admission of new states thereafter, and pro- 
viding, that to them, also, should this principle of representation and taxation 
equally apply. Nor could he subscribe to the construction, that as this part 
of the constitution was matter of compromise, it was to be limited in its ap- 
plication to the original states only, and not to be extended to all those states 
that might after its adoption become members of the federal Union ; and 
a practical exposition had been made by congress of this part of the constitu- 
tion, in the admission of Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi states, all of 
whom were slaveholding states, and to each of them this principle had been 
extended. 

Mr. Scott believed, that the practice under the constitution had been differ- 
ent from that now contended for by gentlemen ; he was unapprised of any 



470 MISSOURI APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

similar provision having ever been made, or attempted to be made, in relation 
to any other new state heretofore admitted. The argument drawn from the 
states formed out of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, he did not con- 
sider as analogous ; that restriction, if any, was imposed in pursuance of a 
compact, and only, so far as congress could do, carried into effect the disposi- 
tion of Virginia in reference to a part of her own original territory, and was, 
in every respect, more just, because that provision was made and published to 
the world at a time when but few, if any, settlements were formed within that 
tract of country ; and the children of those people of color belonging to the 
inhabitants then there have been, and still were, held in bondage, and were not 
free at a given age, as was contemplated by the amendment under considera- 
tion, nor did he doubt but that it was competent for any of those states admit- 
ted in pursuance of the ordinance of lT8t, to call a convention, and so to alter 
their constitution as to allow the introduction of slaves, if they thought proper 
to do so. To those gentlemen who had in their argument, in support of the 
amendments, adverted to the instance where congress had, by the law author- 
izing the people of Louisiana to form a constitution and state government, ex- 
ercised the power of imposing the terms and conditions on which they should 
be permitted to do so, he would recommend a careful examination and com- 
parison of those terms with the constitution of the United States, when, he 
doubted not, they would be convinced that these restrictions were only such as 
were in express and positive language denned in the latter instrument, and 
would have been equally binding on the people of Louisiana had they not been 
enumerated in the law giving them authority to form a constitution for them- 
selves. 

Mr. Scott said he considered the contemplated conditions and restrictions, 
contained in the proposed amendments, to be unconstitutional and unwarrant- 
able, from the provisions of the treaty of cession, by the third article of which 
it was stipulated, that "the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incor- 
porated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, 
according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all 
the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States, and, 
in the mean time, they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment 
of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess." 

This treaty having been made by the competent authority of government, 
ratified by the senate, and emphatically sanctioned by congress in the acts mak- 
ing appropriations to carry it into effect, became a part of the supreme law 
of the land, and its bearings on the rights of the people had received a prac- 
tical exposition by the admission of the state of Louisiana, part of the same 
territory, and acquired by the same treaty of cession, into the Union. It was 
in vain for gentlemen to tell him that, by the terms of the treaty of cession, 
the United States were not bound to admit any part of the ceded territory into 
the Union as a state ; the evidence of the obligation congress considered they 
were under, to adopt states formed out of that territory, is clearly deducible 
from the fact that they had done so in the instance of Louisiana. But, had 



MR. SCOTT. 471 

no state been admitted, formed of a part of the territory acquired by that 
treaty, the obligation of the government to do so would not be the less ap- 
parent to him. " The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated 
in the Union of the United States." The people were not left to the wayward 
discretion of this, or any other government, by saying that they may be incor- 
porated in the Union. The language was different and imperative: "they 
shall be incorporated*" Mr. Scott understood by the term incorporated, 
that they were to form a constituent part of this republic ; that they were to 
become joint partners in the character and councils of the country, and in the 
national losses and national gains ; as a territory, they were not an essential 
part of the government ; they were a mere province, subject to the acts and 
regulations of the general government in all cases whatsoever. As a territory, 
they had not all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the 
United States. Mr. Scott himself furnished an example, that, in their present 
condition, they had not all the rights of the other citizens of the Union. Had 
he a vote in this house ? And yet these people were, during the war, subject 
to certain taxes imposed by congress. Had those people any voice to give in 
the imposition of taxes to which they were subject, or in the disposition of the 
funds of the nation, and particularly those arising from the sales of the public 
lands, to which they already had, and still would largely contribute ? Had 
they a voice to give in selecting the officers of this government, or many of 
their own ? In short, in what had they equal rights, advantages and immuni- 
ties with the other citizens of the United States, but in the privilege to submit 
to a procrastination of their rights, and in the advantage to subscribe to your 
laws, your rules, your taxes, and your powers, even without a hearing ? Those 
people were also "to be admitted into the Union as soon as possible." Mr. 
Scott would infer from this expression, that it was the understanding of the 
parties, that so soon as any portion of the territory, of sufficient extent to form 
a state, should contain the number of inhabitants required by law to entitle 
them to a representative on the floor of this house, that they then had the 
right to make the call for admission, and this admission, when made, was to 
be, not on conditions that gentlemen might deem expedient, not on conditions 
referable to future political views, not on conditions that the constitution the 
people should form should contain a clause that would particularly open the 
door for emigration from the north or from the south, not on condition that 
the future population of the state should come from a slaveholding or non- 
slaveholding state, " but according to the principles of the federal constitu- 
tion^ and none other. The people of Missouri were, by solemn treaty stipu- 
lation, when admitted, to enjoy all the rights, advantages, and immunities of 
citizens of the United States. Can any gentleman contend, that, laboring un- 
der the proposed restriction, the citizens of Missouri would have all the rights, 
advantages, and immunities of other citizens of the Union? Have not other 
new states, in their admission, and have not all the states in the Union, now, 
privileges and rights beyond what was contemplated to be allowed to the citi- 
zens of Missouri ? Have not all other states in this government the right to 



472 DEBATE IN THE HOUSE. 

alter, modify, amend, and change their state constitutions, having regard alone 
to a republican form ? And was there any existing law, or any clause in the 
federal constitution, that prohibited a total change from a slaveholding to a 
non-slaveholding state, or from a non-slaveholding to a slaveholding state ? 
Mr. Scott thought that if this provision was proper, or within the powers of 
congress, they also had the correlative right to say that the people of Missouri 
should not be admitted as a state, unless they provided, in the formation of 
their state constitution, that slavery should be tolerated. Would not those 
conscientious gentlemen startle at this, and exclaim, what ! impose on those 
people slaves, when they do not want them ? This would be said to be a di- 
rect attack on the state independence. "Was it in the power of congress to 
annex the present condition, Mr. Scott deemed it equally within the scope of 
their authority to say what color the inhabitants of the proposed state should 
be, what description of property, other than slaves, those people should or 
should not possess, and the quantity of property each man should retain, going 
upon the agrarian principle. He would even go further, and say that con- 
gress had an equal power to enact to what religion the people should sub- 
scribe ; that none other should be professed, and to provide for the excommu- 
nication of all those who did not submit. 

The people of Missouri were, if admitted into the Union, to come in on an 
equal footing with the original states. That the people of the other states had 
the right to regulate their own internal police, to prescribe the rules of their 
own conduct, and, in the formation of their constitution, to say whether slavery 
was or was not admissible, he believed was a point conceded by all. How, 
then, were the citizens of Missouri placed on an equal footing with the other 
members of the Union ? Equal in some respects — a shameful discrimination 
in others. A discrimiuation not warranted by the constitution, nor justified 
by the treaty of cession, but founded on mistaken zeal, or erroneous policy. 
They were to be bound down by onerous conditions, limitations, and restric- 
tions to which he knew they would not submit. That people were brave and 
independent, and willing to risk their own happiness and future prosperity on 
the legitimate exercise of their own judgment and free will. Mr. Scott pro- 
tested against such a guardianship as was contemplated 'now to be assumed 
over his constituents. The spirit of freedom burned in the bosom of the free- 
men of Missouri, and if admitted into the national family, they would be 
equal, or not come in at all. With what an anxious eye have they looked to 
the east, since the commencement of this session of congress, for the good 
tidings, that on them you had conferred tfie glorious privilege of self-govern- 
ment and independence. What seeds *of discord will you sow, when they read 
this suspicious, shameful, unconstitutional inhibition in their charter ? Will 
they not compare it with the terms of the treaty of cession, that bill of their 
rights, emphatically their magna charta ? And will not the result of that 
comparison be a stigma on the faith of this government 1 It had been admit- 
ted by some gentlemen, in debate, that, were the people of Missouri to form a 
constitution conforming to this provision, so soon as they were adopted into 



MR. SCOTT. 473 

the Union it would be competent for them to call a convention and alter their 
constitution on this subject. Why, then, he would ask gentlemen, would they 
legislate, when they could produce no permanent, practical effect ? Why ex- 
pose the imbecility of the general government to tie up the hands of the state, 
and induce the people to an act of chicanery, which he knew from principle 
they abhorred, to get clear of an odious restriction on their rights 1 Mr. 
Scott had trusted that gentlemen who professed to be actuated by motives of 
humanity and principle would not encourage a course of dissimulation, or, by 
any vote of theirs, render it necessary for the citizens of Missouri to act equiv- 
ocally to obtain their rights. He was unwilling to believe that political views 
alone led gentlemen ou this or any other occasion ; but from the language of 
the member from New York, (Mr. Taylor,) he was compelled to suspect that 
they had their influence upon him. That gentleman has told us, that if ever 
he left his present residence, it would be for Illinois or Missouri ; at all events, 
he wished to send out his brothers and his sons. Mr. Scott begged that gen- 
tleman to relieve him from the awful apprehension excited by the prospect of 
this accession of population. He hoped the house would excuse him while he 
stated, that he did not desire that gentleman, his sons, or his brothers, in that 
land of brave, noble, and independent freemen. The member says that the 
latitude is too far north to admit of slavery there. Would the gentleman cast 
his eye on the map before him, he would there see that a part of Kentucky, 
Virginia, and Maryland, were as far north as the northern boundary of the 
proposed state of Missouri. Mr. Scott would thank the gentleman if he would 
condescend to tell him what precise line of latitude suited his conscience, his 
humanity, or his political views, on this subject. Could that member be serious, 
when he made the parallel of latitude the measure of his good will to those 
unfortunate blacks ? Or was he trying how far he could go in fallacious argu- 
ment and absurdity, without creating one blush even on his own cheek, for in- 
consistency ? What 1 starve the negroes out, pen them up in the swamps and 
morasses, confine them to southern latitudes, to long, scorching days of labor 
andfatigue, until the race becomes extinct, that the fair land of Missouri may 
be tenanted by that gentleman, his brothers, and sons? He expected from the 
majority of the house a more liberal policy, and better evidence that they really 
were actuated by humane motives. 

Mr. S. said he would trouble the house no longer ; he thanked them for the 
attention and indulgence already bestowed ; but he desired to apprise gentle- 
men, before he sat down, that they were sowing the seeds of discord in this 
Union, by attempting to admit states with unequal privileges and unequal 
rights ; that they were signing, sealing, and delivering their own death-warrant ; 
that the weapon they were so unjustly wielding against the people of Missouri, 
was a two-edged sword. From the cumulative nature of power, the day might 
come when the general government might, in turn, undertake to dictate to 
them on questions of internal policy ; Missouri, now weak and feeble, whose 
fate and murmurs would excite but little alarm or sensibility, might become an 
easy victim to motives of policy, party zeal, or mistaken ideas of power ; but 



474 DEBATE IN THE HOUSE. 

other times and other men would succeed ; a future congress might come, who, 
under the sanctified forms of constitutional power, would dictate to them odious 
conditions ; nay, inflict on their internal independence a wound more deep and 
dreadful than even this to Missouri. The house had seen the force of prece- 
dent, in the mistaken application of the conditions imposed on the people of 
Louisiana anterior to their admission into the Union. And, whatever might 
be the ultimate determination of the house, Mr. S. considered this question 
big with the fate of Csesar and of Rome. 

Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, observed that he did not rise for the purpose of de- 
taining the attention of the house for any length of time. He was too sensi- 
ble of the importance of each moment which yet remained of the session, to 
obtrude many remarks upon their patience. But, upon a measure involving 
the important consequences that this did, he felt it to be an imperious duty to 
express his sentiments, and to enter his most solemn protest against the princi- 
ple proposed for adoption by the amendment. Were gentlemen aware of what 
they were about to do ? Did they foresee no evil consequence likely to result 
out of the measure if adopted ? Could they suppose that the southern states 
would submit with patience to a measure, the effect of which would be to ex- 
clude them from all enjoyment of the vast region purchased by the United 
States beyond the Mississippi, and which belonged equally to them as to the 
northern states ? He ventured to assure them that they would not. The peo- 
ple of the slaveholding states, as they are called, know their rights, and will 
insist upon the enjoyment of them. He should not now attempt to go over 
ground already occupied by others, with much more ability, and attempt to 
show that, by the treaty with France, the people of that territory were secured 
in the enjoyment of the property which they held in their slaves. That the 
proposed amendment was an infraction of this treaty, had been most clearly 
shown. jSTor would he attempt to rescue from slander the character of the 
people of the southern states, in their conduct towards, and treatment of, their 
black population. That had also been done with a degree of force and elo- 
quence, to which he could pretend no claim, by the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Barbour), and the honorable speaker. He was, however, clearly of 
opinion that congress possessed no power under the constitution to adopt 
the principle proposed in the amendment. He called upon the advocates of 
it to point out, and lay their fingers upon that clause of the constitution of the 
United States, which gives to this body the right to legislate upon the subject. 
Could they show in what clause or section this right was expressly given, or 
from which it could be inferred ? Unless this authority could be shown, con- 
gress would be assuming a power, if the amendment prevailed, not delegated 
to them, and most dangerons in its exercise. What is the end and tendency 
of the measure proposed 1 It is to impose on the state of Missouri conditions 
not imposed upon any other state. It is to deprive her of one branch of sov- 
ereignty not surrendered by any other state in the Union, not even those beyond 
the Ohio ; for all of them had legislated upon this subject ; all of them had 
decided for themselves whether slavery should be tolerated, at the time they 



COBB AND LIVERMORE. 475 

framed their several constitutions. He would not now discuss the propriety 
of admitting slavery. It is not now a question whether it is politic or impolitic 
to tolerate slavery in the United States, or in a particular state. It was a 
discussion into which he would not permit himself to be dragged. Admit, 
however, its moral impropriety, yet there was a vast difference between 
moral impropriety and political sovereignty. The people of New York or 
Pennsylvania may deem it highly immoral and politically improper to permit 
slavery, but yet they possess the sovereign right and power to permit it, if 
they choose. They can to-morrow so alter their constitutions and laws as to 
admit it, if they were so disposed. It is a branch of sovereignty which the 
old thirteen states never surrender in the adoption of the federal constitution. 
Now, the bill proposes that the new state shall be admitted upon an equal 
footing with the other states of the Union. It is in this way only that she 
can be admitted under the constitution. These words can have no other mean- 
ing than that she shall be required to surrender no more of her rights of sov- 
ereignty than the other states, into a union with which she is about to be ad- 
mitted, have surrendered. But if the proposed amendment is adopted, will 
not this new state be shorn of one branch of her sovereignty, one right, which 
the other states may and have exercised, (whether properly or not, is immate- 
rial,) and do now exercise whenever they think fit ? 

Mr. C. observed that he did conceive the principle involved in the amend- 
ment pregnant with danger. It was one, he repeated, to which he believed 
the people of the region of country which he represented, would not quietly 
submit. He might, perhaps, subject himself to ridicule, for attempting the 
display of a spirit of prophecy which he did not possess, or of zeal and enthu- 
siasm for which he was entitled to little credit. But he warned the advocates 
of this measure against the certain effects which it must produce — effects de- 
structive of the peace and harmony of the Union. He believed that they 
were kindling a fire which all the waters ofVthe ocean could not extinguish. It 
could be extinguished only in blood .' 

Mr. Livermore, of New Hampshire, said : I am in favor of the proposed 
amendment. The object of it is to prevent the extension of slavery over the 
territory ceded to the United States by France. It accords with the dictates 
of reason, and the best feelings of the human heart ; and is not calculated to 
interrupt any legitimate right arising either from the constitution or any other 
compact. I propose to show what slavery is, and to mention a few of the 
many evils which follow in its train ; and I hope to evince that we are not 
bound to tolerate the existence of so disgraceful a state of things beyond its 
present extent, and that it would be impolitic and very unjust to let it spread 
over the whole face of our western territory. Slavery in the United States 
is the condition of man subjected to the will of a master, who can make any 
disposition of him short of taking away his life. In those states where it is 
tolerated, laws are enacted, making it penal to instruct slaves in the art of 
reading, and they are not permitted to attend public worship, or to hear the 
gospel preached. Thus the light of science and of religion is utterly excluded 
31 



476 DEBATE IN THE HOUSE. 

from the mind, that the body may be more easily bowed down to servitude. 
The bodies of slaves may, with impunity, be prostituted to any purpose, and 
deformed in any manner by their owners. The sympathies of nature in slaves 
are disregarded ; mothers and children are sold and separated ; the children 
wring their little hands, and expire in agonies of grief, while the bereft mothers 
commit suicide in despair. How long will the desire of wealth render us blind 
to the sin of holding both the bodies and souls of our fellow-men in chains 1 
But, sir, I am admonished of the constitution, and told we cannot emancipate 
slaves. I know we may not infringe that instrument, and therefore do not pro- 
pose to emancipate slaves. The proposition before us goes only to prevent 
our citizens from making slaves of such as have a right to freedom. In the 
present slaveholding states, let slavery continue, for our boasted constitution 
connives at it ; but do not, for the sake of cotton and tobacco, let it be told to 
future ages that, while pretending to love liberty, we have purchased an exten- 
sive country, to disgrace it with the foulest reproach of nations. Our consti- 
tution requires no such thing of us. The ends for which that supreme law was 
made, are succinctly stated in its preface. They are, first, to form a more per- 
fect Union, and insure domestic tranquility ? Will slavery effect this ? Can 
we, sir, by mingling bond with free, black spirits with white, like Shakspeare's 
witches in Macbeth, form a more perfect Union, and insure domestic tranquility ? 
Secondly, to establish justice. Is justice to be established by subjecting half 
mankind to the will of the other half 1 Justice, sir, is blind to colors, and 
weighs in equal scales the rights of all men, whether white or black. Thirdly, 
to provide for the common defense, and secure the blessings of liberty. Does 
slavery add anything to the common defense ? Sir, the strength of a republic 
is in the arm of freedom. But, above all things, do the blessings of liberty 
consist in slavery 1 If there is any sincerity in our profession, that slavery is 
an ill, tolerated only from necessity, let us not, while we feel that ill, shun the 
cure, which consists only in an honest avowal that liberty and equal rights are 
the end and aim of all our institutions, and that to tolerate slavery beyond the 
narrowest limits prescribed for it by the constitution, is a perversion of them 
all. 

Slavery, sir, I repeat, is not established by our constitution ; but a part of 
the states are indulged in the commission of a sin from which they could not 
at once be restrained, and which they would not consent to abandon. But, sir, 
if we could, by any process of reasoning, be brought to believe it justifiable to 
hold others to involuntary servitude, policy forbids that we should increase it. 
Even the present slaveholding states have an interest, I think, in limiting the 
extent of involuntary servitude ; for, should slaves become much more numer- 
ous, and, conscious of their strength, draw the sword against their masters, it 
will be to the free states the masters must resort for an efficient power to sup- 
press servile insurrection. But we have made a treaty with France, which, we 
are told, can only be preserved by the charms of slavery. 

Sir, said Mr. L., until the ceded territory shall have been made into states, 
and the new states admitted into the Union, we can do what we will with it. 



PROCEEDINGS. 477 

We can govern it as a province, or sell it to any other nation. A part of it 
is probably at this time sold to Spain, and the inhabitants of it may soon not 
only enjoy the comforts of slavery, but the blessings of the holy inquisition 
along with them. The question is on the admission of Missouri, as a state, 
into the Union. Surely it will not be contended that we are bouud by the 
treaty to admit it. The treaty-making power does not extend so far. Can 
the president and senate, by a treaty with Great Britain, make the province of 
Lower Canada a state of this Union ? To be received as a state into this 
Union, is a privilege which no country can claim as a right. It is a favor to 
be granted or not, as the United States may choose. When the United States 
think proper to grant a favor, they may annex just and reasonable terms : and 
what can be more reasonable than for these states to insist that a new territory, 
wishing to have the benefits of freedom extended to it, should renounce a prin- 
ciple that militates with justice, morality, religion, and every essential right of 
mankind ? Louisiana was admitted into the Union on terms. The conditions, 
I admit, were not very important, but still they recognize the principles for 
which I contend. 

An opportunity is now presented, if not to diminish, at least to prevent the 
growth of a sin which sits heavily on the soul of every one of us. By em- 
bracing this opportunity, we may retrieve the national character, and, in some 
degree, our own. But if we suffer it to pass unimproved, let us at least be 
consistent, and declare that our constitution was made to impose slavery, and 
not to establish liberty. Let us no longer tell idle tales about the gradual abo- 
lition of slavery ; away with colonization societies, if their design is only to 
rid us of free blacks and turbulent slaves ; have done also with bible societies, 
whose views are extended to Africa and the East Indies, while they overlook 
the deplorable condition of their sable brethren within our own borders ; make 
no more laws to prohibit the importation of slaves, for the world must see that 
the object of such laws is alone to prevent the glutting of a prodigious market 
for the flesh and blood of man, which we are about to establish in the west, 
and to enhance the price of sturdy wretches, reared, like black cattle and horses, 
for sale on our own plantations. 

On coming out of the committee, the yeas and nays were called on the ques- 
tion of agreeing to the first part of the amendment, which reads, 

" And provided also, that the further introduction of slavery or involuntary 
servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
shall be duly convicted ;" 

Yeas, 87 ; only one from a slave state, the state of Delaware — nays, 76 ; 
ten from free states, and sixty-six from slave states. The house proceeded to 
vote on the residue of the proposed amendment, which reads, 

— " and that all children of slaves, born within the said state, after the admis- 
sion thereof into the Union, shall be declared free at the age of twenty-five years." 

Yeas,82 ; one vote from Maryland — nays, 78 ; fourteen from free states. So 
the whole amendment — as moved by Gen. Tallmadge in committee of the 
whole, and there carried — was sustained when reported to the house. 



478 PROCEEDINGS. 

Mr. Storrs, of New York, (opposed to the restriction,) now moved the strik- 
ing out of so much of the bill as provides that the new state shall be admitted 
into the Union "on an equal footing with the original states" — which, he con 
tended, was nullified by the votes just taken. The house negatived the mo 
tion. 

Messrs. Desha, of Ky., Cobb, of Ga., and Rhea, of Tenn., declared against 
the bill as amended. 

Messrs. Scott, of Mo., and Anderson, of Ky., preferred the bill as amended 
to none. 

The house ordered the bill, as amended, to a third reading ; yeas, 98 ; nays, 
56. The bill thus passed the house next day, and was sent to the senate. 

The house bill thus passed, reached the senate Feb. 17th, when it was read 
twice and sent to a select committee already raised on a like application from 
Alabama, consisting of Messrs. Tait, of Ga., Morrow, of Ohio, Williams, of 
Miss., Edwards, of 111., Williams, of Tenn. 

On the 22d, Mr. Tait, from this committee, reported the bill with amend- 
ments, striking out the anti-slavery restrictions inserted by the house. The bill 
was taken up in committee of the whole on the 21th, when Mr. Wilson, of N. 
J., moved its postponement to the 5th of March — that is, to the end of the 
session— negatived : yeas, 14 ; nays, 23. 

The senate then proceeded to vote on agreeing to the amendments reported 
by the select committee, viz. : 1. to strike out of the house bill the following : 

"And that all children of slaves bom within the said state, after the admis- 
sion thereof into the Union, shall be free, but may be held to servieeuntil the 
age of twenty-one years." 

This clause was struck out, by a vote of 27 to 7 ; eleven free state senators 
voting in favor of striking it out ; the seven senators who voted for the restric- 
tion were all from free states. The senate then proceeded to vote on the resi- 
due of the house restriction, as follows : 

" And provided also, that the further introduction of slavery or involuntary 
servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted." 

For striking out this restriction, 22 — five of whom were from free states : 
against striking out, 16 — all from free states. 

The bill thus amended was ordered to be engrossed, and was (March 2d — 
last day but one of the session) read a third time, and passed without a divis- 
ion. The bill was on that day returned to the house, and the amendments of 
the senate read ; whereupon, Mr. Tallmadge, of N. Y., moved that the bill be 
postponed indefinitely. Yeas, 69 ; nays, 74. 

The vote was then taken on concurring in the senate's amendments, as afore- 
said, and the house refused to concur Yeas, 76 ; nays, 78. 

The bill was now returned to the senate, with a message of non-concurrence ; 
when Mr. Tait moved that the senate adhere to its amendment, which was car- 
ried without a division The bill being thus remanded to the house, Mr. Tay- 
lor, of N. Y., moved that the house adhere to its disagreement, which pre 



ARKANSAS TERRITORY. 479 

vailed. Yeas, 78 ; nays, 66. So the bill fell between the two houses, and 
was lost. 

The southern -portion of the then territory of Missouri was excluded from 
the proposed state of Missouri, and organized as a separate territory, and en- 
titled the Arkansas territory. This bill being under consideration, Mr. John 
~W. Taylor, of New York, moved that the foregoing restriction be applied to 
it also. In the course of the debate, Mr. Taylor said: " How ofteu and how 
eloquently have I heard southern gentlemen deplore. the existence of slavery ! 
What willingness, nay, what solicitude have they not manifested to be relieved 
from this burden 1 How have they wept over the unfortunate policy that first 
introduced slaves into this country I How have they disclaimed the guilt and 
shame of that original sin, and thrown it back on their ancestors I I have 
heard with pleasure this avowal of regret, I have confided in its sincerity, and 
nave hoped to see its effects in the advancement of the cause of humanity. 
Gentlemen have now an opportunity of putting their professions into practice. 
If they have tried slavery, and found it to be a curse ; if they desire to dissi- 
pate the gloom with which it covers their laud, I call upon them to exclude it 
from the territory in question. Plant not its seeds in this uncorrupt soil 1 Let 
not our children, in looking back to the proceedings of this day, say of them, 
as we have been constrained to say of our fathers, we wish their decision 
had been different ; we regret the existence among us of this unfortunate pop- 
ulation ; but we found them here ; we know not what to do with them ; it is 
our misfortune ; we must bear it with patience 1 

"To the objection that the amendment, if adopted, will diminish the value 
of a species of property in one portion of the Union, and thereby operate un- 
equally, I reply, that if, by depriving slaveholders of the Missouri market, the 
business of raising slaves should become less profitable, it would be, not the 
object of this measure, but an effect incidentally produced. The law prohibit- 
ing the importation of foreign slaves was not passed to enhance the value of 
those then in the country, yet it incidentally produced that effect to a very great 
degree. The exclusion of slavery from Missouri may operate, perhaps, to some 
extent, to retard a further advance. But surely, when gentlemen consider the 
present demand, and the vast extent of country in Louisiana, Mississippi, and 
Alabama requiring a supply, they ought not to oppose its exclusion from the 
territory in question. 

" But it is further objected that the amendment is calculated to disfranchise 
our brethren from the south by discouraging their emigration to the country 
west of the Mississippi. If it were proposed to discriminate between citizens 
of the different sections of our Union, and to allow a Pennsylvanian to hold 
slaves there while that power was denied to a Virginian, the objection might 
very properly be made. But when we place all upon an equal footing, deny- 
ing to all what we deny to one, I am unable to discover the injustice or in- 
equality of which honorable gentlemen have thought proper to complain. The 
description of immigrants may in some measure be affected by the amendment. 
If slavery shall be tolerated, the country will be settled by rich planters with 



480 ARKANSAS TERRITORY ORGANIZED. 

their slaves. If it shall be rejected, the emigrants will chiefly consist of the 
poorer and more laborious classes of society. If it be true that the prosperity 
and happiness of a country ought to constitute the great object of its legisla- 
tors, I can not hesitate for a moment which species of population deserves most 
to be encouraged. In their zeal to oppose the amendment, gentlemen seem to 
have considered but one side of the case. If the prohibition of slavery will 
tend to discourage migration from the south, will not its admission have the 
same effect with relation to the north and east ? Whence came the people, 
who, with a rapidity never before witnessed, have changed the wilderness be- 
tween the Ohio and the Mississippi into fruitful fields, erecting there, within a 
period almost too short for the credence of future ages, three of the freest and 
most flourishing states of the Union ? They came, sir, from the eastern hive, 
from that source of population, which, in the same time, has added more than 
a hundred thousand inhabitants to my own native state, besides furnishing sea- 
men for a large portion of the navigation of the world ; seamen who have un- 
furled your banner in every port to which the enterprise of man has gained 
admittance, and who, though poor themselves, have drawn rich treasures for 
the nation from the bosom of the deep. Do you believe that these people will 
settle in a country where they must take rank with negro slaves ? Having 
neither the will nor the ability to hold slaves themselves, they labor cheerfully 
while labor is honorable. Make it disgraceful, they will despise it. You can 
not degrade it more effectually thau by establishing a system whereby it shall 
De performed principally by slaves. The business in which slaves are princi- 
pally engaged, be it what it may, soon becomes debased in public estimation. 
It is considered low, and unfit for freemen. Can I better illustrate this truth 
than by referring to a remark of the gentleman from Kentucky (Clay)? I 
have often admired the liberality of his sentiments. He is governed by no 
vulgar prejudices. Yet with what abhorrence did he speak of the performance 
by our wives and daughters of those domestic duties which he was pleased to 
call servile ! What comparison did he make between the black slaves of Ken- 
tucky aud the white slaves of the north, and how instantly did he strike the 
balance in favor of the condition of the former ! If such opinions and expres- 
sions can fall, even in the ardor of debate, from that gentleman, what ideas do 
you suppose are entertained of laboring men by the generality of slavehold- " 
ers ? A gentleman from Virginia replies that they are treated with confidence 
and esteem, and their rights respected. I did not imagine that they were put 
out of the protection of the law. Their persons and property are doubtless 
secure from violence, or, if injured, the courts of justice are open to them. But 
in a country like this, where the people are sovereign, and every citizen is en- 
titled to equal rights, the mere exemption from flagrant wrongs is no great 
privilege. No class of freemen should be excluded in this country, either by 
law, or by the ostracism of public opinion, more powerful than law, from com- 
peting for offices and political distinctions. A humane master will respect the 
rights of his slave, and, if worthy, will honor him with confidence and esteem. 
And it is this same measure, as I apprehend, that is dealt out in slaveholding 



THE NORTH AROUSED. 481 

states to the laboring class of their white population. But whom of that class 
have they ever called to fill stations of any considerable responsibility ? When 
have we seen a representative on this floor from that section of our Union who 
was not a slaveholder ? Who but slaveholders are elected to their state legis- 
latures ? Who but they are appointed to fill their executive or judicial of- 
fices ? I appeal to gentlemen whether the selection of one who labors with his 
own hands, however well educated, would not be considered an extraordinary 
event ? For this I do not reproach my brethren of the south. They doubt- 
less choose those to represent them in whom they most confide, and far be it 
from me to intimate that their confidence is ever misplaced. But my objection 
is to the introduction of a system which can not but produce the effect of ren- 
dering labor disgraceful." 

The clause proposing that slaves born in the territory after the passage of 
the act shall be free at twenty-five years of age, was carried, February IT, by 
a vote of 75 yeas to 13 nays. The clause providing against the farther intro- 
duction of slaves into the territory was lost by a vote of TO yeas to Tl nays. 
On the next day, however, the clause adopted was stricken out, and the bill 
finally passed without any allusion to slavery. When the bill reached the sen- 
ate, Roberts, of Pennsylvania, moved to insert a prohibition of slavery, which 
failed by a vote of 19 to 14. Arkansas became a slave territory and ultimate- 
ly a slave state in 1836. 

The discussions in congress on the extension of slavery beyond the Missis- 
sippi aroused the anti-slavery sentiment of the north. Public meetings were 
held in Trenton, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Salem, and other northern 
cities and towns, democrats and federalists cooperating, and committees were 
appointed to address the people. The state legislatures freely expressed their 
opinions. Pennsylvania made a solemn appeal to the states " to refuse to cov- 
enant with crime," and by a declaration that it was the duty as well as the 
right of congress to prohibit slavery west of the Mississippi. New Jersey 
and Delaware followed, both also unanimously. New York, Ohio, and Indi- 
ana indorsed the same doctrine. The New England legislatures remained 
silent, but memorials were sent to congress from towns and cities in favor of 
freedom. Yirginia, Kentucky, and Maryland were as earnest on the other 
side. The city of Baltimore, however, memorialized congress against the ex- 
tension of slavery, at a meeting over which the mayor presided. 

At a meeting of the citizens of Boston and vicinity, held at the state house, 
in December, 1819, a vote was passed to memorialize congress on the subject 
of " restraining the increase of slavery in new states to be admitted into the 
Union." In pursuance of the vote the following memorial, drawn up by Dan- 
iel Webster, was presented to congress : 

" To the senate and house of representatives of the United States in con- 
gress assembled: 

" The undersigned, inhabitants of Boston and its vicinity, beg leave most 
respectfully and humbly to represent : that the question of the introduction of 
slavery into the new states to be formed on the west side of the Mississippi 



482 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 

river, appears to them to be a question of the last importance to the future 
welfare of the United States If the progress of this great evil is ever to be 
arrested, it seems to the undersigned that this is the time to arrest it. A false 
step taken now, cannot be retraced ; and it appears to us that the happiness 
of unborn millions rests on the measure which congress on this occasion may 
adopt. Considering this as no local question, nor a question to be decided by 
a temporary expediency, but as involving great interests of the whole United 
States, and affecting deeply and essentially those objects of common defense, 
general welfare, and the perpetuation of the blessings of liberty, for which the 
constitution itself was formed, we have presumed, in this way, to offer our sen- 
timents and express our wishes to the national legislature. And as various 
reasons have been suggested against prohibiting slavery in the new states, it 
may perhaps be permitted to us to state our reasons, both for believing that 
congress possesses the constitutional power to make such prohibition a condi- 
tion, on the admission of a new state into the Union, and that it is just and 
proper that they should exercise that power. 

"And in the first place, as to the constitutional authority of congress. The 
constitution of the United States has declared 'that congress shall have power 
to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the terri- 
tory or other property belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this 
constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice the claims of the United 
States or of any particular state. ' It is very well known that the saving in 
this clause of the claims of any particular state was designed to apply to 
claims by the then existing states, of territory which was also claimed by the 
United States as their own property. It has, therefore, no bearing on the 
present question. The power, then, of congress over its own territories, is, 
by the very terms of the constitution, unlimited. It may make all ' needful 
rules and regulations,' which of course include all such regulations as its own 
views of policy or expediency shall, from time to time, dictate. If, therefore, 
in its judgment it be needful for the benefit of a territory to enact a prohibi- 
tion of slavery, it would seem to be as much within its power of legislation as 
any other act of local policy. Its sovereignty being complete and universal 
as to the territory, it may exercise over it the most ample jurisdiction in every 
respect. It possesses, in this view, all the authority which any state legisla- 
ture possesses over its own territory ; and if any state legislature may, in its 
discretion, abolish or prohibit slavery within its own limits, in virtue of its gen- 
eral legislative authority, for the same reason congress also may exercise the 
like authority over its own territories. And that a state legislature, unless re- 
strained by some constitutional provision, may so do, is unquestionable, and 
has been established by general practice. ***** 

" The creation of a new state is, in effect, a compact between congress and 
the inhabitants of the proposed state. Congress would not probably claim 
the power of compelling the inhabitants of Missouri to form a constitution of 
their own, and come into the Union as a state. It is as plain, that the inhab- 
itants of that territory have no right of admission into the Union, as a state, 



POWER OF CONGRESS. 483 

without the consent of congress. Neither party is bound to form this connec- 
tion. It can be formed only by the consent of both. What, then, prevents 
congress, as one of the stipulating parties, to propose its terms ? And if the 
other party assents to these terms, why do they not effectually bind both par- 
ties ? Or if the inhabitants of the territory do not choose to accept the pro- 
posed terras, but prefer to remain under a territorial government, has congress 
deprived them of any right, or subjected them to any restraiut, which, in its 
discretion, it had no authority to do? If the admission of new states be not 
the discretionary exercise of a constitutional power, but in all cases an imper- 
ative duty, how is it to be performed ? If the constitution means that con- 
gress shall admit new states, does it mean that congress shall do this on every 
application and under all circumstances ? Or if this construction cannot be 
admitted, and if it must be conceded that congress must in some respects exer- 
cise its discretion on the admission of new states, how is it to be shown that 
that discretion may not be exercised in regard to this subject as well as in re- 
gard to others ? 

"The constitution declares, 'that the migration or importation of such per- 
sons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not 
be prohibited by the congress prior to the year 1808.' It is most manifest 
that the constitution does contemplate, in the very terms of this clause, that 
congress possesses the authority to prohibit the migration or importation of 
slaves ; for it limits the exercise of this authority for a specific period of time, 
leaving it to its full operation ever afterward. And this power seems neces- 
sarily included in the authority which belongs to congress, ' to regulate com- 
merce with foreign nations and among the several states.' No person has 
ever doubted that the prohibition of the foreign slave-trade was completely 
within the authority of congress since the year 1808. And why ? Certainly 
only because it is embraced in the regulation of foreign commerce ; and if so, 
it may for the like reason be prohibited since that period between the states. 
Commerce in slaves, since the year 1808, being as much subject to the regula- 
tion of congress as any other commerce, if it should see fit to enact that no 
slave should ever be sold from one state to another, it is not perceived how its 
constitutional right to make such provision could be questioned. It would 
seem to be too plain to be questioned, that congress did possess the power, 
before the year 1808, to prohibit the migration or importation of slaves into 
the territories (and in point of fact it exercised that power) as well as into any 
new states ; and that its authority, after that year, might be as fully exercised 
to prevent the migration or importation of slaves into any of the old states. ' 
And if it may prohibit new states from importing slaves, it may surely, as we 
humbly submit, make it a condition of the admission of such states into the 
Union, that they shall never import them. In relation, too, to its own territo- 
ries, congress possesses a more extensive authority, and may, in various other 
ways, effect the object. It might, for example, make it an express condition of 
its grants of soil, that its owners shall never hold slaves ; and thus prevent the 
possession of slaves from ever being connected with the ownership of the soil. 



484 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 

"As corroborative of the views which have been already suggested, the me- 
morialists would respectfully call the attention of congress to the history of 
the national legislation, under the confederation as well as under the present 
constitution, on this interesting subject, Unless the memorialists greatly mis- 
take, it will demonstrate the sense of the nation, at every period of its legisla- 
tion, to have been, that the prohibition of slavery was no infringement of any 
just rights belonging to free states, and was not incompatible with the enjoy- 
ments of all the rights and immunities which an admission into the Union was 
supposed to confer. 

" The memorialists, after this general survey, would respectfully ask the at- 
tention of congress to the state of the question of the right of congress to 
prohibit slavery in that part of the former territory of Louisiana which now 
forms the Missouri territory. Louisiana was purchased of France by the 
treaty of the 30th of April, 1803. The third article of that treaty is as fol- 
lows : ' The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated into the 
Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to 
the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, 
advantages, and immunities of the citizens of the United States ; and in the 
mean time theyshall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their 
liberty, property, and the religion which they profess.' 

"Although the language of this article is not very precise or accurate, the 
memorialists conceive that its real import and intent cannot be mistaken. The 
first clause provides for the admission of the ceded territory into the Union, 
and the succeeding clause shows this must be according to the principles of 
the federal constitution ; and this very qualification necessarily excludes 
the idea that congress were not to be at liberty to impose any conditions 
upon such admission which were consistent with the jjrinciples of that con- 
stitution, and which had been, or might justly be, applied to other new 
states. The language is not by any means so poiuted as that of the resolve 
of 1780 ; and yet it has been seen that that resolve was never supposed to in- 
hibit the authority of congress, as to the introduction of slavery. And it is 
clear, upon the plainest rule of construction, that in the absence of all restric- 
tive language, a clause, merely providing for the admission of the territory 
into the Union, must be construed to authorize an admission in the manner, 
and upon the terms, which the constitution itself would justify. This construc- 
tion derives additional support from the next clause. The inhabitants ' shall 
be admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the federal con- 
stitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of 
citizens of the United States.' 1 The rights, advantages, and immunities here 
spoken of, must, from the very force of the terms of the clause, be such as are 
recognized or communicated by the constitution of the United States ; such as 
are common to all citizens, and are uniform throughout the United States. 
The clause cannot be referred to rights, advantages, and immunities derived 
exclusively from the state government, for these do not depend upon the federal 
constitution. Besides, it would be impossible that all the rights, advantages, 



EIGHTS OF CITIZENS. 485 

and immunities of citizens of the United States, could be at the same time en- 
joyed by the same persons. These rights are different in different states ; a 
right exists in one state which is denied in others, or is repugnant to other 
rights enjoyed in others. In some of the states, a freeholder alone is entitled 
to vote in the elections ; in some a qualification of personal property is suffi- 
cient; and in others, age and freedom are the sole qualifications of the electors. 
In some states, no citizen is permitted to hold slaves ; in others, he possesses 
that power absolutely ; in others, it is limited. The obvious meaning, there- 
fore, of the clause is, that the rights derived under the federal constitution, 
shall be enjoyed by the inhabitants of Louisiana in the same manner as by the 
citizens of other states. The United States, by the constitution, are bound to 
guarantee to every state in the Union a republican form of government ; and 
the inhabitants of Louisiana are entitled, when a state, to this guarantee. 
Each state has a right to two senators, and two representatives according to a 
certain enumeration of population, pointed out in the constitution. The in- 
habitants of Louisiana, upon their admission into the Union, are also entitled 
to these privileges. The constitution further declares, ' that the citizens of 
each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in 
the several states.' It would seem as if the meaning of this clause could not 
well be misinterpreted. It obviously applies to the case of the removal of a 
citizen of one state to another state ; and in such a case it secures to the mi- 
grating citizen all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the state to 
which he removes. It cannot surely be contended, upon any rational interpreta- 
tion, that it gives to the citizens of each state all the privileges and immunities 
of the citizens of every other state, at the same time, and under all circum- 
stances. Such a construction would lead to the most extraordinary conse- 
quences. It would at once destroy all the fundamental limitations of the state 
constitutions upon the rights of their own citizens ; and leave all those rights 
to the mercy of the citizens of any other state, which should adopt different 
limitations. According to this construction, if all the state constitutions, save 
one, prohibited slavery, it would be in the power of that single state, by the 
admission of the right of its citizens to hold slaves, to communicate the same 
right to the citizens of all the other states within their own exclusive limits, in 
defiance of their own constitutional prohibitions ; and to render the absurdity 
still more apparent, the same construction would communicate the most oppo- 
site and irreconcilable rights to the citizens of different states at the same time. 
It seems, therefore, to be undeniable, upon any rational interpretation, that 
this clause of the constitution communicated no rights in any state which its 
own citizens do not enjoy ; and that the citizens of Louisiana, upon their ad- 
mission into the Union, in receiving the benefit of this clause, would not enjoy 
higher or more extensive rights than the citizens of Ohio. It would commu- 
nicate to the former no right of holding slaves except in states where the citi- 
zens already possessed the same right under their own state constitutions and 
laws. 

" Upon the whole, the memorialists would most respectfully submit that the 



486 JUSTICE OF PROHIBITION. 

terms of the constitution, as well as the practice of the government under it, 
must, as they hnmbly conceive, entirely justify the conclusion that congress 
may prohibit the further introduction of slavery into its own territories, and 
also make such prohibition a condition of the admission of any new state into 
the Union. 

" If the constitutional power of congress to make the proposed prohibition 
be satisfactorily shown, the justice and policy of such prohibition seem to the 
undersigned to be supported by plain and strong reasons. The permission of 
slavery in a new state, necessarily draws after it an extension of that inequal- 
ity of representation, which already exists in regard to the original states. It 
cannot be expected that those of the original states, which do not hold slaves, 
can look on such an extension as being politically just. As between the orig- 
inal states, the representation rests on compact and plighted faith ; and your 
memorialists have no wish that that compact should be disturbed, or that 
plighted faith in the slightest degree violated. But the subject assumes an en- 
tirely different character, when a new state proposes to be admitted. With 
her there is no compact, and no faith plighted ; and where is the reason that 
she should come into the Union with more than an equal share of political im- 
portance and political power ? Already the ratio of representation, established 
by the constitution, has given to the states holding slaves twenty members of 
the house of representatives more than they would have been entitled to, ex- 
cept under the particular provision of the constitution. In all probability, this 
number will be doubled in thirty years. Under these circumstances, we deem 
it not an unreasonable expectation that the inhabitants of Missouri should pro- 
pose to come into the Union, renouncing the right in question, and establish- 
ing a constitution prohibiting it for ever. Without dwelling on this topic, we 
have still thought it our duty to present it to the consideration of congress. 
We present it with a deep and earnest feeling of its importance, and we re- 
spectfully solicit for it the full consideration of the national legislature. 

"Your memorialists were not without the hope that the time had at length 
arrived when the inconvenience and the danger of this description of popula- 
tion had become apparent in all parts of this country, and in all parts of the 
civilized world. It might have been hoped that the new states themselves 
would have had such a view of their own permanent interests and prosperity 
as would have led them to prohibit its extension and increase. The wonderful 
increase and prosperity of the states north of the Ohio is unquestionably to be 
ascribed, in a great measure, te the consequences of the ordinance of 1Y87 ; 
and few, indeed, are the occasions, in the history of nations, in which so much 
can be done, by a single act, for the benefit of future generations, as was done 
by that ordinance, and as may now be done by the congress of the United 
States. We appeal to this justice and to the wisdom of the national councils 
to prevent the further progress of a great and serious evil. We appeal to 
those who look forward to the remote consequences of their measures, and who 
cannot balance a temporary or trifling convenience, if there were such, against 
a permanent, growing, and desolating evil. We cannot forbear to remind the 



NEW YORK ROSOLUTIONS. 487 

two houses of congress that' the early and decisive measures adopted by the 
American government for the abolition of the slave-trade, are among the 
proudest memorials of our nation's glory. That slavery was ever tolerated in 
the republic is, as yet, to be attributed to the policy of another government 
No imputation, thus far, rests on any portion of the American confederacy. 
The Missouri territory is a new country. If its extensive and fertile fields shall 
be opened as a market for slaves, the government will seem to become a 
party to a traffic which, in so many acts, through so many years, it has de- 
nounced as impolitic, unchristian, inhuman. To enact laws to punish the traf- 
fic, and, at the same time, to tempt cupidity and avarice by the allurements of 
an insatiable market, is inconsistent and irreconcilable. Government, by such 
a course, would only defeat its own purposes, and render nugatory its own 
measures. Nor can the laws derive support from the manners of the people, 
if the power of moral sentiment be weakened by enjoying, under the permis- 
sion of government, great facilities to commit offenses. The laws of the 
United States have denounced heavy penalties against the traffic in slaves, be- 
cause such traffic is deemed unjust and inhuman. We appeal to the spirit of 
these laws ; we appeal to this justice and humanity ; we ask whether they 
ought not to operate, on the present occasion, with all their force ? We have 
a strong feeling of the injustice of any toleration of slavery. Circumstances 
have entailed it on a portion of our community, which cannot be immediately 
relieved from it without consequences more injurious than the suffering of the 
evil. But to permit it in a new country, where yet no habits are formed which 
render it indispensable, what is it, but to encourage that rapacity, and fraud, 
and violence, against which we have so long pointed the denunciations of our 
penal code ? What is it, but to tarnish the proud fame of the country ? What 
is it, but to throw suspicion on its good faith, and to render questionable all 
its professions of regard for the rights of humanity and the liberties of man- 
kind ? 

"As inhabitants of a free country — as citizens of a great and rising repub- 
lic — as members of a Christian community — as living in a liberal and enlightened 
age, and as feeling ourselves called upon by the dictates of religion and hu- 
manity, we have presumed to offer our sentiments to congress on this question, 
with a solicitude for the event far beyond what a common occasion could in- 
spire." 

On the lTth January, 1820, the legislature of New Tork passed the fol- 
lowing resolutions unanimously : 

" Whereas, The inhibiting the further extension of slavery in these United 
States is a subject of deep concern among the people of this state ; and whereas, 
we consider slavery as an evil much to be deplored ; and that every constitu- 
tional barrier should be interposed to prevent its further extension ; and that 
the constitution of the United States clearly gives congress the right to require 
of new states, not comprised with the original boundaries of these United 
States, the prohibition of slavery, as a condition of its admission into the 
Union: therefore, 



488 NEW JERSEY RESOLUTIONS. 

"Resolved, That our senators be instructed, and our representatives in con- 
gress be requested, to oppose the admission, as a state, into the Union, any 
territory not comprised as aforesaid, without making the prohibition of slavery 
therein an indispensable condition of admission : therefore, 

"Resolved, That measures be taken by the clerks of the senate and assembly 
of this state, to transmit copies of the preceding resolution to each of our 
senators and representatives in congress." 

The following resolutions of the state of New Jersey were communicated 
to congress, by Mr. Wilson, of N. J., on the 24th January, 1820: 

"Whereas, A bill is now depending in the congress of the United States, 
on the application of the people in the territory of Missouri for the admission 
of that territory as a state into the Union, not containing provisions against 
slavery in such proposed state, and a question is made upon the right and ex- 
pediency of such provision. 

" The representatives of the people of New Jersey, in the legislative council 
and general assembly of the said state, now in session, deem it a duty they owe 
to themselves, their constituents, and posterity, to declare and make known the 
opinions they hold upon this momentous subject: and, 

"1. Tliey do resolve and declare, That the further admission of territories 
into the Union, without restriction of slavery, would, in their opinion, essenti- 
ally impair the right of this and other existing states to equal representation 
in congress (a right at the foundation of the political compact), inasmuch as 
such newly-admitted slaveholding state would be represented on the basis of 
their slave population ; a concession made at the formation of the constitution 
in favor of the then existing states, but never stipulated for new states, nor to 
be inferred from any article or clause in that instrument. 

"2. Resolved, That to admit the territory of Missouri as a state into the 
Union, without prohibiting slavery there, would, in the opinion of the repre- 
sentatives of the people of New Jersey aforesaid, be no less than to sanction 
this great political and moral evil, furnish the ready means of peopling a vast 
territory with slaves, and perpetuate all the dangers, crimes, and pernicious 
effects of domestic bondage. 

"3. Resolved, As the opinion of the representatives aforesaid, that inasmuch 
as no territory has a right to be admitted into the Union, but on the principles 
of the federal constitution, and only by a law of congress, consenting thereto 
on the part of the existing states, congress may rightfully, and ought to re- 
fuse such law, unless upon the reasonable and just conditions, assented to on 
the part of the people applying to become one of the states. 

"4. Resolved, In the opinion of the representatives aforesaid, that the 
article of the constitution which restrains congress from prohibiting the migra- 
tion or importation of slaves, until after the year 1808, does, by necessary im- 
plication, admit the general power of congress over the subject of slavery, and 
concedes to them the right to regulate and restrain such migration and impor- 
tation after that time, into the existing, or any newly to be created state. 

"5. Resolved, As the opinion of the representatives of the people of New 



PENNSYLVANIA RESOLUTIONS. 489 

Jersey aforesaid, that inasmuch as congress have a clear right to refuse the 
admission of a territory into the Union, by the terms of the constitution, they 
ought, in the present case, to exercise that absolute discretion in order to pre- 
serve the political rights of the several existing states, and prevent the great 
national disgrace and multiplied mischiefs which must ensue from conceding it, 
as a matter of right, in the immense territories yet to claim admission into the 
Union, beyond the Mississippi, that they may tolerate slavery. 

"6. Resolved, (with the concurrence of council), That the governor of this 
state be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to each of 
the senators and representatives of this state in the congress of the United 
States." 

The following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted in the 
legislature of Pennsylvania, Dec. 16, 1819: 

"The senate and house of representatives of the commonwealth of Pennsyl- 
vania, while they cherish the right of the individual states to express their 
opinion upon all public measures proposed in the congress of the Union, are 
aware that its usefulness must in a great degree depend upon the discretion 
with which it is exercised ; they believe that the right ought not to be resorted 
to upon trivial subjects or unimportant occasions ; but they are also persuaded 
that there are moments when the neglect to exercise it would be a dereliction 
of public duty. 

" Such an occasion, as in their judgment demands the frank expression of 
the sentiments of Pennsylvania, is now presented. A measure was ardently 
supported in the last congress of the United States, and will probably be as 
earnestly urged during the existing session of that body, which has a palpable 
tendency to impair the political relations of the several states ; which is calcu- 
lated to mar the social happiness of the present and future generations ; which, 
if adopted, would impede the march of humanity and freedom through the 
world ; and would transfer from a misguided ancestry an odious stain and fix 
it indelibly upon the present race — a measure, in brief, which proposes to 
spread the crimes and cruelties of slavery from the banks of the Mississippi to 
the shores of the Pacific. When a measure of this character is seriously ad- 
vocated iu the republican congress of America, in the nineteenth century, the 
several states are invoked by the duty which they owe to the Deity, by the 
veneration which they entertain for the memory of the founders of the republic, 
and by a tender regard for posterity, to protest against its adoption, to refuse 
to covenant with crime, and to limit the range of an evil that already hangs 
in awful boding over so large a portion of the Union. 

"Nor can such a protest be entered by any state with greater propriety than 
by Pennsylvania. This commonwealth has as sacredly respected the rights of 
other states as it has been careful of its own ; it has been the invariable aim 
of the people of Pennsylvania to extend to the universe, by their example, the 
unadulterated blessings of civil and religious freedom ; and it is their pride 
that they have been at all times the practical advocates of those improvements 
and charities among men which are so well calculated to enable them to answer 



490 PENNSYLVANIA RESOLUTIONS. 

the purposes of their Creator ; and above all, they may boast that they were 
foremost in removing the pollution of slavery from among them. 

" If, indeed, the measure against which Pennsylvania considers it her duty 
to raise her voice, were calculated to abridge any of the rights guaranteed to 
the several states ; if, odious as slavery is, it was proposed to hasten its extinc- 
tion by means injurious to the states upon which it was unhappily entailed, 
Pennsylvania would be among the first to insist upon a sacred observance of 
the constitutional compact. But it cannot be pretended that the rights of any 
of the states are at all to be affected by refusing to extend the mischiefs of 
human bondage over the boundless regions of the west, a territory which 
formed no part of the Union at the adoption of the constitution ; which has 
been but lately purchased from an European power by the people of the Union 
at large ; which may or may not be admitted as a state into the Union at the 
discretion of congress ; which must establish a republican form of government, 
and no other; and whose climate affords none of the pretexts urged for resort- 
ing to the labor of natives of the torrid zone ; such a territory has no right, 
inherent or acquired, such as those states possessed which established the ex- 
isting constitution. When that constitution was framed in September, 1787, 
the concession that three-fifths of the slaves in the states then existing should 
be represented in congress, could not have been intended to embrace regions 
at that time held by a fereign power. On the contrary, so anxious were the 
congress of that day to confine human bondage within its ancient home, that 
on the 13th of July, 1787, that body unanimously declared that slavery or in- 
voluntary servitude should not exist in the extensive territories bounded by the 
Ohio, the Mississippi, Canada and the Lakes ; and in the ninth article of the 
constitution itself, the power of congress to prohibit the emigration of servile 
persons after 1808, is expressly recognized ; nor is there to be found in the 
statute book a single instance of the admission of a territory to the rank of a 
state in which congress have not adhered to the right, vested in them by the 
constitution, to stipulate with the territory upon the conditions of the boon. 

"The senate and house of representatives of Pennsylvania, therefore, cannot 
but deprecate any departure from the humane and enlightened policy pursued 
not only by the illustrious congress which framed the constitution, but by their 
successors without exception. They are persuaded that to open the fertile 
regions of the west to a servile race, would tend to increase their numbers be- 
yond all past example, would open a new and steady market for the lawless 
venders of human flesh, and would render all schemes for obliterating this most 
foul blot upon the American character useless aud unavailing. 

" Under these convictions, and in the full persuasion that upon this topic 
there is but one opinion in Pennsylvania. — 

" Resolved by the senate and house of representatives of the common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, That the senators of this state in the congress of 
the United States be, and they are hereby instructed, and that the representa- 
tives of this state in the congress of the United States be, and they are hereby 
requested, to vote against the admission of any territory as a state into the 



DELAWARE AND KENTUCKY KESOLCTTONS. 491 

Union, unless said territory shall stipulate and agree that ' the further intro- 
duction of slavery or involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be prohibited ; and 
that all children born within the said territory, after its admission into the 
Union as a state, shall be free, but may be held to service until the age of 
twenty-five years.' 

"Resolved, That the governor be, and he is hereby requested to cause a 
copy of the foregoing preamble and resolution to be transmitted to each of the 
senators and representatives of this state in the congress of the United States." 

In the senate of the United States, early in 1820, Mr. Van Dyke communi- 
cated the following resolutions of the legislature of the state of Delaware, 
which were read : 

"Resolved, by the senate and house of representatives of the state of Dela- 
ware, in general assembly met, That it is, in the opinion of this general assem- 
bly, the constitutional right of the United States, in congress assembled, to 
enact and establish, as one of the conditions for the admission of a new state 
into the Uuion, a provision which shall effectually prevent the further introduc- 
tion of slavery into such state ; and that a due regard to the true interests of 
such state, as well as of the other states, require the same should be done. 

" Resolved, That a copy of the above and foregoing resolution be transmit- 
ted, by the speaker of the senate, to each of the senators and representatives 
from this state in the congress of the United States." 

In senate, January 24th, 1820, Mr. Logan communicated the following pream- 
ble and resolutions of the legislature of the state of Kentucky, which were read : 

" Whereas, The constitution of the United States provides for the admis- 
sion of new states into the Union, and it is just and proper that all such states 
should be established upon the footing of original states, with a view to the 
preservation of state sovereignty, the prosperity of such new state, and the 
good of their citizens ; and whereas, successful attempts have been heretofore 
made, and are now making, to prevent the people of the territory of Missouri 
from being admitted into the Union as a state, unless trammeled by rules and 
regulations which do not exist in the original states, particularly in relation to 
the toleration of slavery. 

"Whereas, also, if congress can thus trammel or control the powers of a 
territory in the formation of a state government, that body may, on the same 
principle, reduce its powers to little more than those possessed by the people of 
the District of Columbia ; and whilst professing to make it a sovereign state, 
may bind it in perpetual vassalage, and reduce it to the condition of a prov- 
ince ; such state must necessarily become the dependent of congress, asking 
such powers, and not the independent state, demanding rights. And whereas, 
it is necessary, in preserving the state sovereignties in their present rights, that 
no new state should be subjected to this restriction, any more than an old one, 
and that there can be no reason or justice why it should not be entitled to the 
game privileges, when it is bound to bear all the burdens and taxes laid upon 
it by congress. 
32 



492 MISSOURI AGAIN APPLIES FOR ADMISSION. 

" In passing the following resolution, the general assembly refrains from ex- 
pressing any opinion either in favor or against the principle of slavery ; but to 
support and maintain state rights, which it conceives necessary to be supported 
and maintained, to preserve the liberties of the free people of these United 
States, it avows its solemn conviction, that the states already confederated un- 
der one common constitution, have not a right to deprive new states of equal 
privileges with themselves. Therefore, 

" Resolved, by the general assembly of the commonwealth of Kentucky, 
That the senators in congress from this state be instructed, and the representa- 
tives be requested, to use their efforts to procure the passage of a law to admit 
the people of Missouri into the Union, as a state, whether those people will 
sanction slavery by their constitution or not. 

" Resolved, That the executive of this commonwealth be requested to trans- 
mit this resolution to the senators and representatives of this state in congress, 
that it may be laid before that body for its consideration." 

A new congress had assembled on the 6th of December, 1819. Mr. Clay 
was again chosen speaker. On the 8th, Mr. Scott, delegate from Missouri, 
moved that the memorial of her territorial legislature, as also of several citi- 
zens, praying her admission into the Union as a state, be referred to a select 
committee. Carried, and Messrs. Scott, of Mo., Kobertson, of Ky , Terrell, of 
Ga., Strother, of Va., and De Witt, of N. T., were appointed said committee. 

Mr. Strong, of N. Y., that day gave notice of a bill "to prohibit the fur- 
ther extension of slavery in the United States." 

On the 14th, Mr. Taylor, of N. T., moved a select committee on this sub- 
ject, which was granted ; and the mover, with Mesers. Livermore, of N. H., 
P. P. Barbour, of Va., Lowndes, of S. C, Fuller, of Mass., Hardin, of Ky., 
and Cuthbert, of Ga., were appointed such committee. A majority of this 
committee being pro-slavery, Mr. Taylor could do nothing ; and on the 28th 
the committee was, on motion, discharged from the further consideration of the 
subject. 

On the same day, Mr. Taylor moved " that a committee be appointed with 
instructions to report a bill prohibiting the further admission of slaves into 
the territories of the United States west of the river Mississippi." 

On motion of Mr. Smith, of Md., this resolve was sent to the committee of 
the whole, and made a special order for Jan. 10th; but it was not taken up, 
and appears to have slept the sleep of death. 

In the senate, the memorial of the Missouri territorial legislature, asking 
admission as a state, was presented by Mr. Smith, of S. C, Dec. 29th, and re- 
ferred to the judiciary committee. 

The bill authorizing Missouri to form a constitution, etc., came up in the 
house as a special order, Jan. 24th. Mr. Taylor, of N. T., moved that it be 
postponed for one week : lost ; yeas, 87 ; nays, 88. Whereupon the house ad- 
journed. It was considered in committee the next day, as also on the 28th 
and 30th, and thence debated daily until the 19th of February, when a bill 
came down from the senate "to admit the state of Maine into the Union,' 



MAINE AND MISSOURI. 493 

but with a rider authorizing the people of Missouri to form a state constitu- 
tion, etc., without restriction on the subject of slavery. 

The house, very early in the session, passed a bill providing for the admis- 
sion of Maine as a state. This bill came to the senate, and was sent to its ju- 
diciary committee aforesaid, which amended it by adding a provision for Mis- 
souri as above. After several days' debate in senate, Mr. Roberts, of Penn., 
moved to recommit, so as to strike out all but the admission of Maine, which 
was defeated, (Jan. 14th, 1820;) yeas, 18 ; nays, 25. Hereupon, Mr. Thom- 
as, of 111., (who voted with the majority, as uniformly against any restriction 
on Missouri,) gave notice that he should " ask leave to briug in a bill to prohibit 
the introduction of slavery into the territories of the United States north and 
west of the contemplated state of Missouri," which he accordingly did ou the 
19th, when it was read and ordered to a third reading.* 

The Maine admission bill, with the proposed amendments, was discussed 
through several days, until, Feb. 16th, the question was taken on the judici- 
ary committee's amendments, (authorizing Missouri to form a state constitu- 
tion, and saying nothing of slavery,) which were adopted by the following vote : 
Yeas, 23 against restriction — 20 from slave states, 3 from free states. Nays, 
21 in favor of restriction — 19 from free states, 2 from Delaware. 
Mr. Thomas, of 111., then proposed his amendment, as follows : 
"And be it further enacted, that the sixth article of compact of the ordi- 
nance of congress, passed July 13th, 1T8Y, for the government of the territory 
of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, shall, to all intents and pur- 
poses, be, and hereby is, deemed and held applicable to, and shall have full 
force and effect in and over, all that tract of country ceded by France to the 
United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six de- 
grees and thirty minutes, north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as 
is included within the limits contemplated by this act." 

On the following day, Mr. Thomas withdrew' the foregoing and substituted 
the following : 

" And be it further enacted, that in all the territory ceded by France to the 
United States under the name of Louisiana which lies north of thirty-six de- 
grees thirty minutes, north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as is in- 
cluded within the limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery and in- 
voluntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the 
party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited. 
Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from where labor or 



* Great confusion and misconception exists in the public mind with regard to "the 
Missouri restriction," two totally different propositions being called by that name. The 
original restriction, which Mr. Clay vehemently opposed, and Mr. Jefferson in a letter 
characterized as a "fire-bell in the night," contemplated the limitation of slavery in its 
exclusion from the state of Missouri. This was ultimately defeated, as we shall see. The 
second proposed restriction was that of Mr. Thomas, just cited, which proposed the exclu- 
sion of slavery, not from the state of Missouri, but from the territories of the United States 
north and west of that state. This proposition did not emanate from the original Missouri 
restrictionists, but from their adversaries, and was but reluctantly and partially accepted 
by the former. — Greeley's Slavery Extension. 



494 PROCEEDINGS. 

service is lawfully claimed in any state or territory of the United States, such 
fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or 
her labor or service as aforesaid." 

Mr. Trimble, of Ohio, moved a substitute for this, somewhat altering the 
boundaries of the region shielded from slavery, which was rejected. Teas, 20, 
(northern ;) nays, 24, (southern, with Noble, Edwards, and Taylor.) 

The question then recurred on Mr. Thomas's amendment, which was adopt- 
ed as follows : Yeas,. for excluding slavery from all the territory north and 
west of Missouri, 34 — 20 from free states, 14 from slave states. Nays, against 
such restriction, 10 — 2 from Indiana. 

The bill, thus amended, was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, by 
a vote of 24 to 20. 

The bill was thus passed, (Feb. 18th) without further division, and sent to 
the house for concurrence. In the house, Mr. Thomas's amendment (as above) 
was at first rejected by both parties, and defeated by the strong vote of 159 to 
1§. Prior to this vote, the house disagreed to the log-rolling of Maine and 
Missouri, into one bill, by the strong vote of 93 to 12. 

The house also disagreed to the remaining amendments of the senate (strik- 
ing out the restriction on slavery in Missouri) by the strong vote of 102 yeas 
to 68 nays. Nearly or quite every representative of a free state voted in the 
majority of this division, with four from slave states. 

So the house rejected all the senate's amendments, and returned the bill with 
a corresponding message. 

The senate took up the bill on the 24th, and debated it till the 28th, when, 
on a direct vote, it was decided not to recede from the attachment of Missouri 
to the Maine bill: yeas 21 (19 from free states and 2 from Delaware) ; nays 
23, (20 from slave states, with Messrs. Taylor, of Indiana, Edwards and 
Thomas, of Illinois.) 

The senate also voted not to recede from its amendment prohibiting slavery 
west of Missouri, and north of 36° 30' north latitude. (For receding, 9 from 
slave states, with Messrs. Noble and Taylor, of Indiana ;) against it 33 ; (22 
from slave states, 11 from free states.) The remaining amendments of the 
senate Were then insisted on without division, and the house notified accord- 
ingly. 

The bill was now returned to the house, which, on motion of Mr. John W. 
Taylor, of New York, voted to insist on its disagreement to all but section 9 
of the senate's amendments, by yeas 91 to nays 16 ; all but a purely sectional 
vote ; Hugh Nelson, of Virginia, voting with the north ; Baldwin, of Penn- 
sylvania, Bloomfield, of New Jersey, and Shaw, of Massachusetts, voting with 
the south. 

Section 9, (the senate's exclusion of slavery from the territory north and 
west of Missouri,) was also rejected — yeas 160, nays 14, (much as before.) 
The senate thereupon (March 2nd) passed the house Missouri bill, striking out 
the restriction of slavery by yeas 21 to nays 15, and adding without a division 
the exclusion of slavery from the territory west and north of said state. Mr. 



THE COMPROMISE. 495 

Trimble again moved the exclusion of slavery from Arkansas also, but was 
again voted down, yeas 12, nays 30. 

The senate now asked a conference, which the house granted without a divis- 
ion. The committee of conference was composed of Messrs. Thomas, of Illin- 
ois, Pinkney, of Maryland, and Barbour, of Virginia, (all anti-restrictionists), 
on the part of the senate, and Messrs. Holmes, of Massachusetts, Taylor, of 
New York, Lowndes, of South Carolina, Parker, of Massachusetts, and Kin- 
sey, of New Jersey, on the part of the house. John Holmes, of Massachu- 
setts, from this committee, reported that, 1. The senate should give up the 
combination of Missouri in the same bill with Maine. 2. The house should 
abandon the attempt to restrict slavery in Missouri. 3. Both houses should 
agree to pass the senate's separate Missouri bill, with Mr. Thomas's restriction 
or compromising proviso, excluding slavery from all territory north and west 
of Missouri. The report having been read, the first and most important ques- 
tion was put, viz : " Will the house concur with the senate in so much of the 
said amendments as proposes to strike from the fourth section of the [Missou- 
ri] bill the provision prohibiting slavery or involuntary servitude in the contem- 
plated state, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes ? " On which ques- 
tion the yeas and nays were demanded and were as follows : 

Yeas, for giving up restriction on Missouri. — Massachusetts, 4 ; Rhode 
Island, 1 ; Connecticut, 2 ; New York, 2 ; New Jersey, 3 ; Pennsylvania, 2 ; 
Delaware, 1; 'Maryland, 9; Virginia, 22; North Carolina, 12; South Caro- 
lina, 9 ; Georgia, 6 ; Alabama, 1 ; Mississippi, 1 ; Louisiana, 1 ; Kentucky, 
8 ; Tennessee, 5. Total from free states, 14 ; from slave states, 76 — in all 90. 

Nays, against giving up the restriction on slavery in Missouri. — New 
Hampshire, 6 ; Massachusetts, including Maine, 16 ; Rhode Island, 1 ; Con- 
necticut, 4 ; Vermont, 6 ; New York, 22 ; New Jersey, 3 ; Pennsylvania, 21; 
Ohio, 6 ; Indiana, 1 ; Illinois, 1. Total 81— all from free states. 

Mr. Taylor, of New York, now moved an amendment, intended to include 
Arkansas territory under the proposed inhibition of slavery west of Missouri ; 
but this motion was. cut off by the previous question, and the house proceeded 
to concur with the senate in inserting the exclusion of slavery from the territo- 
ry west and north of Missouri, instead of that just stricken out, by 134 yeas 
to 42 nays, (the nays being from the south). So the bill was passed in the 
form indicated above ; and the bill admitting Maine as a state, (relieved, 
■ by a conference, from the Missouri rider,) passed both houses without a divis- 
ion, on the following day. 

Thus was consummated a measure which, while it opened the door to slave- 
ry in Missouri, was to exclude it " forever " from all that territory lying 
north of 36° 30' north latitude. Randolph, the leader of the ultra southern 
party, indignantly denounced it as a " dirty bargain," and the northern men 
who voted for it, as "dough-faces." Before signing the bill, President Mon- 
roe submitted the question to his cabinet, " Has congress the constitutional 
power to prohibit slavery in a territory ? " All the cabinet declared themselves 
in the affirmative, though neither Crawford, Calhoun, nor Wirt could see 



49 G opinions. 

any express authority. The president submitted another question : Was the 
term " forever " in the prohibition clause of the Missouri bill to be understood 
as referring only to the territorial condition of the district, or was it intended 
to extend the prohibition of slavery to such states as might be erected there- 
from ? Adams thought that the term "forever" must be understood to mean 
forever, and that-the prohibition would extend to any states that might at any 
time be erected from the territory. The others, including Thompson, of New 
York, were all of opinion that the term " forever " was only a territorial for- 
ever, not interfering with the right of any state that might at any time be 
organized within the district referred to, to establish or prohibit slavery. The 
second question was modified into the inquiry, Was the proviso, as it stood in 
the bill, constitutional ? To this they all replied, yes, and Monroe signed the 
bills. This account is from the unpublished diary of John Quincy Adams, 
quoted by Hildreth. 

" The impression produced on my mind," so Adams wrote at the time in his 
diary, " by the progress of this discussion is, that the bargain between free- 
dom and slavery contained in the constitution of the United States is morally 
and politically vicious, inconsistent with the principles upon which alone our 
revolution can be justified ; cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of 
slavery, in pledging the faith of freedom to maintain and perpetuate the 
tyranny of the master ; and grossly unequal and impolitic, by admitting that 
slaves are at once enemies to be kept in subjection, property to be secured and 
restored to their owners, and persons not to be represented themselves, but for 
whom their masters are privileged with nearly a double share of representa- 
tion. The consequence has been, that this slave representation has governed 
the Union. Benjamin, portioned above his brethren, has raviued as a wolf, 
in the morning he has devoured the prey, and at night he has divided the spoil. 
It would be no difficult matter to prove, by reviewing the history of the Union 
under this constitution, that almost every thing which has contributed to the 
honor and welfare of the nation has been accomplished in despite of them ; 
and that everything unpropitious and dishonorable, including the blunders and 
follies of their adversaries, maybe traced to them." 

Governor Woleott, in his address shortly after to the Connecticut legislature, 
in reference to a very elaborate disquisition on state rights in their bearing on 
the Missouri question, which the Virginia legislature had sent, in the form of a 
circular, to all the states, thus expressed himself : " It can not have escaped" 
your attention, that a diversity of habits and principles of government exist in 
this country ; and I think it is evident that slavery is gradually forming those 
distinctions, which, according to invariable laws of human action, constitute 
the characteristic difference between aristocratical and democratical republics. 

" Where agricultural labor is wholly or chiefly performed by slaves, it must 
constitute the principal revenue of the community. The owners of slaves 
must necessarily be the chief, owners of the^soil, and those laborers who are 
too poor to own slaves, though nominally free, must be dependent on an aris- 
tocratical order, and remain without power or^political influence. It has been 



MISSOURI CONSTITUTION. 497 

urged, as a compensation for the admitted evils of slavery, that the spirit of 
liberty is more elevated and persevering among the masters of slaves, than in 
states where liberty is a common blessing. "We may admit that our southern 
brethren are as firmly attached to liberty as ourselves, but we can not concede 
that they are in any respect our superiors, without submitting to humiliation 
and reproach. Probably the claim has no other just foundation than in the 
well known ardor, tenacity of opinion, and strict concert of action with which 
the members of a privileged order invariably pursue a separate and exclusive 
interest. Even a tacit admission of inferiority by habitual concessions would 
imply, on our part, a secret preference of aristocratical over democratical in- 
stitutions." 

On the 16th of November, 1820, Missouri applied for admission into the 
Union, with a state constitution containing the following provisions : 

' ' The general assembly shall have no power to pass laws, first, for the emancipation 
of slaves without the consent of their owners, or without paying them, before such 
emancipation, a full equivalent for such slaves so emancipated ; and, second, to prevent 
bona fide emigrants to this state, or actual settlers therein, from bringing from any of 
the United States, or from any of their territories, such persons as may there be deemed 
to be slaves, so long as any persons of the same description are allowed to be held as 
slaves by the laws of this state. 

"It shall be their duty, as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary, 
" First, to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to, and settling in, this 
state, under any pretext whatever." 

The last requirement was considered a palpable violation of that clause of 
the constitution which gives to the citizens of each state the rights of citizens 
in every state. In several of the free states the class referred to were consid- 
ered citizens, and not only a determined resistance to any such exclusion was 
manifested in congress, but a portion of the northern members evinced a dis- 
position to renew the struggle against the further introduction of slaves into 
Missouri. The first vote in the house on her admission, stood yeas, 7 9; nays, 
93. A second attempt was made to admit her, on condition that she would 
expunge the last quoted obnoxious clause of her constitution, which was voted 
down by a vote of 156 to 6. 

The house now rested, until a joint resolve, admitting her with but a vague 
and ineffective qualification, came down from the senate, where it was passed 
by a vote of 26 to 18 — six senators from free states in the affirmative. Mr. 
Clay, who had resigned in the recess, and been succeeded, as speaker, by John 
W. Taylor, of New York, now appeared as the leader of the Missouri admis- 
8ionists, and proposed terms of compromise, which were twice voted down by 
the northern members, aided by John Randolph and three others from the 
south, who would have Missouri admitted without condition or qualification. 
At last, Mr. Clay proposed a joint committee on this subject, to be chosen by 
ballot — which the house agreed to by 101 to 55 ; and Mr. Clay became its 
chairman. By this committee it was agreed that a solemn pledge should be 
required of the legislature of Missouri, that the constitution of that state 



498 SLAVE POPULATION. 

should not be construed to authorize the passage of any act, and that no act 
should be passed, " by which any of the citizens of either of the states should 
be excluded from the enjoyment of the privileges and immunities to which they 
are entitled under the constitution of the United States." The joint resolu- 
tion, amended by the addition of this proviso, passed the house by 86 yeas to 
82 nays ; the senate concurred (February 27th, 1821,) by 26 yeas to 15 nays; 
(all northern but Macon, of North Carolina,) Missouri complied with the con- 
dition, and became an accepted member of the Union. Thus closed the last 
stage of the fierce Missouri controversy which seemed at times to threaten the 
existence of the Union. " So true it is," says Hildreth, "and let it not be 
forgotten, that no class can exist in any community so helpless and despised 
that it may not become the very hinge on which the fate of the nation shall 
turn." 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Period from 1820 to 1835. — Political History of Slavery. 

Census of 1820. — Session of 1824-5. — Gov. Troup's demonstrations. — Georgia legisla- 
ture — Secession threatened. — Slaves in Canada — their surrender refused by England. — 
Citizens of District of Columbia petition for gradual abolition. — Census of 1830. — Anti- 
slavery societies formed in the north — counter movements north and south. — The 
mail troubles. — Manifesto of American Anti-slavery Society. — Petitions to congress — 
Discussion on the disposal of them. — Bill to prohibit the circulation of anti-slavery 
publications through the mails. — Calhoun's report — Measure opposed by Webster, 
Clay, Benton and others. — Buchanan, Tallmade, &c, favor it — Bill lost. — Atherton's 
gag resolutions passed. 

X HE census of 1820 exhibits a slave population of 1,538,038, being an in- 
crease of 346,674 for the ten years since 1810, a rate of about 30 per cent. 

CENSUS OF 1820— SLAVE POPULATION. 

Alabama 41,879 Missouri 10,222 

District of Columbia. . . 6,377 New Jersey 7,557 

Connecticut 97 New York 10,088 

Delaware 4,509 North Carolina 205,017 

Georgia 149,654 Pennsylvania 211 

Illinois 917 Rhode Island 48 

Indiana 190 South Carolina 258,475 

Kentucky 126,732 Tennessee 80,107 

Louisiana 69,064 Virginia 425,153 

Maryland 107,397 Arkansas Territory 1,617 

Mississippi 32,814 Aggregate, 1,538,038. 

Slavery was fast decreasing in what are now the free states, except in Illinois ; 
it had also decreased in Maryland. The increase in Virginia for the last decade 



GOVERNOR TROUP. 499 

had been only 8 per cent; in North Carolina 21, and in South Carolina 31 
per cent. The rapid settlement of the southwest had stimulated the domestic 
slave-trade, and the market was supplied chiefly from Maryland and Virginia, 
which accounts for the decrease in the former, and the small increase in the 
latter state. Slavery in Tennessee had increased 79 per cent.; in Mississippi 
92, and in Louisiana 99 per cent. 

At the session of 1824-5, Mr. King, senator from New York, offered a 
resolution proposing to appropriate, after the payment of the public debt, the 
proceeds of the sales of public lands, to aid in the emancipation of slaves, and 
also the colonizing of free people of color without the limits of the United 
States. This resolution was never called up by the mover, being intended, as 
was supposed, merely for record as his opinion. Similar propositions were 
sent to congress by state legislatures in the form of resolutions. About the 
same time, Mr. Wirt, attorney-general of the TJuited States, gave an official 
opinion that a law of South Carolina, authorizing the imprisonment of colored 
mariners, was unconstitutional. These acts took place at the time of the 
famous controversy between governor Troup, of Georgia, and the general gov- 
ernment, in reference to the removal of the Creek Indians ; and the governor, 
in convening a special session of the legislature, directed attention to them in 
his message. As the proceedings of the governor and his legislature were not 
productive of any brilliant results, they are only referred to as to something 
especially ludicrous. 

These acts of Mr. King and Mr. Wirt, were pronounced by the governor in 
his message, "officious and impertinent intermeddlings with our domestic con- 
cerns." The doctrine of the attorney-general, if sanctioned by the supreme 
court, "would make it quite easy for congress, by a short decree, to divest this 
entire interest, without cost to themselves of one dollar, or of one acre of pub- 
lic land. If the government of the United States wishes a principle established 
which it dare not establish for itself, a cause made before the supreme court, 
and the principle once settled, the act of congress follows of course. One 
movement of congress unresisted by you, and all is lost. Temporize no longer, 
make known your resolution, that this subject shall not be touched by them but 
at their peril. If this matter (slavery) be an evil, it is our own ; if it be a sin, 
we can implore the forgiveness of it. To remove it we ask not either their 
sympathy or assistance. It may be our physical weakness — it is our moral 
strength. If, like the Greeks and Romans, we cease to be masters, we are 
slaves. I entreat you most earnestly, now that it is not too late, to step forth, 
and, having exhausted the argument, to stand by your arms." 

This subject was referred to a select committee, who presented to the house 
a report responding to the feelings and sentiments of the governor. " The 
hour is come," says the committee, "or is rapidly approaching, when the states, 
from Virginia to Georgia, from Missouri to Louisiana, must confederate, and, 
as one man, say to the Union : We will no longer submit our retained rights 
to the sniveling insinuations of bad men on the floor of congress our consti- 
tutional rights to the dark and strained construction of designing men upon 



500 GEORGIA. 

judicial benches ; that we detest the doctrine, and disclaim the principle, of 
unlimited submission to the general government. 

" Let our northern brethern, then, if there is no peace in union, if the com- 
pact has become too heavy to be longer borne, in the name of all the mercies, 
find peace among themselves. Let them continue to rejoice in their self-right- 
eousness ; let them bask in their own elysium, while they depict all south of 
the Potomac as a hideous reverse. As Athens, as Sparta, as Rome was, we 
will be : they held slaves ; we hold them. Let the north, then, form national 
roads for themselves ; let them guard with tariffs their own interest ; let them 
deepen their public debt until a high-minded aristocracy shall arise out of it. 
We want uoue of all those blessings. But in the simplicity of the patriarchal 
government, we would still remain master and servant under our own vine and 
our own fig tree, and confide for safety upon Him who, of old time, looked 
down upon this state of things without wrath." 

The committee concluded their report with two resolutions, declaring their 
concurrence in the sentiments of the governor, and for the support of their, 
determination to " stand by their arms," pledging their lives, their fortunes, 
and their sacred honor ; and requesting the governor to forward copies of the 
resolutions to the governors of the several states, and to their own senators 
and representatives in congress. 

On the next day, (June 7th, 1825,) another message was communicated, in 
which the governor again reverted to the resolutions of the state legislatures 
on the subject of slavery, and the acts of the individuals before mentioned ; 
complained of the efforts that had been made to render unavailing the guaran- 
ties of the constitution ; and concluded thus : 

"The attorney-general, representing the United States, says before the su- 
preme court, in a ripe and splendid argument, that slavery, being inconsistent 
with the laws of God and nature, can not exist. Do we want more ? or shall 
we wait until the principle being decided against us, the execution issues, and 
the entire property is bought in from the proceeds of our public lands ? This 
is left to your decision. The United States can choose between our enmity 
and our love ; aud when you offer them the choice, you perform the last and 
holiest of duties. They have adopted a conceit ; and if they love that more 
than they love us, they will cling to it and throw us off; but it will be written 
in your history, that you did not separate from your household without adopt- 
ing the fraternal language : choose ye this day between our friendship and that 
worthless idol you have set up and worshiped." 

Here the matter seems to have been dropped, as the subject of the Indian 
difficulties took the precedence, and kept the governor in a comfortable sweat 
until the close of 1827. 

An attempt was made during Mr. Adams' administration to effect an ar- 
rangement with Great Britain for the surrender of fugitive slaves taking refuge 
in the Canadian provinces. By a resolution of the house of representatives, 
May 10, 1828, the president was requested to open a negotiation with the Brit- 
ish government for this purpose. On the 15th of December, in compliance 



FUGITIVE SLAVES IN CANADA. 501 

with a resolution of the 8th, the president transmitted to the house the corre- 
spondence between the secretary of state and Mr. Gallatin, our minister at 
London, and Mr. Barbour, his successor. The following is an extract from 
the instructions of Mr. Clay to Mr. Gallatin : 

" If it be urged that Great Britain would make, in agreeing to the proposed 
stipulation, a concession without an equivalent, there being no corresponding 
class of persons in her North American continental dominions, you will reply : 

" 1st. That there is a similar class in the British West Indies, and, although 
the instances are not numerous, some have occurred of their escape, or being 
brought, contrary to law, into the United States. 

" 2dly. That Great Britain would probably obtain an advantage over us in 
the reciprocal restoration of military and maritime deserters, which would com- 
pensate any that we might secure over her in the practical operation of an ar- 
ticle for the mutual delivery of fugitives from labor. 

" 3dly. At all events, the disposition to cultivate good neighborhood, which 
such an article would imply, could not fail to find a compensation in that, or 
in some other way, in the already immense and still increasing intercourse be- 
tween the two countries. The states of Virginia and Kentucky are particu- 
larly anxious on this subject. The general assembly of the latter has repeat- 
edly invoked the interposition of the government of the United States with 
Great Britain. You will, therefore, press the matter whilst there exists any 
prospect of your obtaining a satisfactory arrangement of it. Perhaps the Brit- 
ish government, whilst they refuse to come under any obligation by treaty, 
might be willing to give directions to the colonial authorities to afford facili- 
ties for the recovery of fugitives from labor ; or, if they should not be disposed 
to disturb such as have heretofore taken refuge in Upper Canada, they might 
be willing to interdict the entry of any others in future." 

These considerations were not deemed sufficiently weighty to induce the En- 
glish government to make the desired concession. 

A petition from the citizens of the District of Columbia was presented to 
congress at the session of 1827—28, praying for the prospective abolition of 
slavery in the district, and for the repeal of those laws which authorize the sell- 
ing of supposed runaways for their prison fees or maintenance. The petition- 
ers declare slavery among them to be " an evil of serious magnitude, which 
greatly impairs the prosperity and happiness of the district, and to cast the 
reproach of inconsistency upon the free institutions established among us." 
They represent the domestic slave-trade at the seat of the national govern 
ment as " scarcely less disgraceful in its character, and even more demoralizing 
in its influence," than the foreign slave-trade, which is declared piracy, and 
punishable with death. " Husbands and wives are separated ; children are ta- 
ken from their parents without regard to the ties of nature, and the most en- 
dearing bonds of affection are broken for ever." 

It was mentioned also as a special grievance, that " some who were entitled 
to freedom had been sold into unconditional slavery." And they gave the case 
of a colored man who had been taken up as a runaway slave, imprisoned, and 



502 SLAVERY AGITATION. 

advertised ; and no one appearing to claim him, he was sold for life at public 
auction for the payment of his jail fees, and taken to the south. A stronger 
anti-slavery document has not in later years been presented to congress ; nor 
did it receive any more efficient action than similar petitions have since received. 

CENSUS OF 1830.— SLAVE POPULATION. 

District of Columbia 6,119 Mississippi 65,659 

Delaware 3,292 "Missouri 25,091 

Florida 15,501 New Jersey 2,254 

Georgia 217,531 North Carolina 245,601 

Illinois 747 South Carolina 315,401 

Kentucky 165,213 Tennessee 141,603 

Louisiana 109,588 Virginia 469,757 

Maryland 102,994 Arkansas 4,576 

Alabama 117,549 Aggregate, 2,009,043. 

In 1833, the National Anti-Slavery Society was formed. Societies were 
also formed in all the northern states ; in some of them, in almost every county. 
Meetings were held at the south denouncing these movements ; and in the 
north attempts were made to suppress the anti-slavery meetings by violence. 
Meetings were also held in the north to express sympathy for the south, and 
to censure the "abolitionists." These anti-abolition meetings were gratifying 
to the people of the south. The proceedings of the Albany meeting were thus 
noticed by the Richmond Enquirer : " Amid these proceedings, we hail with 
delight the meeting and resolutions of Albany. They are up to the hub. 
They are in perfect unison with the rights and sentiments of the south. They 
are divested of all the metaphysics and abstractions of the resolutions of New 
York. They are free from all qualifications and equivocation — no idle denun- 
ciations of the evils of slavery — no pompous assertions of the right of discus- 
sion. But they announce in the most unqualified terms that it is a southern 
question, which belongs, under the federal compact, exclusively to the south. 
They denounce all discussions upon it in the other states, which, from their 
very nature, are calculated to ' inflame the public mind,' and put in jeopardy 
the lives and property of their fellow-citizens, as at war with every rule of 
moral duty, and every suggestion of humanity ; and they reprobate the incen- 
diaries who will persist in carrying them on, ' as disloyal to the Union.' They 
pronounce these vile incendiaries to be ' disturbers of the public peace. ' They 
assure the south ' that the great body of the northern people entertain opin- 
ions similar to those expressed in these resolutions ;' finally, ' that we plight to 
them our faith to maintain, in practice, so far as lies in our power, what we 
have thus solemnly declared.' 

" We hail this plighted faith to arrest, by ' all constitutional and legal means,' 
the movements of these incendiaries. We hail these pledges with pleasure ; 
and should it become necessary, we shall call upon them to redeem them in 
good faith, and to act, and to put down these disturbers of the peace. " 

" The Albany resolutions," said the Richmond Whig, " are far more accep- 
table than those of New York. They are unexceptionable in their general ex- 



DEMANDS OF THE SOOTH. 503 

pressions towards the south, and in their views of the spirit and consequences 
of abolition ; and they omit any specific recognition of the right of agitation. 
Nothing is wanting, indeed, but that which, being wanting, all the rest, we 
fear, is little more than a 'sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.' "We mean 
the recognition of the power of the legislature to suppress the fanatics, and 
the recommendation to do so. This is the substance asked of the north by 
their brethren of the south ; and the recent manifesto of Tappan & Co. makes 
it plain that without it, nothing effective can be done ; that without it, urgent 
remonstrances to these madmen to desist, and warm professions towards the 
south, avail not a whit. Up to the mark the north must come, if it would re- 
store tranquility and preserve the union. 

"The failure of the Albany meeting to enforce the expediency of legislative 
enactments, is ominous There is reason to believe that strong appeals were 
made to the leaders from various points, perhaps from Richmond itself, to go 
as far as possible, and to adopt a resolution, conceding to the south its demand 
for legislative enactment. Political importance was attached to it from the 
circumstance that the immediate friends of Mr. Van Buren and his party lead- 
ers were to preside at the meeting, and thus that an intelligent sign might be 
given to the south, that he sustained her claim. We infer nothing against Mr. 
Van Buren himself from the failure ; but we do infer this, either that his Al- 
bany partisans reject the claim, or fear to encounter public opinion by adopt- 
ing it. Either way it may be regarded as decisive of the fate of the demand 
itself, and as conclusive that nothing will be done by the state of New York 
to suppress the fanatics by law. New York is the hotbed of the sect ; and 
nothing being done there, what may be done elsewhere will avail nothing." 

The Philadelphia Inquirer said : " The south has called upon the north for 
action in relation to Garrison and his co-workers : Philadelphia, at least, has 
responded to this call in a spirit of the utmost liberality. The resolutions 
adopted at the town meeting of Monday last not only denounce the recent 
movements of the abolitionists, but they expressly disclaim any ' right to inter- 
fere, directly or indirectly, with the subject of slavery in the southern states,' 
and aver that any action upon it by the people of the north would be not only 
a violation of the constitution, but a presumptuous infraction of the rights of 
the south ; and further, one of them recommends to the legislature of this 
commonwealth to enact, at the next session, certain provisions to protect our 
fellow-citizens of the south from any incendiary movements within our borders, 
should any such hereafter be made. Are not these declarations to the point ? 
Do they not cover the whole ground ? Do they not go even farther than many 
of the resolutions passed at public meetings in the south ?" 

Despairing of seeing the progress of anti-slavery sentiment arrested by leg- 
islation, the south suggested the remedy of non-intercourse and disunion. In 
the resolutions of a public meeting in South Carolina, it was declared " that 
when the southern states are reduced to the alternative of choosing either union 
without liberty, or disunion with liberty and property, be assured they will not 
hesitate which to take, and will make the choice promptly, unitedly, and fear- 



504 THE MAIL TROUBLES. 

lessly." And it was unanimously resolved, " that should the non-slaveholding 
states omit or refuse, at the ensuing meeting of their respective legislatures, to 
put a final stop to the proceedings of their abolition societies against the do- 
mestic peace of the south, and effectually prevent any further interference by 
tiiem with our slave population, by efficient penal iawa, it will the:: uecome 
the solemn duty of the whole south, in order to protect themselves and secure 
their rights and property against the unconstitutional combination of the non- 
slaveholding states, and the murderous designs of their abolitionists, to with- 
draw from the union." 

In relation to the suspension of commercial intercourse, the Richmond Whig 
s;iiil : " The suggestion of acting upon fanaticism by withholding the profits 
of southern commerce from those engaged, either actively or by countenance, 
in propagating its designs, is obtaining extensive popularity. A general per- 
suasion prevails of its efficacy. It is an argument which will carry more weight 
than appeals to justice, humanity, and fraternal affection. It is never lost to 
mankind. Through the purse is the surest road to the understandings of men ; 
especially, so we have been taught to believe, to the understandings of those 
with whom the south is now contendiug. Southern commerce is essential to 
the north. Can the south be blamed for cutting off the resources employed to 
disturb its tranquility, and overthrow its institutions ? Where is the illiberal- 
ly ? Where is the injustice ? That all should suffer where a part only are 
guilty, is to be deplored but not avoided. When the innocent feel the conse- 
quences, they will be stimulated to more active steps for the suppression of the 
wretches who have wrought so much mischief and engendered so much bad 
feeling 

" The merchants are well disposed to the experiment ; but they say its suc- 
cess depends upon the country, not the cities. Without the cooperation of 
the country citizens — without they put their shoulders to the wheel, and dis- 
courage the custom of buying goods in the north — they can do nothing. They 
are ready to promise, and to fulfill the promise, that, if the country will buy 
their goods, they shall have them as cheap and as good as the northern mar- 
kets now supply. "Let none be alarmed by the silly and traitorous clamor put 
up about the Union. The articles of Union, we presume, do not inhibit the 
south from caring for its own safety, or promoting its own prosperity." 

Application was made to the postmaster-general to interpose his authority 
to prevent the transmission, by mail, of anti-slavery papers and documents. 
In answer to a request of a meeting in Petersburg, Virginia, to adopt in his 
department some regulation to this effect, Mr Kendall, under date of August 
20, 1835, said it was not in his power, by any lawful regulation, to obviate the 
evil. Such a power, if any necessity for it existed, ought not to be vested in 
the head of the executive department. He, however, regarded the transmis- 
sion, through the mail, of papers " tending to promote discontent, sedition, 
and servile war, from one state to another, as a violation of the spirit, if not. 
the letter, of the federal compact, which would justify, on' the part of the in- 
jured states, any measure necessary to effect their exclusion." Tor the pres- 



AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 505 

ent, the only means of relief was " in responsibilities voluntarily assumed by 
the postmasters. " He hoped congress would, at the next session, put a stop 
to the evil, and pledged his exertions to promote the adoption of a measure 
for that purpose. 

Conceiving the principles and objects of anti-slavery associations to be mis- 
understood, the officers of the American anti-slavery society published in its 
defense the following address " to the public :" 

" In behalf of the American anti-slavery society, we solicit the candid at- 
tention of the public to the following declaration of our principles and objects. 
Were the charges which are brought against us, made only by individuals who 
are interested in the continuance of slavery, and by such as are influenced 
solely by unworthy motives, this address would be unnecessary ; but there are 
those who merit and possess our esteem, who would not voluntarily do us in- 
justice, and who have been led by gross misrepresentations to believe that we 
are pursuing measures at variance, not only with the constitutional rights of 
the south, but with the precepts of humanity and religion. To such we offer 
the following explanations and assurances : 

"1st. We hold that congress has no more right to abolish slavery in the 
southern states, than in the French West India islands. Of course we desire 
no national legislation on the subject. 

" 2d. We hold that slavery can only be lawfully abolished by the legislatures 
of the several states in which it prevails, and that the exercise of any other 
than moral influence to induce such abolition is unconstitutional. 

" 3d. We believe that congress has the same right to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia, that the state governments have within their respective 
jurisdictions, and that it is their duty to efface so foul a blot from the national 
escutcheon. 

"4th. We believe that American citizens have the right to express and pub- 
lish their opinions of the constitution, laws, and institutions of any and every 
state and nation under heaven ; and we mean never to surrender the liberty of 
speech, of the press, or of conscience — blessings we have inherited from our 
fathers, and which we intend, as far as we are able, to transmit unimpaired to 
our children. 

" 5th. We have uniformly deprecated all forcible attempts on the part of the 
slaves to recover their liberty. And were it in our power to address them, we 
would exhort them to observe a quiet and peaceful demeanor, and would assure 
them that no insurrectionary movements on their part would receive from us 
the slightest aid or countenance. 

" 6th. We would deplore any servile insurrection, both on account of the 
calamities which would attend it, and on account of the occasion which it might 
furnish of increased severity and oppression. 

" 1th. We are charged with sending incendiary publications to the south. 
If by the term incendiary is meant publications containing arguments and 
facts to prove slavery to be a moral and political evil, and that duty and poli- 
cy require its immediate abolition, the charge is true. But if this charge is 



506 ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC. 

used to imply publications encouraging insurrection, and designed to excite the 
slaves to break their fetters, the charge is utterly and unequivocally false. We 
beg our fellow-citizens to notice that this charge is made without proof, and 
by many who confess that they have never read our publications, and that those 
who make it, offer to the public no evidence from our writings in support of it 

" 8th. We are accused of sending our publications to the slaves, and it is 
asserted that their tendency is to excite insurrections. Both the charges are 
false. These publications are not intended for the slaves, and were they able to 
read them, they would find in them no encouragement to insurrection. 

" 9th. We are accused of employing agents in the slave states to distribute 
our publications. We have never had one such agent. We have sent no 
package of our papers to any person in those states for distribution, except to 
five respectable resident citizens, at their own request. But we have sent, by 
mail, single papers addressed to public officers, editors of newspapers, clergy- 
men, and others. If, therefore, our object is to excite the slaves to insurrection, 
the masters are our agents. 

"We believe slavery to be sinful, injurious to this and every other country 
in which it prevails ; we believe immediate emancipation to be the duty of 
every slaveholder, and that the immediate abolition of slavery by those who 
have the right to abolish it, would be safe and wise. These opinions we have 
freely expressed, and we certainly have no intention to refrain from expressing 
them in future, and urging them upon the consciences and hearts of our fellow- 
citizens who hold slaves, or apologize for slavery. 

" We believe the education of the poor is required by duty, and by a regard 
for the permanency of our republican institutions. There are thousands and 
tens of thousands of our fellow-citizens, even in the free states, sunk in abject 
poverty, and who, on account of their complexion, are virtually kept in ignor- 
ance, and whose instruction in certain cases is actually prohibited by law ! We 
are anxious to protect the rights, and to promote the virtue and happiness of 
the colored portion of our population, and on this account we have been 
charged with a design to encourage intermarriages between whites and blacks. 
This charge has been repeatedly, and is now again denied, while we repeat 
that the tendency of our sentiments is to put an end to the criminal amalga- 
mation that prevails wherever slavery exists. 

" We are accused of acts that tend to a dissolution of the Union, and even 
of wishing to dissolve it. We have never 'calculated the value of the Union,' 
because we believe it to be inestimable, and that the abolition of slavery will 
remove the chief danger of its dissolution ; and one of the many reasons why 
we cherish and will endeavor to preserve the constitution is, that it restrains 
congress from making any law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. 

" Such, fellow-citizens, are our principles ; are they unworthy of republicans 
and Christians ? Or are they in truth so atrocious, that in order to prevent 
their diffusion you are yourselves willing to surrender, at the dictation of oth- 
ers, the invaluable privilege of free discussion — the very birthright of Ameri- 
cans ? Will you, in order that the abominations of slavery may be concealed 



pinckney's resolutions. 507 

from public view, and that the capital of your republic may continue to be, as 
it now is, under the sanction of congress, the great slave mart of the Ameri- 
can continent, consent that the general government, in acknowledged defiance 
of the constitution and laws, shall appoint throughout the length and breadth 
of your laud, ten thousand censors of the press, each of whom shall have the 
vight to inspect every document you may commit to the post-office, and to sup- 
press every pamphlet and newspaper, whether religious or political, which in 
his sovereign pleasure he may adjudge to contain an incendiary article ? Sure- 
ly we need not remind you, that if you submit to such an encroachment on 
your liberties, the days of our republic are numbered, and that although aboli- 
tionists may be the first, they will not be the last victims oifered at the shrine 
of arbitrary power." 

Petitions from the free states praying for the abolition of slavery and the 
slave-trade in the District of Columbia were daily presented in congress. 
Southern members objected to receiving the petitions, as praying for an act 
that was unconstitutional — interference with the right of property without the 
consent of the owners ; and also that such interference would be a violation of 
good faith with the states of Maryland and Virginia, which ceded the territory 
of the district to the general government. The discussion resulted in the 
adoption, by a large majority, February 8, 1836, of the following resolution of 
Mr. Pinckney, of South Carolina : 

"Hesolved, That all the memorials which have been offered, or which may 
hereafter be presented to this house, praying for the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia, and also the resolutions offered by an honorable mem- 
oer from Maine, (Mr. Jarvis,) with the amendment thereto proposed by an 
honorable member from Virginia, (Mr. Wise,) and every other paper or prop- 
osition that may be submitted in relation to that subject, be referred to a select 
committee, with instructions to report that congress possesses no constitutional 
authority to interfere in any way with the institution of slavery in any of the 
states of this confederacy ; and that, in the opinion of this house, congress 
ouglit not to interfere in any way- with slavery in the District of Columbia, be- 
cause it would be a violation of the public faith, unwise, impolitic, and danger- 
ous to the Union." 

On the 18th of May, Mr. Pinckney, from the select committee appointed on 
his motion, reported three resolutions ; the first denying the power of congress 
over slavery in the states ; the second, declaring that congress ought not to in- 
terfere with it in the District of Columbia. The third, which was not contem- 
plated by the instructions to the committee, required all petitions and papers 
relating to the subject, to be at once laid upon the table, without being printed 
or referred, and without any other action on them. On the 25th of May, the vote 
was taken on the first resolution, under the pressure of the previous question. 
Mr. Adams said, if the house would allow him five minutes, he would prove 
the resolution to be false. Eight members were understood to have voted in 
the negative : Messrs. Adams, Jackson and Phillips, of Mass., Everett and 
33 



508 THE MAIL TROUBLES. 

Slade, of Vt., Clark, Denny and Potts, of Penn. The second resolution was 
adopted the nest day, 132 to 45; the third 117 to 68. 

In the senate, the principal discussion on the disposal of abolition petitions 
was upon one from the society of the " Friends " in the state of Pennsylvania, 
adopted at the Cain quarterly meeting. It was presented the 11th of January, 
by Mr. Buchanan, who said he was in favor of giving the memorial a respect- 
ful reception ; but he wished to put the question at rest. He should therefore 
move that the memorial be read, and that the prayer of the memorialists be re- 
jected. The question on receiving the petition was, on the 9th of March, de- 
cided in the affirmative : ayes, 36 ; noes, 10; the latter all from southern sen- 
ators. On the 11th, the whole subject, including the rejection of the petition, 
was agreed to, 34 to 6. Those who voted in the negative, were Messrs. Davis 
and Webster, from Mass., Prentiss, of Vt, Knight, of R. I., and Southard, of 
New Jersey. 

But the most important action of the senate was upon a bill to prohibit the 
circulation of abolition publications by mail. The president had in his annual 
message called the attention of congress to the subject. He said : " I must 
also invite your attention to the painful excitement produced in the south, by 
attempts to circulate, through the mails, inflammatory appeals addressed to 
the passions of the slaves, in prints, and in various sorts of publications, calcu- 
lated to stimulate them to insurrection, and to» produce all the horrors of a 
servile war." He said it was "fortunate for the country, that the good sense 
and generous feeling of the people of the non-slaveholding states " were so 
strong " against the proceedings of the misguided persons who had engaged 
in these unconstitutional and wicked attempts, as to authorize the hope that 
these attempts will no longer be persisted in." But if these expressions of 
the public will should not effect the desirable result, he did " not doubt that the 
non-slaveholding states would exercise their authority in suppressing this in- 
terference with the constitutional rights of the south." And he would respect- 
fully suggest the passing of a law that would "prohibit, under severe penal- 
ties, the circulation in the southern states, through the mail, of incendiary 
publications, intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." 

This part of the message was, on motion of Mr. Calhoun, referred to a se- 
lect committee, which, in accordance with his wishes, was composed mainly of 
senators from the slaveholding states. They were Messrs. Calhoun, King, of 
Georgia, Maugum, Linn, and Davis ; the last alone being from the free states. 
The report of the committee was made the 4th of February. Notwithstand- 
iug four-fifths of its members were southern, only Messers. Calhoun and Man- 
gum were in favor of the entire report. The accompanying bill prohibited 
postmasters from knowingly putting into the mail any printed or written paper 
or pictorial representation relating to slavery addressed to any person in a 
state in which their circulation was forbidden ; and it prohibited postmasters in 
such state from delivering such papers to any person not authorized by the laws 
of the state to receive them. And the postmasters of the offices where such 
papers were deposited, were required to give notice of the same from time to 



ANTI-SLAVERY PUBLICATIONS. 509 

time ; and if the papers were not, within one month withdrawn by the person 
depositing them, they were to be burnt or otherwise destroyed. Mr. Linn, 
though dissenting from parts of the report, approved the bill. 

Mr. Calhoun, in his report, reiterated his favorite doctrine of state sove- 
reignty ; from which he deduced the inherent right of a state to defend itself 
against internal dangers ; and he denied the right of the general government 
to assist a state, even in case of domestic violence, except on application of 
the authorities of the state itself. He said it belonged to the slaveholding 
states, whose institutions were in danger, and not to congress, as the message 
supposed, to determine what papers were incendiary ; and he asserted the 
proposition, that each state was under obligation to prevent its citizens from 
disturbing the peace or endangering the security of other states ; and that, in 
case of being disturbed or endangered, the latter had a right to demand of the 
former the adoption of measures for their protection. And if it should ne- 
glect its duty, the states whose peace was assailed might resort to means to 
protect themselves, as if they were separate and independent communities. 

As motives to suppress by law the efforts of the abolitionists, the report 
mentioned the danger of their accomplishing their object, the abolition of 
slavery in the southern states, and the consequent evils which would attend it. 
It would destroy property to the amount of $950,000,000, and impoverish an 
entire section of the Union. By destroying the relation between the two races, 
the improvement of the condition of the colored people, now so rapidly going 
on, and by which they had been, both physically and intellectually, and in re- 
spect to the comforts of life, elevated to a condition enjoyed by the loboring 
class in few countries, and greatly superior to that of the free people of the 
same race in the non-slaveholdiug states, would be arrested ; and the two races 
would be placed in a state of conflict which must end in the expulsion or extir- 
pation of one or the other. 

The bill, reported by Mr. Calhoun, sustained by the combined influence of 
his own report and the executive recommendation, made its way nearly through 
the senate. Mr. Webster opposed the bill, because it was vague and obscure, 
in not sufficiently defining the publications to be prohibited. Whether for or 
against slavery, if they " touched the subject," they would come under the 
prohibition. Even the constitution might be prohibited. And the deputy 
postmaster must decide, and decide correctly, under pain of being removed from 
office I He must make himself acquainted with the laws of all the states on 
the subject, and decide on them, however variant they might be with each other. 
The bill also conflicted with that provision of the constitution which guarantied 
the freedom of speech and of the press. If a newspaper came to him, he had 
a property in it ; and how could any man take that property and burn it with- 
out due form of law ? And how could that newspaper be pronounced an un- 
lawful publication, and having no property in it, without a legal trial ? He 
argued against the right to examine into the nature of publications sent to the 
post-office, and said that the right of an individual in his papers was secured 
to him in every free country in the world. 



510 BILL REJECTED. 

Mr. Clay said the papers, while in the post-office or in the mail, did no 
harm ; it was their circulation — their being taken out of the mail, and the use 
made of them — that constituted the mischief; and the state authorities could 
apply the remedy. The instant a prohibited paper was handed out, whether 
to a citizen or a sojourner, he was subject to the law which might compel him 
to surrender or to burn it. The bill was vague and indefinite, unnecessary and 
dangerous. It applied to non-slaveholding as well as to slaveholding states ; 
to papers touching slavery, as well for as against it ; and a non-slaveholding state 
might, under this bill, prohibt publications in defense of slavery. But the law 
would be inoperative : the postmaster was not amenable, unless he delivered 
the papers knowing them to be incendiary ; and he had only to plead igno- 
rance to avoid the penalty of the law. Mr. Clay wished to know whence con- 
gress derived the power to pass this law. The senator from Pennsylvania had 
asked if the post-office power did not g v , the right to say what should be car- 
ried in the mails. There was no sue':, "power as that claimed in the bill. If 
such doctrine prevailed, the government might designate the persons, or par- 
ties, or classes, who should have the exclusive benefit of the mails. 

Before the question was taken on the engrossment of the bill, a motion by 
Mr. Calhoun to amend it so as to prevent the withdrawal of the prohibited 
papers, was negatived, 15 to 15. An amendment offered by Mr. Grundy, re- 
stricting the punishment of deputy-postmasters to removal from office, was 
agreed to ; and the bill was reported to the senate. Mr. Calhoun renewed 
his motion in senate, and it was again lost, 15 to 15. In committee of the 
whole, the vice-president did not vote in the case of a tie. The question being 
then taken on the engrossment, there was again a tie, 18 to 18. The vice- 
president having temporarily left the chair, returned, and gave the casting vote 
in the affirmative. Of the senators from the free states voting in the affir- 
mative, were Messrs. Buchanan, Tallmadge and Wright. Those who voted 
in the negative from the slave states, were Messrs. Benton, Clay, and Kent, 
of Maryland. 

This casting vote of Mr. Van Buren, and the several votes of Mr. Wright, 
who voted with Mr. Calhoun ou this subject, have been justified by their friends 
on the ground that Mr. Calhoun (to use the language of Mr. Benton,) " had 
made the rejection of the bill a test of alliance with northern abolitionists, and 
a cause for the seoession of the southern states ; and if this bill had been re- 
jected by Mr. Van Buren's vote, the whole responsibility of its loss would 
have been thrown upon him and the north, and the south inflamed against those 
states and himself — the more so, as Mr. White, of Tennessee, the opposing 
democratic candidate for the presidency, gave his votes for the bill. " The sev- 
eral successive tie votes have been ascribed to design — that of placing Mr. 
Van Buren in this position. With this intent, other senators voted for the 
bill, and still others absented themselves, knowing it would not finally pass. 
This supposition was strengthened by the full vote given on the question of 
its final passage: yeas, 19; noes, 25; only four absent; the three senators 
from the free states, Buchanan, Tallmadge and Wright, again voting in the 



GAG RESOLUTIONS. 511 

affirmative ; and Benton, Clay, Crittenden, Goldsborough and Kent, of Mary- 
land, Leigh, Naudain, of Delaware, in all seven, from slave states, in the 
negative. 

On the 11th of December, 1838, Mr. Artherton, of New Hampshire, offered 
a series of resolutions, denouncing petitions for the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia, and against the slave-trade between the states, as a plan 
indirectly to destroy that institution within the several states ; declaring that 
congress has no right to do that indirectly which it can not do directly ; that 
the agitation of this question for the above purpose, is against the true spirit 
and meaning of the constitution, and an infringement of the rights of the states 
affected, and a breach of the public faith on which they entered into the con- 
federacy ; and that every petition, memorial, or paper relating in any way to 
slavery as aforesaid, should, on presentation, without further action thereon, 
be laid on the table without being debated, printed or referred. 

After the close of a speech in support of these resolutions, Mr. Atherton 
moved the previous question, which was seconded, 103 to 102. A motion to 
adjourn, that the resolutions might be printed, so that the house might vote un- 
derstandingly, was objected to by Mr. Cushman, of New Hampshire ; and the 
main question was ordered, 114 to 10?. The resolutions were subsequently 
all adopted by different votes. That which related to the reception of petitions 
was adopted by a vote of 127 to 78. These resolutions, as well as their au- 
thor, obtained considerable notoriety, being generally referred to by the friends 
of the right of petition, as " Atherton's gag resolutions." Although the fifth 
resolution, like one adopted at a former session, prevented a formal reception 
of petitions, it did not apparently affect their presentation. They were daily 
offered as usual ; indeed, an additional object of petition was furnished ; nu- 
merous petitions being presented for the abolition of the gag resolutions.* 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Period from 1835 to 1842. — Political History. 

Free territory annexed to Missouri, 1836. — Texas applies for annexation. — Remonstrances 
— Preston's resolution in 1838, in favor of it, debated by Preston, John Quincy Adams 
and Henry A. Wise. — The Amistad — Captives liberated.' — Census of 1840. — Session 
of 1841-2. — Mr. Adams presents petition for dissolution of the Union. — Excitement in 
the house.— Resolutions of censure, advocated by Marshall. — Remarks of Mr. Wise 
and Mr. Adams. — Resolutions opposed by Underwood, of Kentucky, Botts, of Vir- 
ginia, Arnold, of Tennessee, and others. — Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, presents petition for 
amicable division of the Union — resolution of censure not received. — Case of the 
Creole. — Censure of Mr. Giddings ; he resigns, is re-elected. 



T 



HE state of Missouri, as originally organized, was bounded on the west by 
a line which excluded a triangle west of said line, and between it and the Mis- 
souri, which was found, in time, to be exceedingly fertile and desirable. It 

* Young's Political History. 



512 " TEXAS APPLIES FOR ANNEXATION. 

was free soil by the terms of the Missouri compact, and was also covered by 
Indian reservations, not to be removed without a concurrence of two-thirds of 
the senate. Messrs. Benton and Linn, senators from Missouri, undertook the 
difficult task of engineering through congress a bill including this triangle 
(large enough to form seven counties) within the state of Missouri ; which 
they effected, at the long session of 1835-6, so quietly as hardly to attract at- 
tention The bill was first sent to the senate's committee on the judiciary, 
where a favorable report was procured from Mr. John M. Clayton, of Dela- 
ware, its chairman ; and then it was floated through both houses without en- 
countering the perils of a division. The requisite Indian treaties were likewise 
carried through the senate ; so Missouri became possessed of a large and de- 
sirable accession of territory, which has since become one of her most populous 
and wealthy sections, devoted to the growing of hemp, tobacco, &c, and culti- 
vated by slaves. This is the most pro-slavery section of the state. 

In 1837, the republic of Texas applied for annexation to the United States 
Remonstrances against it, and resolutions passed by state legislatures for and 
against annexation, were sent to congress and presented at the session of 
1831-8. On the 4th of January, 1838, Mr. Preston, senator of South Caro- 
lina, offered the following preamble aud resolution : 

" Whekeas, the just and true boundary of the United States under the treaty of 
Louisiana, extended on the southwest to the Rio Grande del Norte, which river continued 
to be the boundary Line until the territory west of the Sabine was surrendered to Spain 
by the treaty of 1819. 

"And whereas such surrender of a portion of the territory of the United States is of 
evil precedent and doubtful constitutionality. 

"And whereas many weighty considerations of policy make it expedient to re-estab- 
lish the said true boundary, and to re-annex to the United States the territory occupied 
by the state of Texas, with the consent of the said state : 

"Be it therefore resolved, that, with the consent of the said state previously had, and 
whenever it can be effected consistently with the faith and treaty stipulations of the 
United States, it is desirable and expedient to re-annex the said territory to the United 
States." 

On the 24th of April, 1838, the resolution was taken up for consideration, 
and supported by a speech, which is valuable for the historical information 
which it contains : 

Mr. Freston said his proposition was not indecorous or presumptuous, since 
the^ lead had been given by Texas herself. The question of annexation, on 
certain terms, had been submitted to the people of the republic, and decided 
in the affirmative ; and a negotiation had been proposed for effecting the ob- 
ject. Nor did his resolution give just cause of offense to Mexico. Its terms 
guarded our relations with that republic. Our intercourse with Mexico should 
be characterized by fair dealing, on account of her unfortunate condition, re- 
sulting from a long continued series of intestine dissensions. As long, there- 
fore, as she should attempt to assert her pretensions by actual force, or as long 
as there was a reasonable prospect that she had the power and the will to re- 
subjugate Texas, he would not interfere. He believed that period had already 




GATHERING CANE. 



ME. PRESTON. 513 

passed. In this opinion he differed, perhaps, from the executive. The nego- 
tiation had been declined by the secretary of state, because it would involve 
our relations with Mexico. Admitting that the executive had more extensive 
and exact information upon this question than he (Mr. Preston) could have, 
the resolution therefore expressed an opinion in favor of the annexation only 
when it could be done without disturbing our relations with Mexico. 

The acquisition of territory, Mr. Preston said, had heretofore been effected 
by treaty ; and this mode of proceeding had been proposed by the Texan min- 
ister, General Hunt. But he believed it would comport more with the impor- 
tance of the measure, that both branches of the government should concur ; 
the legislature expressing a previous opinion ; which being done, all difficulties 
might be avoided by a treaty tripartite, between Mexico, Texas, and the United 
States, in which the consent and confirmation of Mexico (for a pecuniary con- 
sideration, perhaps,) might be had without infringing the acknowledged inde- 
pendence and free agency of Texas. 

Mr. P. proceeded to show that "the Texan territory was once a part of the 
United States. In 1762, France ceded Louisiana to Spain. In 1800, Spain 
re-ceded it to France. In 1804, France ceded it to the United States. The 
extent of the French claim, therefore, determined ours, and included Missis- 
sippi and all the territories drained by its western tributaries. It rested upon 
the discovery of La Salle, in 1683, who penetrated from Canada by land, de- 
scended the Mississippi, and established a few posts on its banks. Soon after- 
wards, endeavoring to enter the mouth of that river from the gulf, he passed 
it nuperceived, and sailing westward, discovered the bay of St. Bernard, now 
called Matagorda, whence, a short distance in the interior, he established a 
military post on the bank of the Guadaloupe, and took possession of the coun- 
try in the name of his sovereign. The western limits of the territory, enuring 
to the French crowu by virtue of this discovery, was determined by the appli- 
cation of a principle recognized by European powers making settlements in 
America, viz : that the dividing line should be established at a medium distance 
between their various settlements. At the time of La Salle's settlement, the 
nearest Spanish possession was a small post called Panuco, at the point where 
a river of that name falls into the bay of Tampico. The medium line between 
Panuco and the Guadaloupe was the Rio Grande, which was assumed as the 
true boundary between France and Spain. France asserted her claim to that 
boundary from 1685, the period of La Salle's discovery, up to 1762, when, by 
the cession of Louisiana to Spain, the countries were united and the bounda- 
ries obliterated." 

Mr. P. referred to Mr. Adams' letter to Don Onis, of March, 1818, in which 
he recapitulated the testimony in favor of the French title. Mr. Jefferson ex- 
pressed the same opinion. Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney, in 1805, in obedi- 
ence to instructions from Mr. Madison, then secretary of state, asserted our 
claim west to the Rio Grande, in their correspondence with the Spanish com- 
missioner. Mr. Monroe, when president, held equally strong language, through 



514 APPLICATION OF TEXAS. 

Mr. Adams, his secretary of state. General Jackson entertained the same 
opinion. 

To the testimony of these presidents, he added the authority of the senator 
from Kentucky. During the delay on the part of Spain, in ratifying the treaty 
of 1819, tha + senator, then in the other house, taking the same view of the 
treaty which he (Mr. P.) was now urging — that it was a cession of a part of 
our territory to which the treaty-making power was incompetent — offered the 
following resolutions : 

"1. Resolved, That the constitution of the United States vests in congress no power to 
dispose of the territory belonging to them ; and that no treaty purporting to alienate any 
portion thereof is valid, without the concurrence of congress. 

"2. Resolved, That the equivalent proposed to be given by Spain to the United States, 
for that part of Lousiana west of the Sabine, was inadequate, and that it would be in- 
expedient to make a transfer thereof to any foreign power." 

" The author of these resolutions, in advocating them, said : 'He presumed 
the spectacle would not be presented of questioning, in this branch of the gov- 
ernment, our title to Texas, which had been constantly maintained by the ex- 
ecutive for more than fifteen years past, under three successive administrations. ' 
And he said : ' In the Florida treaty, it was not pretended that the object was 
simply a declaration of where the western line of Louisiana was ; it was, on 
the contrary, the case of an avowed cession of territory from the United States 
to Spain. The whole of the correspondence manifested that the respective 
parties to the negotiation were not engaged so much in an inquiry where the 
limit of Louisiana was, as where it should be. We find various limits discussed. 
Finally the Sabine is fixed, which neither of the parties ever contended was 
the ancient limit of Louisiana. • And the treaty itself proclaims its purpose to 
be a cession of the United States to Spain.' Such, Mr. P. said, were the 
opinions of the senator in 1820, and he trusted the wisdom and patriotism 
which warred against that rash treaty of 1819, would now be exerted against 
its great and growing evils, by the reannexation of Texas. 

" But he took higher ground than this. Mr. Clay rested the constitutional 
objection upon the incompetency of the treaty-making power to alienate terri- 
tory ; he (Mr. P.) considered it incompetent to the whole government. The 
constitution vests in congress the power "to dispose of the territory or other 
property of the United States." This clause was inserted to give power to 
effect the objects for which the states had granted these lauds to the general 
government ; and the true exposition of the clause was found in our vast and 
wise land system. It was never dreamed that congress could dispose of the 
sovereignty of territory to a foreign power. The south, he said, had gone 
blindly into this treaty. The importance of Florida had led them precipitately 
into a measure by which we threw a gem away that would have bought ten 
Floridas. Under any circumstances, Florida would have been ours iu a short 
time ; but our impatience had induced us to purchase it by a territory ten times 
as large, a hundred times as fertile, and to give five millions of dollars into the 
bargain. He acquiesced in the past ; but he proposed to seize the present fair 



MR. PRESTON. 515 

and just occasion to remedy the mistake made in 1819; to repair, as far as 
possible, the evil effect of a breach of the constitution, by getting back into the 
Union that fair and fertile province which, in an evil hour, we severed from the 
confederacy. 

" This proposition which now inflamed the public mind was not a novel 
policy. It was strange that a measure which had been urged for twelve years 
past should be met by a tempest of opposition ; and very strange that he should 
be riding upon and directing the storm, who was first to propose the annexa- 
tion of Texas, as one of the earliest measures of his administration after he 
was made president. He had endeavored to repair the injury inflicted upon 
the country by the treaty of 1819. As secretary of state in 1819, he negoti- 
ated the treaty of transfer ; in 1825, as president of the United States, he 
instituted a negotiation for the reannexation. Through his secretary of state, 
Mr. Clay, he instructed Mr. Poinsett, minister to Mexico, to urge a negotiation 
for the reacquisition of Texas and the establishment of the southwest line of 
the United States at the Rio Grande del Norte. Jackson and Van Buren 
had continued the effort ; and why it had failed, it was useless now to inquire. 
It was certain, that president Jacksou never lost sight of it, and that he con- 
tinued to look to its accomplishment as one of the greatest events of his ad- 
ministration, to the*moment when the title of Mexico was extinguished forever 
by the battle of San Jacinto. 

"Mr. P. considered the boundary line established by the treaty of 1819, as 
an improper one, not only depriving us of an extensive and fertile territory, 
but winding with ' a deep indent ' upon the valley of the Mississippi itself, 
running upon the Red river and the Arkansas. It placed a foreign nation in 
the rear of our Mississippi settlements, within a stone's throw of that great out- 
let which discharged the commerce of half the Union. The mouths of the 
Sabine and the Mississippi were of a dangerous vicinity. The great object of 
the purchase of Louisiana was to remove all possible interference of foreign 
states in the vast commerce of the outlet of so many states. By the cession 
of Texas, this policy had been to a certain extent compromised. He also re- 
ferred to the instructions of secretary Van Buren to Mr. Poinsett, saying : 
' The line proposed as the most desirable to us would constitute a most natural 
separation of the resources of the two nations.' 

"Mr. P. next considered the report of a committee of the Massachusetts legis- 
lature, which said : ' The committee do not believe that any power exists in 
any branch of this government, or in all of them united, to consent to such a 
union, (viz. with the sovereign state of Texas,) nor, indeed, does such 
authority pertain, as an incident of sovereignty, or otherwise, to the govern- 
ment, however absolute, of any nation.' Both of these propositions he con- 
troverted. As to the powers of this government, the mistake of the commit- 
tee laid in considering it, as to its nature and powers, a consolidated govern- 
ment. The states originally came together as sovereign states, having no power 
of reciprocal control. North Carolina and Rhode Island stood off for a time, 
and at length came in by the exercise of a sovereign discretion. So Missouri 



510 APPLICATION OF TEXAS. 

and other new states were fully organized and perfect, and self-governed, be- 
fore they came in ; and so might Texas be admitted. The power to admit 
new states was expressly given ; and by the very terms of the grant they must 
be states before they were admitted. The power granted to congress was, not 
to create, but to admit new states ; the states created themselves. Missouri 
and Michigan had done so, and exercised all the functions of self-government, 
while congress deliberated whether they should be admitted. In the meantime, 
the territorial organization was abrogated, and the laws of congress super- 
seded." 

After some further discussion of the question, Mr. P. said: "There is no 
point of view in which the proposition for annexation can be considered, that 
any serious obstacle in point of form presents itself. If this government be a 
confederation of states, then it is proposed to add another state to the coufecJ 
eration. If this government be a consolidation, then it is proposed to add to 
it additional territory and population. That we can annex, and afterwards 
admit, the cases of Florida and Louisiana prove. We can therefore deal with 
the people of Texas for the territory of Texas ; and the people can be secured 
in the rights and privileges of the constitution, as were the subjects of Spain 
and France." 

Having considered these " formal difficulties," he next adverted to those 
which exercised a more decisive influence over that portion of the Union which 
was offering such determined opposition to this measure. He regarded this joint 
movement of the northern states as a " combination conceived in a spirit of hos- 
tility towards one section, for the purpose of aggrandizing the political power 
of another." It could not fail to make a deep and mournful impression upon 
the south, that the opposition to the proposed measure was contemporaneous 
with the recent excitement on the subject of abolition. He said: "All men, of 
all parties, from all sections, in and out of office, Mr. Adams most conspicuous 
amongst them, desired the aquisition of Texas, until the clamorous interference 
in the affairs of the south was caught up in New England from old England. 
Then, for the first time, objections were made to this measure ; then those very 
statesmen who were anxious for the acquisition of Texas for their glory, found 
out that it would subvert the constitution and ruin the country. You are 
called upon to declare that the southern portion of your confederacy, by reason 
of certain domestic institutions, in the judgment of your petitioners wicked 
and detestable, is to be excluded from some part of the benefits of this gov- 
ernment. The assumption is equally insulting to the feelings and derogatory 
to the constitutional rights of the south. We neither can nor ought — I say it, 
Mr. President, in no light mood or wrong temper — we neither can nor ought 
to continue in political union on such terms." 

" Mr. P. spoke of the diminution of the comparative political power of the 
south. The sceptre, he said, had passed from them, and forever. All that 
was left them was to protect themselves. All they asked was some reasonable 
check upon an acknowledged power ; some approach to equipoise in the sen- 
ate. All the power they coveted was the power to resist incursions. He sus- 



MR. ADAMS. 517 

pected that the idea of checking the extension of domestic slavery was but a 
hollow and hypocritical pretext to cover political designs. He did not think 
the extension of slave territory and the increase of the slaveholdiug popula- 
tion would increase the number of slaves. Instead of this, annexation would 
rather prevent such increase. We stand entirely on the defensive ; we desire 
safety, not power, and we must have it. Give us safety and repose, by doing 
what all your most trusted and distinguished statesmen have been so long anx- 
ious to do. Give them to us by restoring what you wantonly and unconstitu- 
tionally deprived us of. Give us this" just and humble boon, by repairing the 
violated integrity of your territory, by augmenting your wealth and power, by 
extending the empire of law, liberty, and Christianity." 

In the house of representatives, ou the 12th of December, 1831, Mr. Adams 
presented a large number of memorials against the annexation of Texas, and 
moved that these and all others presented by himself and his colleagues at the 
extra session, be referred to a select committee. His colleagues had assented 
to approve the motion. Mr. Howard, of Maryland, having moved their ref- 
erence to the committee on foreign affairs, Mr. Adams expressed his views on 
the question of annexation in a manner which subjected him to several inter- 
ruptions. 

Mr. Adams said he and his colleagues viewed this question as one which in- ' 
volved even the integrity of the union — a question of the most deep, abiding 
and vitaMnterest to the whole American nation. " For," said he, " in the face 
of this house, and in the face of Heaven, I avow it as my solemn belief that 
the annexation of an independent foreign power to this government would, 
ipso facto, be a dissolution of this Union. And is this a subject for the pecu- 
liar investigation of your committee on foreign affairs ?" Mr. A. said the ques- 
tion involved was, whether a foreign nation — acknowledged as such in a most 
unprecedented and extraordinary manner, by this government, a nation ' damn- 
ed to everlasting fame ' by the re'institution of that detestable system, slavery, 
after it had once been abolished within its borders — should be admitted into 
union with a nation of freemen. " For, sir," said Mr. A., " that name, thank 
God, is still ours 1 And is such a question as this to be referred to a commit- 
tee on foreign affairs ?" 

Mr. A. said the exact grounds upon which the memorialists based their 
prayer were not officially known to the house. He had presented one hundred 
and ninety petitions upon this subject, signed by some twenty thousand per- 
sons, and his colleagues had presented collectively a larger number. Members 
from other states had also presented similar memorials ; but his colleagues had 
thought it fitting to move the reference to a select committee of those only 
which he and they had presented. All had the same object ; and they con- 
tained nothing that had the least connection with the foreign affairs of the 
country. 

These memorialists from Massachusetts, Mr. A. said, had observed with 
alarm and terror the conduct of the government towards Mexico, during the 
last, and as far as it had gone, of the present administration, in relation to the 



518 APPLICATION OF TEXAS. 

affairs of Texas. One strong reason of the remonstrance, on the part of his 
constituents, was, that the nation sought to be annexed to our own had its ori- 
gin in violence and fraud ; an impression by no means weakened by the im- 
pulses given by the late and present administrations to push on this senseless 
and wicked war with Mexico. They had seen the territory of that republic 
invaded by the act of the executive of this government, without any action of 
congress ; and they had seen conspirators coming here, and contriving and 
concerting their plans of operations with members of our own government ! 
Amidst all these demonstrations, they had heard the bold and unblushing pre- 
tense that the people of Texas were struggling for freedom, and that the wrongs 
inflicted upon them by Mexico had driven them into insurrection, and forced 
them to fight for liberty ! 

There had been recent evidence afforded the country as to the real origin of 
the insurrection. A citizen of Virginia, (Dr. Mayo,) who for years had held 
offices under the late administration, had just issued a pamphlet in this city, 
giving a copy of a letter by himself, in December, 1830, to the President of 
the United States, in which he declared that, in February, 1830, the person 
now called President Houston did in this city disclose to himself, the author 
of this letter, all his designs as to this then state of the republic of Mexico — 
Texas. What that letter contained as to the disclosure of a scheme to be ex- 
ecuted, was now a matter of history. It disclosed the particulars of a conver- 
sation which detailed the plan of the conspiracy, since consummated, to rob 
Mexico of the province of Texas. 

Mr. A. then inquired what were the pretenses upon which the disseverment 
of Texas from Mexico were justified. As early as 1824, the legislature of the 
republic of Mexico, to its eternal honor, passed an act for the emancipation of 
slaves, and the abolition of slavery ; and the only real ground of rebellion was 
that very decree ; the only object of the insurrection, the revival of the de- 
tested system of slavery ; aud she had adopted a constitution denying to her 
legislature even the "power of ever emancipating her slaves ! 

Mr. Adams did not wish to refer the memorials to the committee on foreign 
affairs, because it was not properly constituted. Its chairman, (Mr. Howard,) 
was himself a slaveholder, and, it was feared, entertained a widely different 
opinion as to the morality of slavery from that held by the mass of the memo- 
rialists ; and that a majority of the committee were in favor of annexing Texas 
to this government. It was conformable with the parliamentary rule to ap- 
point a majority of the committee in favor of the prayer of the memorialists. 
This seemed to him as one of the incidents of freedom of petition itself. Six 
out of nine of the committee on foreign affairs were slaveholders ; and he took 
it for granted that every member of the house who was a slaveholder, was 
ready for the annexation of Texas ; and its accomplishment was sought, not 
for the acquisition of so much new territory, but as a new buttress to the tot- 
tering institution of slavery. 

After a brief interruption by southern members, Mr. A. proceeded : 

He said discussion must come ; though it might for the present be delayed, 



APPLICATION WITHDRAWN. 519 

he believed it would not forever be smothered by previous questions, motions 
to lay on the table, and all the other means and arguments by which the insti- 
tution of slavery was wont to be sustained on that floor — the same means and 
arguments, in spirit, which in another place have produced murder and arson. 
Yes, sir, the same spirit which led to the inhuman murder of Lovejoy at 
Alton 

The chair remarked that Mr. A. was straying from the question of refer- 
ence ; and some conversation ensued as to his right to proceed, which he was 
at length permitted to do. 

In the course of his remarks, he said that he and his colleagues had seen, in 
reading the late message of the executive, how much was not in that document 
as well as how much was in it. It contained much allusion to the grievances 
of this government at the hands of Mexico, and none to our relation with 
Texas. The annexation of Texas and the proposed war with Mexico were 
one and the same thing, though expressed in different forms. The message 
was adverse to the prayer of the memorialists. Under the decision of the 
chair, he should reserve what he had to say further on this point until the 
mouths of members inclined to advocate the cause of freedom upon that floor, 
should be permitted to be opened more widely ; if, indeed, there was any hope 
that that time should ever arrive. 

Mr. Wise said there was no need, at present, of any such reference as had 
been proposed. Texas had attempted to open a negotiation for admission ; 
but her overture had been declined on the ground of our relations with Mexico. 
No memorial in favor of such a measure had ever been before the house. It 
would be time enough to discuss the subject dwelt upon with so much feeling 
by the gentleman from Massachusetts, when it should come up regularly for 
discussion. He therefore moved to lay the motions of reference on the table ; 
and having refused to withdraw his motion at the request of Mr. Rhett and 
Mr. Dawson to enable them to reply to Mr. Adams, the question was taken, 
and decided in the affirmative. Yeas, 127 ; nays, 68. 

On the 13th of June, 1838, the committee on foreign affairs reported that 
there was no proposition pending in the house either for the admission of Texas 
as a state, or for its territorial annexation to the United States. And in Octo- 
ber it was announced in the official paper (Globe) that, since the proposition 
submitted by Texas for admission into the Union had been declined, the Texan 
minister had communicated to our government the formal and absolute with- 
drawal of that proposition. 

In August, 1839, a vessel lying near the coast of Connecticut, under sus- 
picious circumstances, was captured by Lieut. Gedney, of the brig Washing- 
ton, and taken into New London. This vessel was a schooner, called L'Amis- 
tad, bound from Havana to Guanaja, Port Principe, with fifty-four blacks and 
two passengers on board. The former, four nights after they were out, rose 
and murdered the captain and three of the crew ; then took possession of the 
vessel with the intention of returning to Africa. The two passengers were 
Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez, the former owning forty-nine of the slaves, and 






520 CASE OF THE AM1STAD SLAVES. 

most of the cargo ; the latter claiming the remaining five, all children from 
seven to twelve years of age, and three of them females. These two men were 
saved to navigate the vessel. Instead, however, of steering for the coast of 
Africa, they navigated in a different direction, whenever they could do so with- 
out the knowledge of the Africans. It appeared that the slaves had been pur- 
chased at Havana, soon after their arrival from Africa. Cingues, who was the 
son of an African chief, and leader of the revolt, with thirty-eight others of 
the revolters, was committed to trial ; and the three girls were put under bonds 
to appear and testify. 

A demand was soon after made upon our government by the acting Span- 
ish minister in this country, for the surrender of the Amistad, cargo, and al- 
leged slaves, to the Spanish authorities. 

The children were brought before the circuit court of the United States, held 
at Hartford, in September, on a writ of habeas corpus, with a view to their 
discharge, on the ground that they were not slaves ; proof of which was given 
by two of the prisoners who testified that the children were native Africans. 
The discharge was resisted by Mr. Ingersoll, counsel for the Spanish claim- 
ants, who stated that the persons were libeled in the district by Capt. Gedney, 
his officers and crew, as property ; they were also libeled by the Spanish min- 
ister as the slave property of Spanish subjects, and as such ought to be deliv- 
ered up ; and they were libeled by the district attorney, that they might be 
delivered up to the executive, in order to their being sent to then- native coun- 
try, if it should be found right that they should be so sent. The counsel pre- 
sumed that this (circuit) court would not, under this writ, take this case out of 
the legitimate jurisdiction of the district court, as, if the decision of that court 
should not be satisfactory, the matter could be brought before this court by 
appeal. 

It was maintained by Mr. Baldwin, counsel for the children, that they had 
been feloniously and piratically captured in Africa — contrary to the laws of 
Spain — consequently, they were not property, and therefore the district court 
was ousted of its jurisdiction. The district judge had not issued his warrant 
to take these individuals. This he could not do without first judicially finding 
that they were property. The warrant issued by his honor to the marshal was 
to take the vessel and other articles of personal property. These children 
were not, and never could become personal property. They formed a part of 
a number of persons, who, born free, were captured and reduced to slavery. 
They had come here, not as slaves, but as free ; and we are asked first to make 
them slaves, and then give them up to the Spaniards. But we can only deliver 
up property; and before they can be delivered up, they must be proved to be 
property. Mr. Staples, associate counsel for the Africans, said Montez had 
the hardihood to come into a court of justice in our free country, and in con- 
travention of our treaty with Spain, to ask the surrender of these human beings, 
when the very act he desired us to countenance, would, by his own sovereign's 
decree, have subjected him to forfeiture of all his goods and to transportation ; 



JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 521 

and lie would himself have become a slave. This was a case of felony ; and 
felony could not confer property. 

The next day, a second writ of habeas corpus having been issued, all the 
Africans were before the court. The counsel recapitulated the facts of the 
case, and again denied the jurisdiction of the district court. As a court of 
admiralty, it could do nothing with them but as^property; and the applicant 
must first prove them to be property. Some of them were taken on shore ; 
these were within the jurisdiction of the common law. 

As to the libel of the district attorney at the suit of the Spanish minister, 
what had the minister to do with it? The parties claimed were neither fugi- 
tives or criminals. The district attorney libels them and prays that they may 
be kept in custody, that, if at some future time it should appear that they had 
been brought hither illegally, they might be delivered up to the president to be 
sent back to their own country. The counsel then asked their discharge. He 
said they should be taken care of (as it was right they should be) by the state 
of Connecticut. 

The counsel for the claimants followed in support of the jurisdiction of the 
district court ; and the district attorney in support of his libel on behalf of the 
executive. 

The decision of the court (Judge Thompson) in relation to the motion of 
the prisoners' counsel to discharge the Africans, was to deny the motion, as 
the question before the court was simply as to the jurisdiction of the district 
court over this subject. If the seizure was made upon the high seas — and the 
grand jury said it was made a mile from the shore — then the matter was right 
— fully before the court for this district. If, as was supposed by the counsel 
on both sides, the seizure was made within the district of New York, the court 
could endeavor to acertain the locality. To pass upon the question of prop- 
erty, belonged to the district court. Should either party be dissatisfied with 
the decision of that court, an appeal could be taken to the circuit court, and 
afterwards to the supreme court of the United States. 

The court said the question now disposed of had not been affected by the 
manner iu which the grand jury had disposed of the case upon the directions 
of the court. They had only found that there had been no criminal offense 
committed which was cognizable by the courts of the United States. Mur- 
der committed on board a foreign vessel with a foreign crew and foreign pa- 
pers, was not such an offense ; but an offense against the laws of the country 
to which the vessel belonged. But if the offense had been against the law of 
nations, this court would have jurisdiction. The murder of the captain of the 
Amistad was not a crime against the law of nations. 

The district court was opened; and the judge said he should order the dis- 
trict attorney to investigate the facts to ascertain where the seizure was made ; 
and then adjourned the court to November. 

At the adjourned term of the court in November, it was pleaded in behalf of 
the Africans, that neither the constitution, laws, or any treaty of the United 
States, nor the law of nations, gave this court any jurisdiction over their per- 
34 



522 CASE OF THE AMISTAD SLAVES. 

sons ; they therefore prayed to be dismissed. The counsel for Captain Gedney 
denied that the Africans had anything to do with the question now before the 
court. It was a claim for salvage ; and the parties were the libelants, (Geduey 
and the other officers and crew of the Washington,) and Ruiz and Montez, 
owners of the vessel and cargo. Gedney and others claimed salvage for saving 
the property of these Spaniards, who did not resist the claim. 

The district attorney presented a claim in behalf of the United States for 
the vessel, cargo and negroes, with a view to their restoration to their owners, 
who were Spanish subjects, without hindrance or detention, as required by our 
treaty with Spain. 

The interpreter being absent and sick, the court adjourned to New Haven in 
January next. 

In January, the decision of Judge Judson was given. The blacks who 
murdered the captain and others on board the schooner, were set free. But if 
they had been whites, they would have been tried and executed as pirates. 
The schooner having been proved to have been taken on the "high seas," the 
jurisdiction of the court was established. The libel of Gedney and others had 
been properly filed, and the seizers were entitled to salvage. Ruiz and Montez 
had established no title to the Africans, who were undoubtedly Bozal negroes, 
or negroes recently imported from Africa in violation of the laws of Spain. 
The demand of restoration made by the Spanish minister, that the question 
might be tried in Cuba, was refused, as by Spanish laws the negroes could not 
be enslaved ; and therefore they could not properly be demanded for triaL 
One of them a Creole, and legally a slave, and wishing to be returned to Ha- 
vana, a restoration would be decreed under the treaty of 1795. These Afri- 
cans were to be delivered to the president, under the act of 1819, to be trans- 
ported to Africa. 

An appeal was taken from the decree of the district judge to the circuit 
court, judge Thompson presiding, who affirmed that decree. And the govern- 
ment of the United States, at the instance of the Spanish minister, here ap- 
pealed to the supreme court of the United States. That court affirmed the 
judgment of the district court of Connecticut in every respect, except as to 
sending the negroes back to Africa : they were discharged as free men. 

A deep interest seems to have been taken by the British government in the 
case of these Africans. Their minister in this country, Mr. Fox, was instruct- 
ed to intercede with our government in their behalf; and their minister in 
Spain was directed to ask for their liberty if they should be delivered to the 
Spaniards at the request of the Spanish minister at Washington, and should 
be sent to Cuba ; and to urge Spain to enforce the laws against Montez and 
Ruiz and any other Spanish subjects concerned in the transaction in question. 

A disposition was manifested on the part of our government to effect the 
delivery of the captives to the Spanish authorities, at Cuba, to be there dealt 
with according to the laws of Spain. The friends of the Africans in this 
country deprecated such event, apprehending that the freedom of the negroes 
might not be obtained through the Spanish tribunals. 



NEGROES DECLARED FREE. 523 

On the 10th of February, 1840, probably suspecting unfairness on the part 
of the administration, a resolution was offered, requesting the president to 
communicate to the house copies of any demand by the Spanish government 
for the surrender of the Africans, and of the correspondence between the state 
department and the Spanish minister and the district attorney of the United 
States in the judicial district of Connecticut. 

On the 20th of January, 1841, while the question of the prisoners was still 
pending in the supreme court of the United States, the British minister ad- 
dressed to Mr. Forsyth, secretary of state, a letter representing the interest felt 
by his government in the case of the African negroes, mentioning the obliga- 
tion of Spain, by treaty with Great Britain, to prohibit the slave trade from 
the 30th of May, 1820, and the mutual engagements of the United States and 
Great Britain, by the 10th article of the treaty of Ghent, to use their endeavors 
for the entire abolition of the slave trade. And as the freedom of the negroes 
may depend upon the action of the United States government, he expresses 
the hope that the president will find himself empowered to take such measures 
in their behalf, as should secure them their liberty. 

Mr. Forsyth, in his answer of the 1st of February, says, in substance, that 
the introduction of the negroes into this country did not proceed from the 
wishes or direction of our government The vessel and the negroes had been 
demanded by the Spanish minister, and the grounds of that demand were be- 
fore the judicial tribunals. He tells Mr. Fox that our government is not will- 
ing to erect itself into a tribunal between Spain and Great Britain ; that he, 
(Mr. Fox,) had doubtless observed from the correspondence published in a con- 
gressional document, that the Spanish minister intended to restore the negroes, 
should their delivery to his government be ordered, to the island of Cuba, to 
be placed under the protection of the government of Spain. There was the 
proper place, and there would be a full opportunity, to discuss questions aris- 
ing under the Spanish laws and the treaties of Spain with Great Britain. 

The decision of the supreme court was awaited with deep interest by all who 
sympathized with the negroes. Mr. Adams, who had not argued a case for 
thirty or forty years before that court, made a very elaborate as well as able ar- 
gument in their behalf. The opinion of the court was pronounced by Mr. 
Justice Story, early in March, 1841, affirming the decision of the district court 
in every particular, except that which ordered the negroes to be delivered to the 
president to be transported to Africa. The court reversed this part of the de- 
cree, and ordered the cause to be remanded to the circuit court which had af- 
firmed the same, with directions to enter in lieu thereof, that the negroes be 
declared free, and be discharged from suit.* 

[The word libel used in the above case signifies, in courts of admiralty, "a 
declaration or charge in writing, exhibited in court, particularly against a ship 
or goods, for a violation of the laws of trade or revenue ;" also when a prize 
is brought into port, the captors make a writing called libel.'] 

*Young's Political History. 



524 PETITION FOR DISSOLUTION OF UNION. 

CENSUS OP 1840.— SLAVE POPULATION. 

Alabama 253,532 Mississippi 195,211 

Arkansas 19,935 Missouri 58,240 

District of Columbia 4, 694 New Jersey 674 

Delaware 2,605 New York 4 

Florida 25,717 Pennsylvania 64 



gia 280,944 North Carolina 245,817 

Illinois 331 South Carolina 327,038 

Kentucky 182,258 Tennessee 183,059 

Louisiana 168,452 Virginia 449,087 

Maryland 89,737 Aggregate, 2,487,455. 

In the ten years between 1830 aud 1840, the aggregate increase amouuted 
to 478,412. Slavery had decreased in the District of Columbia, Delaware, 
Maryland and Virginia. 

On the 24th of January, 1842, Mr. Adams presented a petition, to the 
house, signed by forty-six citizens of Haverhill, Massachusetts, for the adop- 
tion of measures peaceably to dissolve the Union, assigning as one of the rea- 
sons the inequality of benefits conferred upon different sections, one section 
being annually drained to sustain the views and course of the other without 
adequate return. Mr. Adams moved its reference to a select committee, with 
instructions to report an answer showing the reasons why the prayer of the 
petitioners should not be granted. 

This matter produced considerable excitement, questions and motions fol- 
lowed. Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia, submitted as a question of privilege the 
following : " Resolved, that in presenting to this house a petition for the 
dissolution of the Union, the member from Massachusetts has justly incurred 
the censure of this house. " The resolution was objected to as out of order ; 
the speaker decided that being a question of privilege it was in order. Mr. 
Adams hoped the resolution would be received and debated, desiring the priv- 
ilege of addressing the house in his own defense. A motion to lay Gilmer's 
resi Intion on the table was negatived, 94 to 112, Mr. Adams himself voting in 
the negative. 

Mr. Marshall, of Kentucky, then offered as a substitute for Gilmer's resolu- 
tion, a preamble and two resolutions, declaring a proposition to the represen- 
tatives of the people to dissolve the constitution which they were sworn to 
support, to be " a high breach of privilege, a contempt offered to the house, a 
direct proposition to each member to commit perjury, and involving necessarily 
in its consequences the destruction of our country, aud the crime of high trea- 
son ; " that Mr. Adams, in presenting the petition, had " offered the deepest 
indignity to the house, and insult to the people," and would, if "unrebuked 
and unpunished, have disgraced his country in the eyes of the world." It was 
farther resolved, that this insult, the first of the kind ever offered, deserved ex- 
pulsion ; but, as an act of grace and mercy they would only inflict upon him 
"their severest censure, for the maintenance of their own purity, and dignity; 
and for the rest, they turn him over to his own conscience and the indignation 
of all true American citizens." 






RESOLUTION OF CENSURE. 525 

A debate then ensued, which continued, with little intermission, until the 
7th of February. The nature of the subject of the resolutions, the serious 
charges which they contained, and the individual accused, as well as certain in- 
cidental topics which it embraced, imparted to this debate a surpassing interest 
throughout the couutry. For several days Mr. Marshall, Mr. Wise, and Mr. 
Adams, were the chief participators. Mr. Wise undertook to show, in the 
course of his speeches, that there was a combination of pretended philanthro- 
pists of Great Britain aud the abolitionists of this country to overthrow sla- 
very in the southern states ; and he charged Mr. Adams with beiug an ally of 
British emissaries in the furtherance of this object. 

Mr. Wise said he should at the proper time ask to be excused from voting 
for the resolution of censure. Personally, he had not censured him ; political- 
ly, he had. He said : " The gentleman was honored, time honored, hoary — but 
he could not add, with wisdom. The gentleman had immense power, the pow- 
er of station, the power of fame, the power of age, the power of eloquence, 
the power of the pen ; and any man was greatly mistaken who should say or 
think, that the gentleman was mad. The gentleman might say with an apos- 
tle, ' I am not mad, most noble Festus,' though he could not add, ' but speak 
forth the words of truth and soberness.' All who knew him would say he was 
not mad. In a political, not in a personal sense, Mr. Wise would say, and 
with entire sincerity of heart, the gentleman was far more wicked than weak. 
A mischief might be done by him. Mr. Wise believed he was disposed to do 
it, and would wield his immense intellectual, moral, and political power to ef- 
fect it. That mischief was the dissolution of this Union, and the agent of that 
dissolution, should it ever be effected, Mr. Wise did in his heart believe, would 
be the gentleman from Massachusetts. Governed by his reputation, by his 
habits, by all considerations arising from the belief of personal wrongs, his 
passions were roused, and his resentment and his vengeance would be wreaked 
on the objects of his hatred, if he could reach them. If this state of mind 
were monomania, then it was hereditary ; no matter what might be its cause, 
it was dangerous — deadly. The gentleman was astute to design, obstinate and 
zealous in power, and terrible in action, and an instrument well fitted to dis- 
solve the Union." 

Mr. Adams questioned the right of the house to entertain the resolutions of 
Mr. Mashall, because they charged him with crimes of which the house had no 
jurisdiction ; and because, if it entertained the jurisdiction, it deprived him of 
rights secured to him by the constitution. All that the house could try him 
for, was a contempt of the house, under the resolution of Mr. Gilmer. "But," 
said Mr. Adams, " there was a trial in this house, about four or five years ago, 
of a member of the house for crime. [Mr. Wise had had connection with the 
duel between Messrs. Graves and Cilley, in which the latter was killed.] 
There came into this house then a man with his hands and face dripping with 
the blood of murder, the blotches of which were yet hanging upon him ; and 
the question was put, upon the proposition of those very democrats to whom 
he has this day rendered the tribute and homage of his thanks, that he should 



52G DEBATE ON RESOLUTION. 

be tried by this house for that crime, the crime of murder. I opposed the 
trial of that crime by this house. I was willing that the parties to that atro- 
cious crime should be sent to their natural judges, to have an impartial trial ; 
and it is very probable that J saved that blood-stained man from the censure 
of the house at the time." 

Mr. "Wise, interrupting Mr. Adams, inquired of the speaker whether his 
character or conduct was involved in the issue before the house, and whether 
it was in order to charge him with the crime of murder ; a charge made by a 
man who had at the time defended him from the charge on that floor; and 
who had, as he was informed by one of Mr. Adams' own colleagues, defended 
him before thousands of people in Massachusetts. 

Mr. Adams said he never had defended the man on the merits of the case ; 
and never did believe but what he was the guilty man, and that the man who 
pulled the trigger was but an instrument in his hands. He repeated, that the 
house had no power to try and puuish him for the crimes charged against him. 
The constitution provides, that " in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall 
enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial by au impartial jury." The house 
w r as not an impartial tribunal. " I wish," said Mr. Adams, "to speak of the 
slaveholders of this house and of the Union with respect. There are three 
classes of persons included in the slave interest as representatives here. As 
to the slaveholder, I have nothing to say against him, except if I am to be 
tried by him, I shall not have au impartial trial. I challenge him for partial- 
ity — for preadjudication upon this question, as a question of contempt, which 
I repeat, is the only charge on which I can be made to answer here, I say he 
is not impartial. Every slaveholder has not only au interest, but the most 
sordid of all interests — a personal, pecuniary interest — which will govern him. 
I come from a portion of the country where slavery is known only by name ; I 
come from a soil that bears not the foot of a slave upon it. I represent here 
the descendants of Bedford, and Winslow, and Carver, and Alden — the first 
who alighted on the rock of Plymouth. And am I, the representative of the 
descendants of these men — of the free people of the state of Massachusetts, 
that bears not a slave upon it — am I to come here and be tried for high trea- 
son because I presented a petition — a petition — to this house, and because the 
fancy or imagination of the gentleman from Kentucky supposes that there was 
anti-slavery or the abolition of slavery in it ? The gentleman charges me 
with subornation of perjury and of high treason, and he calls upon this house, 
as a matter of mercy and grace, not to expel me for these crimes, but to in- 
flict upon me the severest censure they can ; and to decide upon that, there 
are one hundred members of this house who are slaveholders. Is any one of 
them impartial ? No. I trust they will not consider themselves as impartial 
men ; I trust that many of them will have those qualms of conscience which 
the gentleman from Accomac (Mr. Wise) assigns as his reason for being ex 
cused, and that they will not vote upon a question on which their personal, 
pecuniary, and most sordid interests are at stake." 

Mr. Underwood, of Kentucky, also maintained that the house was not the 






MK. ADAMS DEFENDED. 527 

proper tribunal before which Mr. Adams, if guilty of the crimes alleged, ought 
to be arraigned. He defended the right of petition. He believed where there 
was no power to grant the prayer of the petitioners, there was no right to pe- 
tition. But he had voted against the 21st rule, because by that petitioners 
were excluded who had a right to be heard. As a slaveholder, he had differed 
from his brethren in reference to the whole gag proceedings. In reference to 
all gag rules, he said, away with them. Let those who wish, discuss this 
topic as much as they please. He attempted to show that the proceeding 
against Mr. Adams was to punish him for an imputed motive. What had he 
been guilty of ? Had he sanctioned the petition? How could they judge 
his motive ? Nor had he violated the rules of order. He had simply presen- 
ted a petition ; and they were attemptiog to punish him for the manner in 
which he had considered it his duty to represent a portion of the people of 
Massachusetts. He told gentlemen to beware how they put it into the power 
of the gentleman from Massachusetts to go home and tell his constituents that 
he was a martyr to the right of petition. 

Mr. Botts, of Virginia, also defended Mr. Adams. " He did not approve 
all that he had said on that floor. But he would not wound the feelings of 
that venerable gentleman. He believed he had expressed many sentiments in 
the irritability of the weight of years that hung on him, which his own calm 
reflection would condemn. There was enough passing under his immediate ob- 
servation to provoke the gentleman, and if he might use the expression, to 
' bedevil ' him. But what was the offense with which he stood charged ? He 
had presented a petition ; and he had asked permission to present a remon- 
strance, and appeal to the petitioners against the folly of their course. This 
was not the first time the house had heard of the dissolution of the Union. A 
gentleman from South Carolina, now a member of this body, (Mr. Rhett,) had 
three or four years ago actually drawn up a resolution, asking congress to appoint 
a committee, to consist of one member from each state, to devise measures for 
the dissolution of the Union. [This called out Mr. Rhett in explanation. It 
was not his wish to dissolve the Union ; he intended it as an amendment to a 
motion to refer with instructions to report a bill for abolishing slavery in the 
District of Columbia. He expected it to be laid on the table with the origi- 
nal motion. His design was to place before congress and the people what he 
believed to be the true issue upon this great and vital question. The resolu- 
tion proposed a committee of two from each state.] It was, said Mr. Botts, 
not only the doctrine of the gentleman, but of the majority of his state. They 
held that a state had a right to secede from the Union. If one state had such 
right, others had." 

Mr. Botts " considered this affair a great farce — a storm in a tea-pot. Talk 
of censuring the gentleman from Massachusetts ! Look at the other end of thi3 
avenue. A man at the head of the right arm of the defense of this nation — the 
secretary of the navy, (Mr. Upshur,) — the last time he had had conversation 
with him, was an open, avowed advocate Qf the immediate dissolution of the 
Union. [Mr. Wise : I deny it.] Mr. Botts repeated the declaration, and 



528 ME. ADAMS DEFENDED. 

said, when the secretary denied it, he would undertake to prove his statement. 
If there were to be any charges for high treason, the secretary of the navy 
should be put on his trial." 

Mr. Arnold, of Tennessee, spoke at length in opposition to the resolutions, 
and in defense of Mr. Adams. " He could have no possible motive for desir- 
ing the dissolution of the Union. He had presented this petition, because he 
wanted, as the last and most glorious act of a long life, to send forth, in these 
times of general confusion and political degeneracy, a paper with healing in 
its wings — a report adverse to the prayer of the petition, and which should 
state, in a luminous and convincing manner, all the strong arguments in favor 
of union. He would like to see such a paper from the able pen of that vener- 
able patriot. It would dissipate all doubts as to the purity and patriotism of 
its author. 

"But for the crime of presenting a petition with such an object in view, the 
house was to put on record against him a charge of aiding in high treason, 
and in suborning the members of that house to the commission of perjury ; 
and he was to consider it as a great favor that the house did not expel him, 
but contented itself with giving him a reprimand. Mr. Arnold should like to 
witness the spectacle. He should like to see that gentleman standing at the 
bar, with his palsied hand, his bare head, and whitened locks, to be rebuked by 
the speaker, comparatively a mere boy, after having been visited with the vitu- 
peration and vindictive persecution of another, as much a boy in comparison. 
What a spectacle I Mr. Arnold turned from the thought with loathing and 
disgust, and so would the nation. So far from helping the cause of the south, 
it would kindle up against her a blaze high as the very heavens. He was 
against it — utterly and totally against it — from principle and from policy too." 

Mr. Adams demanded that before the house came to the conclusion on the 
motives assumed in this charge, they should send him out to be tried before a 
tribunal of the country. Then he should have the benefit secured by the con- 
stitution. And he wanted, in that case, to have two or three calls made on 
the departments for information necessary for his defense ; and for this pur- 
pose he sent several resolutions to the chair. The first of these resolutions re- 
quested the president to communicate copies of the correspondence relating to 
an act of South Carolina directing the imprisonment of colored persons arriv- 
ing from abroad in the ports of that state ; also, copies of the act or acts, and 
of any official opinions given by judge Johnson of the unconstitutionality of 
the said acts. [The act here referred to, subjects any colored person lauding 
from a vessel in any port of South Carolina, to be arrested and imprisoned, 
and in case of inability to pay the costs incurred by such imprisonment, to be 
sold for the same as a slave.] One of the other resolutions called for a copy 
of any letter or letters from the president to a certain member of the house, 
relating to the rule of the house excluding from reception anti-slavery petitions, 
or to any agency of the said member in introducing the rule The first two 
resolutions, after considerable further debate, were adopted TJpon th* two 
relating to the " 21st rule," the vote was not then Hxen 



CASE OP THE CREOLE. 529 

Mr. A. maintained that he was guilty of no offense ; he had, on presenting 
the petition, declared it was the last thing he would ever vote for. He also 
repeated what he had said on former occasions, that he had given notice to the 
house, the petitioners, and the whole country, and his constituents among them, 
that if they sent to him their petitions for abolishing slavery in the District of 
Columbia, because they expected him to support them, they were mistaken. 

After Mr. Adams had occupied two or three days more in his defense, a dis- 
position was manifested to get rid of the subject, by laying it on the table. He 
was willing to acquiesce in such a proposition, provided it should never be 
taken up again. The subject was thereupon laid on the table, by a vote of 
106 to 93 ; and the reception of the petition was refused, 40 to 106. 

On the 28th of February, 1842, Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, presented a petition 
from upwards of eighty citizens of Austinburg, in his district, of both political 
parties, it was said, praying for an amicable division of the Union, separating 
the free and slave states. Mr. G. moved a reference of the petitiou to a select 
committee, with instructions to report against the prayer of the petitioners, 
and to assign reasons why their prayer should not be granted. Mr. Triplett, 
of Kentucky, considering the petition disrespectful both to the house and the 
man who presented it, moved that it be not received. The question on receiving 
the petition was decided in the negative: yeas 24, nays 116. 

Mr. Kennedy, of Maryland, offered a resolution declaring that all such peti- 
tions should thereafter be deemed offensive, and the member presenting them 
liable to censure. The resolution, however, was not received. For a different 
act, however, Mr. Giddings, at a later period of the session, incurred a formal 
censure of the house. 

In October, 1841, the brig Creole left Richmond, for New Orleans, with a 
cargo consisting principally of tobacco and slaves, about 135 in number. On 
the 1th of November, the slaves rose upon the crew, killed a man on board 
named Hewell, part owner of the negroes, and severely wounded the captain 
and two of the crew. Having obtained command of the vessel, they directed 
ner to be taken into the port of Nassau, in the British island of New Provi- 
dence, where she arrived on the 9th. An investigation was made by British 
magistrates, and an examination by the American consul. Nineteen of the 
negroes were imprisoned by the local authorities as having been concerned in 
the mutiny and murder. Their surrender to the consul, to be sent to the United 
States for trial, was refused, until the advice of the government of England 
could be had. A part of the remaining slaves were liberated and suffered to 
go beyond the control of the master of the vessel and the consul. 

Mr. Webster, secretary of state, in a letter dated January 29th, 1842, in- 
structed Mr. Everett, our minister at London, to present the case to the Brit- 
ish government, " with a distinct declaration, that, if the facts turn out as stated, 
this government think it a clear case for indemnification." 

A different view of the question was taken by England. Lord Brougham 
stated in the house of lords, others concurring and and none dissenting, 
that " the only treaty by which England or America could claim any refugees, 



530 CENSURE OF MR. GIDDINGS. 

either from the other, related exclusively to murderers, forgers, and fraudulent 
bankrupts ; and even that treaty had expired. There was no international 
law by which they could claim, or we give up, the parties who had taken pos- 
session of the Creole ; and those persons must stand or fall by British laws 
only." All agreed that there was no authority to surrender the fugitives, nor 
hold in custody the mutineers ; and it was stated that orders had been sent for 
their liberation. 

On the 21st of March, 1842, Mr. Giddings submitted a series of resolutions 
on a subject which, he said, had excited some interest in the other end of the 
capitol, and in the nation, and which he wished to lay before the country. 
These resolutions declared jurisdiction over slavery to belong exclusively to the 
states ; that by the 8th section of the first article of the constitution, the states 
had surrendered to the federal government jurisdiction over commerce and navi- 
gation upon the high seas ; that slavery, being an abridgment of the natural 
rights of mau, can exist only by force of positive municipal law, and is ne- 
cessarily confined to the territorial jurisdiction of the power creating it; that 
when the brig Creole left the territorial jurisdiction of Virginia, the slave laws 
of that state ceased to have jurisdiction over the persons on board the said 
brig, who became amenable only to the laws of the United States, and who, in 
resuming their natural rights of personal liberty, violated no law of the United 
States ; and that all attempts to reenslave the said persons, or to exert our 
national influence in favor of the coastwise slave-trade, or to place the nation 
in au attitude of maintaining a "commerce in human beings," were subversive 
of the rights and injurious to the feelings and the interests of the free states, 
unauthorized by the constitution, and incompatible with our national honor. 

Mr. Ward, of New York, moved the previous question on these resolutions. 
Mr. Everett, of Vermont, with a view, probably, to their discussion, moved to 
lay them on the table. This motion was rejected : yeas 52, nays 125. Tb 
previous question having been seconded, and the main question ordered, Mr 
Giddings, in the midst of the confusion and excitement which ensued, withdrev 
his resolutions. 

Mr. Botts then offered a resolution, upon the adoption of which he intended 
to move the previous question. The preamble to the resolution deprecated 
the resolutions of Mr. Giddings, "touching a subject of negotiation between 
the United States and Great Britain of a most delicate nature," and as possi- 
bly " involving those nations and the whole civilized world in war ; " declared 
it to be the duty of every good citizen, and especially of every representative 
of the people, to discountenance all efforts to create excitement and division 
among the people under such circumstances ; and denounced them as justifying 
mutiny and murder, in terms shocking to all sense of law, order and humanity : 
therefore, 

"Resolved, That this house hold the conduct of said member as altogether 
unwarranted and unwarrantable, and deserving the severe condemnation of the 
people of this country, and of this body in particular." 

An excited debate ensued, which continued during the remainder of that 



MR. GIDDINGS RESIGNS. 531 

day and the next, and in which, sundry questions of order, appeals, and of privi- 
lege were discussed. Several members having expressed a desire that Mr. 
Giddings should be heard in his defense, he rose and said : " I stand before 
the house in a peculiar situation." Mr. Cooper, of Georgia, objected to his 
proceeding, but at the request of his colleagues withdrew his objection. But 
Mr. G. did not resume the floor. He, however, addressed to the reporter of 
the National Intelligencer a note stating, that when he was called to order the 
last time, he had written and desired to state to the house as follows : 

"Mr. Speaker: I stand before the house in a peculiar situation. It is 
proposed to pass a vote of censure upon me, substantially for the reason that 
I differ in opinion from a majority of the members. The vote is about to be 
taken without giving me time to be heard. It would be idle for me to say that 
I am ignorant of the disposition of a majority to pass the resolution. I have 
been violently assailed in a personal manner, but have had no opportunity of 
being heard in reply. I do not now stand here to ask for any favor or to crave 
any mercy at the hands of the members. But in the name of an insulted con- 
stituency — in behalf of one of the sovereign states of this Union — in behalf 
of the people of these states and the federal constitution — I demand a hearing, 
agreeably to the rights guaranteed to me, and in the ordinary mode of pro- 
ceeding. I accept of no other privilege ; I will receive no other courtesy." 

The resolution of Mr. Botts was adopted by a vote of 125 to 69; the pre- 
amble, 129 to 66. 

Mr. Giddings then addressed to the speaker a letter of resignation, which 
was the next day laid before the house. He immediately departed for his resi- 
dence in Ohio — was reelected on the 26th of April, at a special election called 
by the governor of the state, by a majority of about 3,500 votes over his op- 
ponent — and returned to his seat in the house on the 5th of May.* 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Period from 1842 to 1849. — Annexation or Texas. 

Object of the acquisition set forth by Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee legislatures, 
and by Mr. Wise and Mr. Gilmer, 1842. — Tyler's treaty of annexation — rejected by 
the senate. — Presidential campaign of 1844. — Clay and Van Buren on annexation. — Cal- 
houn's Letter. — Session of 1844-5 ; joint resolution passed, and approved March 1, 
1S4;>.— Mexican minister protests. — War with Mexico. — The $2,000,000 bill. — Wil- 
mot Proviso. — Session of 1S47-8. — Bill to organize Oregon territory.' — Power of Con- 
gress over slavery in the territories discussed. — Dix and Calhoun. — Mr. Calhoun con- 
troverts the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence. — Cass' Nicholson letter. 



T 



HE project for the annexation of Texas had not been abandoned. The ob- 
ject to be attained by the acquisition is thus set forth in the report of a commit- 
tee of the Mississippi legislature : 

* American Statesman. 



532 TEXAS QUESTION. 

"But we hasten to suggest the importance of the annexation of Texas to this repub- 
lic, upon grounds somewhat local in their complexion, but of an import infinitely grave 
and interesting to the people who inhabit the southern portion of this confederacy, 
where it is known that a species of domestic slavery is tolerated and protected by law, 
whose existence is prohibited by the legal regulations of other states of this confederacy ; 
which system of slavery is held by all, who are familiarly acquainted with its practical 
effects, to be of highly beneficial influence to the country within whose limits it is per- 
mitted to exist. 

"The committee feel authorized to say that this system is cherished by our constitu- 
ents as the very palladium of their prosperity and happiness, and whatever Ignorant 
fanatics may elsewhere conjecture, the committee are fully assured, upon the most dili- 
gent observation and reflection on the subject, that the south does not possess within her 
limits a blessing with which the affections of her people are so closely entwined and so 
completely enfibered, and whose value is more highly appreciated, than that which we 
are now considering. 

"It may not be improper here to remark, that during the last session of congress, 
when a senator from Mississippi proposed the acknowledgment of Texan independence, 
it was found, with a few exceptions, the members of that body were ready to take ground 
upon it, as upon the subject of slavery itself. 

' ' With all these facts before us, we do not hesitate in believing that these feelings in- 
fluenced the New England senators, but one voting in favor of the measure ; and, indeed, 
Mr. Webster has been bold enough, in a public speech recently delivered in New York, 
to many thousand citizens, to declare that the reason that influenced his opposition was 
his abhorrence to slavery in the south, and that it might, in the event of its recognition, 
become a slaveholding state. He also spoke of the efforts making in favor of abolition; 
and that being predicated upon, and aided by the powerful influence of religious feeling, 
it would become irresistible and overwhelming. 

"This language, coming from so distinguished an individual as Mr. Webster, so fa- 
miliar with the feelings of the north, and entertaining so high a respect for public senti- 
ment in New England, speaks so plainly the voice of the north as not to be misunder- 
stood. 

' ' We sincerely hope there is enough good sense and genuine love of country among 
our fellow-countrymen of the northern states, to secure us final justice on this subject; 
yet we cannot consider it safe or expedient for the people of the south to entirely disre- 
gard the efforts of the fanatics, and the opinions of such men as Webster, and others 
who countenance such dangerous doctrines. 

"The northern states have no interests of their own which require any special safe- 
guards for their defense, save only their domestic manufactures ; and God knows they 
have already received protection from government on a most liberal scale ; under which 
encouragement they have improved and flourished beyond example. The south has 
very peculiar interests to preserve — interests already violently assailed and boldly threat- 
ened. 

' ' Your committee are fully persuaded that this protection to her best interests will be 
afforded by the annexation of Texas ; an equipoise of influence in the halls of congress 
will be secured which will furnish us a permanent guarantee of protection." 

The states of Alabama and Tennessee bad also adopted resolutions in favor 
of annexation. Hon. Henry A. Wise, in a speech in congress, Jan. 26, 1842, 
said: 

"True, if Iowa be added on the one side, Florida will be added on the other. But 
there the equation must stop. Let one more northern state be admitted, and the equi- 
librium is gone — gone forever. The balance of interests is gone — the safeguard of 






OBJECTS OF ANNEXATION. 533 

American property — of the American constitution — of the American Union, vanished 
into thin air. This must be the inevitable result, unless by a treaty with Mexico, the 
south can add more weight to her end of the lever ! Let the south stop at the Sabine, 
("the eastern boundary of Texas,_) while the north may spread unchecked beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, and the southern scale must kick the beam I " 

Mr. Gilmer, member of congress and formerly governor of Virginia, wrote 
to a friend in January, 1842 : 

" You ask if I have expressed the opinion that Texas would be annexed to the United 
States. I answer, yes ; and this opinion has not been adopted without reflection, or with- 
out a careful observation of causes, which I believe are rapidly bringing about this result. 
I do not know how far these causes have made the same impression on others ; but I 
am persuaded that the time is not distant when they will be felt in all their force. The 
excitement which you apprehend may arise ; but it will be temporary, and, in the end, 
salutary. 

"I am, as you know, a strict constructionist of the powers of our federal government; 
and I do not admit the force of mere precedent to establish authority under written con- 
stitutions. The power conferred by the constitution over our foreign relations, and the 
repeated acquisitions of territory under it, seem to me to leave this question open as one 
of expediency. 

"But you anticipate objections with regard to the subject of slavery. This is indeed 
a subject of extreme delicacy, but it is one on which the annexation of Texas will have 
the most salutary influence. Some have thought that the proposition would endanger 
our Union. I am of a different opinion. I believe it will bring about a better under- 
standing of our relative rights and obligations. 

"Having acquired Louisiana and Florida, we have an interest and a frontier on the 
Gulf of Mexico, and along our interior to the Pacific, which will not permit us to close 
our eyes or fold our arms with indifference to the events which a few years may disclose 
in that quarter. We have already had one question of boundary with Texas ; other 
questions must soon arise, under our revenue laws, and on other points of necessary 
intercourse, which it will be difficult to adjust. The institutions of Texas, and her rela- 
tions with other governments, are yet in that condition which inclines her people ("who 
are our countrymen J to unite their destinies with ours. This mu^t be done soon or not 
at all." 

Texas was also making movements for annexation ; resolutions and a bill 
for the purpose were introduced into the legislature. A Texas paper an- 
nounced that Mr. Upshur, our secretary of state, had proposed to Mr. Van 
Zandt, the Texas charge at Washington, to open a negotiation for annexing 
Texas to the Union. This proved to be true. A treaty was concluded at 
Washington on the 12th of April, 1844, by John C. Calhoun, secretary of 
state, on the part of the United States, and Isaac_Van Zandt and J. Pinckney 
Henderson on the part of Texas. This treaty was communicated to the sen- 
ate on the 22d, and ordered to be printed in confidence for the use of the sen- 
ators. On the 27th of April, notwithstanding the injunctions of secrecy upon 
the action of the senate, the New York Post announced the couclusion of the 
treaty, and published the president's message and documents which accompa- 
nied it. 

On the 8th of June, the question was taken in the senate on the ratification 
of the treaty, a majority of two-thirds being necessary to ratify. Only 16 sen- 



534: TYLER TREATY. 

ators voted in the affirmative, and 25 in the negative. Of the senators from 
the free states who voted for the treaty, were Messrs. Buchanan and Sturgeon, 
of Pennsylvania, Mr. Breese, of Illinois, and Mr. Woodbury, of New Hamp- 
shire. Of the democrats from the free states who voted against the treaty, 
were Mr. Fairfield, of Maine, Mr. Atherton, of New Hampshire, Mr. Niles, 
of Connecticut, Mr. Wright, of New York, Messrs. Allen and Tappan, of 
Ohio ; also, Mr. Benton, of Missouri, a slave state. 

The vote on the question of ratification does not, however, indicate the views 
of senators on the abstract question of annexation. One objection to the 
treaty was, that it would involve the United States in a war with Mexico. 
Another was, that Texas claimed disputed territory ; and to receive Texas 
would compel our government to defend the claim against Mexico. It was 
also objected, that the annexation was unconstitutional. 

In the debate in secret session on the ratification, a large number of sena- 
tors took part ; among whom were Messrs. Benton, Choate, Wright, Walker, 
and M'Duffie ; the two last in favor of the treaty, the others in opposition. 

Mr. Benton's great speech was delivered on the ICth, 17th, and 20th of 
May, and was in support of resolutions offered by him on the 13th, declaring, 

1st. That the ratification of the treaty would be the adoption of the Texan 
war with Mexico, and would devolve its conclusion upon the United States. 

2d. That the treaty-making power does not extend to the power of making 
war, and that the president and senate have no right to make war, either by 
declaration or by adoption. 

3d. That Texas ought to be reunited to the American union, as soon as it 
can be done with the consent of a majority of the people of the United States 
and of Texas, and when Mexico shall either consent to the same, or acknowl- 
edge the independence of Texas, or cease to prosecute the war against her, 
(the armistice having expired,) on a scale commensurate to the conquest of the 
country. * 

Mr. Benton contended that the treaty proposed to annex much more terri- 
torv than originally belonged to Texas ; and therefore the proposition for the 
" reannexation of Texas " was a fraud in words. It was not pretended, even 
by those who used that word, that the province of Texas, when it was ceded 
in 1819 to Spain, extended farther than the boundaries included between the 
Sabine and the Bio del Norte, and the Gulf of Mexico and the Bed River, 
whilst the republic of Texas, as defined in the treaty, included the whole ex- 
tent of the Rio del Norte, and embraced portions of the department of New 
Mexico, with its capital, being many hundred miles of a neighbor's dominion, 
with whom we had treaties of peace and friendship and commerce — a territory 
where no Texan force had ever penetrated, and including towns and villages 
and custom-houses now in the peaceful possession of Mexico. 

In a message to the senate subsequent to that accompanying the treaty, the 
president has asserted the doctrine that the treaty signed by him was ratified 
from that moment ; and, consequently, that part of Mexico above mentioned 



MR. BENTON. 535 

must be and remain "reannexed," until the acquisition should be rejected by 
the senate. In relation to this, Mr. Benton speaks thus : 

" The president in his special message of Wednesday last informs us that 
we have acquired a title to the ceded territory by his signature to the treaty, 
wanting only the action of the senate to perfect it ; and that, in the mean time, 
he will protect it from invasion, and for that purpose has detached all the dis- 
posable portions of the army aud navy to the scene of action. This is a caper 
about equal to the mad freaks with which the unfortunate emperor Paul, of 
Russia, was accustomed to astonish Europe about forty years ago. By this 
declaration, the thirty thousand Mexicans in the left half of the valley of the 
Rio del Norte are our citizens, and standing, in the language of the presi- 
dent's message, in a hostile attitude towards us, and subject to be repelled as 
invaders* Taos, the seat of the custom-house, where our caravans enter their 
goods, is ours; governor Armijo is our governor, and subject to be tried for 
treason if he does not submit to us ; twenty Mexican towns and villages are 
ours, and their peaceful inhabitants, cultivating their fields and tending their 
flocks, are suddenly converted, by a stroke of the president's pen, into Ameri- 
can citizens, or American rebels. This is too bad: and, instead of making 
themselves party to its enormities, as the president invites them to do, I think 
rather that it is the duty of the senate to wash its hands of all this part of the 
transaction by a special disapprobation. The senate is the constitutional ad- 
viser of the president, and has the right, if not the duty, to give him advice 
when the occasion requires it. I therefore propose, as an additional resolu- 
tion, applicable to the Rio del Norte boundary only — the one which I will 
read and send to the secretary's table — and on which, at the proper time, I 
shall ask the vote of the senate. This is the resolution : 

'Resolved, That the incorporation of the left bank of the Rio del Norte 
into the American union, by virtue of a treaty with Texas, comprehending as 
the said incorporation wor.ld do, a part of the Mexican departments of New 
Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahi.ila, and Tamaulipas, would be an act of direct ag- 
gression on Mexico ; for all the consequences of which the United States would 
stand responsible.' 

Having shown the effect of the treaty on the Rio Grande frontier, Mr. B. 
took up the treaty itself, under all its aspects and in its whole extent, and as- 
sumed four positions in relation to it, namely : 

1. That the ratification of the treaty would be, of itself, war between the 
United States and Mexico. 

2. That it would be unjust war. 

3. That it would be war unconstitutionally made. 

4. That it would be war upon weak and groundless pretext." 

Mr. M'Duffie, on the 23d of May, replied to Mr. Benton. The question as 
to boundary,' he said, had been exhausted by the conclusive argument of Mr. 
Walker, of Mississippi, and he would not discuss it. It had been contended 
by senators that the ratification of the treaty would subject us to the charge of 
a violation of the public faith. In answer to this objection, Mr. M'Duffie re- 



536 MR. m'duffie. 

ferred to the case of France, in 1118. When the United States were waging 
an unequal war with Great Britain, she came to our aid recognized our inde- 
pendence, and formed with us a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive. 
Had any historian mentioned this as a breach of national faith on the part of 
France ? Had our government contracted such an alliance with Texas when 
Santa Anna was marching to meet a disgraceful defeat at San Jacinto, it would 
have violated no national faith, nor any dictate of international law. He con- 
tended that she had maintained her independence ; we had recognized it : so 
had Great Britain, France, Holland, and Belgium. She possessed all the at- 
tributes of national sovereignty, and the elements of self-government, more so 
than Mexico herself. Texas, he said, had a right to enter into a treaty df an- 
nexation if she chose ; and who would deny her that right ? Could she not 
dispose of herself as she pleased ? And did it not follow that the United States 
had a corresponding and an equal right to receive her ? The right of prop- 
erty implied the right of the proprietor to sell, and the correlative right of ev- 
ery other person to purchase. 

But it was said the ratification would involve us in a war with Mexico. So 
he himself thought in 1836, when Texas was a "rebellious province ;" but 
since the battle of San Jacinto, Mexico had not made a single military move- 
ment toward recovering her lost dominions. She had done nothing that de- 
served the name of war. Appealing to the gasconading proclamation of Mex- 
ico, the senator from Missouri had asked, " Is this peace ?" The orders to the 
home squadron, and the army of observation sent to the Sabine, to watch the 
movements of Mexico, should any be made, and promptly report them to head- 
quarters, that they might as promptly be reported to congress, the senator had 
pronounced an act of war. If to employ a corps of observation was to make 
war, then we were at war with the powers in the West Indies, on the Mediter- 
ranean, and on the coast of Africa ; for we had squadrons iu every sea to pro- 
tect our commerce, and to make war on pirates. The proclamation of Mexi- 
co, and the counter proclamations and defiances of Texas, he did not consider 
war, as did the senators on the other side. 

Mr. M'Duffie referred to the proposition to Mexico made by Mr. Clay, when 
secretary of state under Mr. Adams, in 1S25, to purchase Texas, when the war 
between Spain and Mexico was still in existence. So in 1829, when Mexico 
was invaded by a large army, and her ports were blockaded, Mr. Van Buren, 
by order of Gen. Jackson, made to Mexico a proposition to purchase Texas. 

Having advocated the right to receive Texas, he proceeded to show the duty 
of making the treaty. Great Britain should not be allowed to obtain the 
control of Texas by a treaty of guaranty stipulating for extensive commer- 
cial privileges. He had never till now realized the justice of Mr. Monroe's de- 
claration, that no European power must ever be permitted to establish a colony on 
this continent. And he urged the danger to the slave property of the south, 
if Great Britain should get control of Texas. They had a right to demand 
from the government protection to their property. Annexation, too, would 
operate as a safety-valve to let off their superabundant slave population, which 



benton's bill. 537 

would render them more happy, and the whites more secure. And with regard 
to the time of annexation, he adopted the language of Gen. Jackson, "now or 
never." 

Immediately after the treaty was rejected, Mr. Benton gave notice of a bill 
for the annexation of Texas, with the consent of Mexico. On the 10th of 
April, pursuant to notice, he brought in the bill, which authorized and advised 
the president to open negotiations with Mexico and Texas for adjusting boun- 
daries and annexing Texas to the United States, on the following bases : 

1st. The boundary to be in the desert prairie west of the Nueces, and along 
the highlands and mountain heights which divide the waters of the Mississippi 
from those of the Rio del Norte, and to latitude 42 degrees north. 

2d. The people of Texas, by a legislative act or otherwise, to express their 
assent to annexation. 

3d. A state to be called " Texas," with boundaries fixed by herself, and an 
extent not exceeding that of the largest state in the union, to be admitted into 
the union by virtue of this act, on an equal footing with the original states. 

4th. The remainder of the territory, to be called " the Southwest Terri- 
tory," and to be held and disposed of by the United States as one of their ter- 
ritories. 

5th. Slavery to be forever prohibited in the northern half of the annexed 
territory. 

6th. The assent of Mexico to such annexation and boundary to be obtained 
by treaty, or to be dispensed with when congress may deem such assent unnec- 
essary. 

7th. Other details to be adjusted by treaty so far as they may come withiu 
the scope of the treaty-making power. 

On presenting his bill, Mr. Benton spoke nearly two hours. He said his 
was not a new burst of affection for the possession of the country, as his writ- 
ings a quarter of a century ago would testify. He disapproved the course of 
the executive in not having first consulted congress. The rejection of the 
treaty having wiped out all cause of offense to Mexico, he thought it best to 
commence again, and at the right end — with the legislative branch, by which 
means we should proceed regularly and constitutionally. As to the boundary, 
he had followed the basis laid down by Jefferson, fixing, as the limit to be 
adopted in settling the boundary with Spain, all the territory watered by the 
tributaries to the Mississippi, and made it applicable to Mexico and Texas. 
He did not attach so much importance to the consent of Mexico as to make it 
an indispensable condition, yet he regarded it as something to be respectfully 
sought for. But if it were not obtained, it was left to the house to say when 
that consent became necessary. He wished to continue in amity with Mexico. 
Those who underrated the value of a good understanding with her, knew noth- 
ing of what they spoke. Mexico took the products of our farms, and returned 
the solid silver of her mines. Our trade with her was constantly increasing. 
In 1821, the year in which she became independent, we received from her 
$80,000; in 1835, $8,500,000. When we began to sympathize with Texas, 
35 



538 TEXAS QUESTION. 

this trade rapidly fell off, until it got down to one milliou and a half. As the 
earliest and most consistent friend of Texas, he desired peace with Mexico, in 
order to procure the ultimate annexation of Texas. If Mexico, blind to her 
interests, should refuse to let Texas take her natural position as a part of the 
valley of the Mississippi, let congress say in what case the consent of Mexico 
might cease to be necessary. 

Mr. Benton severely censured that party, who, while an armistice was sub- 
sisting between Mexico and Texas, which bid fair to lead to peace, rushed in 
with a firebrand to disturb these relations of amity. For this act they must 
stand condemned in the eyes of Christendom. Every wise man must see that 
Texas and Mexico were not naturally parts of a common country. The set- 
tlements of Mexico had never taken the direction of Texas. In a northeast- 
ern direction, they had not extended much over the Rio Grande ; they had 
come merely to the pastoral regions, but had never professed strength enough 
to subdue the sugar and cotton sections. He alluded to his own far back 
prophecies and writings concerning Texas. Messrs. Walker and Woodbury 
he termed " Texas neophytes," who had been so anxious to make great demon- 
strations of love for Texas. For himself, he had no such anxiety, because his 
sentiments had always been known. With him it was not a question " now or 
never," but Texas then, now, and always 

Mr. Benton said he had provided against another Missouri agitation. For 
those who regarded slavery as a great moral evil, in which he, perhaps, did not 
differ much from them, there was a provision which would neutralize the slave 
influence. He would not join the fanatics on either side — those who were 
running a muck for or against slavery. 

The senator from South Carolina, in his zeal to defend his friends, goes be- 
yond the line of defense and attacks me ; he supposes me to have made anti- 
annexation speeches ; and certainly, if he limits the supposition to my speeches 
against the treaty, he is right. But that treaty, far from securing the annexa- 
tion of Texas, only provides for the disunion of these states. The annexation 
of the whole country as a territory, and that upon the avowed ground of laying 
it all out into slave states, is an open preparation for a Missouri question and 
a dissolution of the union. I am against that ; and for annexation in the 
mode pointed out in my bill. I am for Texas— for Texas with peace and hon- 
or, and with the union. Those who want annexation on these terms should 
support my bill ; those who want it without peace, without honor, and without 
the union, should stick to the lifeless corpse of the defunct treaty." 

The president, having been foiled in his scheme of annexation by treaty, ap- 
pealed to the house of representatives, iu a message, dated the 10th of June, 
two days after the rejection of the treaty, accompanied by the rejected treaty 
with the correspondence and documents which had been submitted to the senate. 
The president says in the message, that he does not perceive the force of the 
objections of the senate to the ratification. Negotiations with Mexico, in ad- 
vance of annexation, would not only prove abortive, but might be regarded as 
offensive to Mexico and insulting to Texas. We could not negotiate witk 



CLAY AND VAN BUREN. 539 

Mexico for Texas, without admitting that our recognition of her independence 
was fraudulent, delusive, or void. Only after acquiring Texas, could the ques- 
tion of boundary arise between the United States and Mexico, a question pur- 
posely left open for negotiation with Mexico, as affording the best opportunity 
for the most friendly and pacific arrangements. He asserted that Texas no 
longer owed allegiance to Mexico ; she was, and had been for eight years, in- 
dependent of the confederation of Mexican republics. Nor could we be ac- 
cused of violating treaty stipulations. Our treaty with Mexico was merely 
1 commercial, intended to define the rights and secure the interests of the citi- 
zens of each country. There was no bad faith in negotiating with an indepen- 
dent power upon any subject not violating the stipulations of such treaty. 

In view of the importance of the subject, he invited the immediate attention 
of the representatives of the people to it ; and for so doing he fouud a suffi- 
cient apology in the urgency of the matter, as annexation would encounter 
great hazard of defeat, if something were not now done to prevent it. He 
transmitted to the house a number of private letters on the subject from citi- 
zens of Texas entitled to confidence. 

Much had occurred to confirm his confidence in the statements of General 
Jackson, and of his own statement in a previous message, that " instructions 
had already been given by the Texan government to propose to the govern- 
ment of Great Britain forthwith, on the failure of the treaty, to enter into a 
treaty of commerce, and an alliance offensive and defensive." He also referred 
the house to a letter from Mr. Everett from London, which he seemed to con- 
strue into an intention to interfere with the contemplated arrangement between 
the United States and Texas. Although he regarded annexation by treaty as 
the most suitable form in which it could be effected, should congress deem it 
proper to resort to any other expedient compatible with the constitution, and 
likely to accomplish the object, he was ready to yield his prompt and active 
cooperation. He says : "The question is not as to the manner in which it 
shall be done, but whether it shall be accomplished or not. The responsibility 
of deciding this question is now devolved upon you." 

The message was communicated at too late a day for deliberation and action 
at this session. Congress adjourned on the 11th of June. 

During the presidential campaign of 1844, the annexation of Texas consti- 
tuted a leading issue between the two great political parties. Before the 
meeting of the nominating conventions, public sentiment had designated Clay 
and Tan Buren as candidates for the presidency. Accordingly, letters were ad- 
dressed to them to obtain an expression of their views upon the annexation of 
Texas. 

The letters of Messrs. Clay and Van Buren, taking ground against annexa- 
tion, without the consent of Mexico, as an act of bad faith and aggression, 
which would necessarily result in war, which appeared in the spring of 1 844, 
make slight allusions to the slavery aspect of the case. In a later letter, Mr. 
Clay declared that he did not oppose annexation on account of slavery, which 
he regarded as a temporary institution, which, therefore, ought not to stand in 



540 CLAY AND VAN BUREN. 

the way of a permanent acquisition. And, though Mr. Clay's last letter on the 
subject, prior to the election of 1844, reiterated and emphasized all his objec- 
tions to annexation under the existing circumstances, he did not include the 
existence of slavery. 

In his first letter Mr. Clay said, " there were those who favored and those 
who opposed the annexation of Texas, from its supposed effect upon the bal- 
ance of political power between two great sections of the union. He dis- 
countenanced the motive of acquiring territory for the purpose of strengthening 
one part of the union against another. If to-day Texas should be obtained 
to strengthen the south, to-morrow Canada might be acquired to add strength 
to the north. In the progress of this spirit of universal dominion, the part of 
the union now the weakest, would find itself still weaker from the impossibility 
of securing new theaters for those peculiar institutions which it is charged with 
being desirous to extend. But he doubted whether Texas would really add 
strength to the south. From the information he had of that country, he 
thought it susceptible of a division into five states of convenient size and form; 
three of which he thought would be unfavorable to the employment of slave 
labor, and would be free states, while only two of them would be slave states. 
This might serve to diminish the zeal both of those who oppose and those who 
urge annexation " 

In conclusion, he thus sums up his opinions : He "considers the annexation 
of Texas, at this time, without the assent of Mexico, as a measure compromis- 
ing the national character, involving us certainly in war with Mexico, probably 
with other foreign powers, dangerous to the integrity of the union, inexpedient 
to the present financial condition of the country, and not called for by any 
general expression of public opinion." 

The sentiments expressed in the following extracts from Mr. Van Buren's 
letter are worthy of observation : "We must look to this matter as it really 
stands. We shall act under the eye of an intelligent, observing world ; and 
the affair cannot be made to wear a different aspect from what it deserves if 
even we had the disposition (which we have not) to throw over it disguises of 
any kind. We should consider whether there is any way in which the peace 
of the country can be preserved, should an immediate annexation take place, 
save one — and that is, according to present appearances, the improbable event 
that Mexico will be deterred from the farther prosecution of the war by the 
apprehension of our power. The question then recurs, if, as sensible men, we 
cannot avoid the conclusion that the immediate annexation of Texas would, in 
all human probability, draw after it a war with Mexico, can it be expedient to 
attempt it 1 Of the consequences of such a war, the character it might be 
made to assume, the entanglements with other nations which the position of a 
belligerent almost unavoidably draws after it, and the undoubted injuries which 
might be inflicted upon each — notwithstanding the great disparity of their re- 
spective forces, I will not say a word. God forbid that an American citizen 
should ever count the cost of any appeal to what is appropriately denominated 
the last resort of nations, whenever that resort becomes necessary either for 



PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS. 541 

the safety or to vindicate the honor of his country. There is, I trust, not one 
so base as not to regard himself and all he has to be forever and at all times 
subject to such a requisition. But would a war with Mexico, brought on un- 
der such circumstances, be a contest of that character ? Could we hope to 
stand justified in the eyes of mankind for entering into it ; more especially if 
its commencement is to be preceded by the appropriation to our own uses of 
the territory, the sovereignty of which is in dispute between two nations, one 
of which we are to join in the struggle ? This, sir, is a matter of the gravest 
import, one in respect to which no American statesman or citizen can possibly 
be indifferent." 

It was not long after this letter appeared, before it was apparent that Mr. 
Van Bureu was to be abandoned. Movements were soon made in many places 
to prevent his nomination. Annexation was to southern democrats an object 
for which even Mr. Van Buren was not deemed too great a sacrifice. Meet- 
ings were held for the purpose of revoking the instructions which had .been 
given to delegates to support Mr. Yan Buren ; and resolutions were passed 
recommending to them to cast their votes for men known and pledged to be 
in favor of annexation. In New York and other northern states, the " de- 
mocracy " protested against these southern movements to defeat Mr. Yan Bu- 
ren. 

Notwithstanding Mr. Clay's hostilty to the annexation of Texas, he was 
nominated unanimously in the whig convention. Mr. Yan Buren did not fare 
so well in the democratic convention. He received a clear majority on the first 
ballot, but a rule of the convention required two-thirds. He was eventually 
sacrificed to make room for James K. Polk, who was in favor of the annexation. 
Of course many of the northern democrats who had deprecated annexation, 
now became ardent advocates of the " great American measure," but there 
were some who still protested against it. The organ of this class was the 
New York Evening Post, whose editor, with six other gentlemen, issued a pri- 
vate circular to some of their friends in different parts of the state. The letter 
explains its object : 

"Sir — You will, doubtless, agree with us, that the late Baltimore convention placed 
the democratic party at the north in a position of great difficulty. We are constantly 
reminded that it rejected Mr. Van Buren, and nominated Mr. Polk, for reasons connected 
with the immediate annexation of Texas — reasons which had no relation to the princi- 
ples of the party. Nor was that all. The convention went beyond the authority dele- 
gated to its members, and adopted a resolution on the subject of Texas fa subject not 
before the country when they were elected, upon which, therefore, they were not in- 
6tructed,J which seeks to interpolate into the party creed a new doctrine, hitherto un- 
known among us, at war with some of our established principles, and abhorrent to the 
opinions and feelings of a great majority of northern freemen. In this position, what 
was the party of the north to do ? Was it to reject the nominations, and abandon the 
contest ? Or should it sxipport the nominations, rejecting the untenable doctrine inter- 
polated at the convention, and taking care that their support should be accompanied by 
such an expression of their opinion as to prevent its being misinterpreted t The latter 
alternative has been preferred, and we think wisely ; for we conceive that a proper ex- 
pression of their opinion will save their votes from misconstruction, and that proper 



542 me. calhoun's letter 

efforts will secure the nomination of such members of congress as will reject the un- 
warrantable scheme now pressed upon the country." 

About this time the following official dispatch was addressed by Mr. Cal- 
houn, Mr. Tyler's secretary of state, to the American Minister at Paris, the 
Hon. Wiliam R. King : 

" Department op State, ) 
Washington, August 12, 1844. J 

" Sir — I have laid your dispatch, No. 1, before the president, who instructs 
me to make known to you that he has read it with much pleasure, especially 
the portion which relates to your cordial reception by the king, and his as- 
surance of friendly feelings toward the United States. The president, in par- 
ticular, highly appreciates the declaration of the king, that, in uo event, would 
any steps be taken by his government in the slightest degree hostile, or which 
would give to the United States just cause of complaint. It was the more 
gratifying from the fact, that our previous information was calculated to make 
the impression that the government of France was prepared to unite with 
Great Britain in a joint protest against the annexation of Texas, and a joint 
effort to induce her government to withdraw the proposition to annex, on con- 
dition that Mexico should be made to acknowledge her independence. He is 
happy to infer from your dispatch that the information, so far as it relates to 
France, is, in all probability, without foundation. You did not go further than 
you ought, in assuring the king that the object of annexation would be pursued 
with unabated vigor, and in giving your opinion that a decided majority of the 
American people were in its favor, and that it would certainly be anuexed at 
no distant day. I feel confident that your anticipation will be fully realized at 
no distant period. 

" Every day will tend to weaken that combination of political causes which 
led to the opposition of the measure, and to strengthen the conviction that it 
was not only expedient, but just and necessary. 

"You were right in making the distinction between the interests of France 
and England in reference to Texas — or rather, I should say, the apparent in- 
terests of the two countries. France cannot possibly have any other than 
commercial interests in desiring to see her preserve her separate independence, 
while it is certain that England looks beyond, to political interests, to which 
she apparently attaches much importance. But, in our opinion, the interest of 
both against the measure is more apparent than real; and- that neither France, 
England, nor eveu Mexico herself, has any in opposition to it, when the sub- 
ject is fairly viewed and considered in its whole extent, and in all its bearings. 
Thus viewed and considered, and assuming that peace, the extension of com- 
merce, and security, are objects of primary policy with them, it may, as it 
seems to me, be readily shown that the policy on the part of those powers 
which would acquiesce in a measure so strongly desired by both the Unitec 
States and Texas, for their mutual welfare and safety, as the annexation ol 
the latter to the former, would be far more promotive of these great object 
than that which would attempt to resist it. 



ON ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 543 

" It is impossible to cast a look at the map of the United States and Texas, 
and to note the long, artificial and inconvenient line which divides them, and 
to take into consideration the extraordinary increase of population and growth 
of the former, and the source from which the latter must derive its inhabitants, 
institutions, and laws, without coming to the conclusion that it is their destiny 
to be united, and of course, that annexation is merely a question of time and 
mode. Thus regarded, the question to be decided would seem to be, whether 
it would not be better to permit it to be done now, with the mutual consent of 
both parties, and the acquiescence of these powers, than to attempt to resis* 
and defeat it. 

" If the former course be adopted, the certafu fruits would be the preserva- 
tion of peace, great extension of commerce by the rapid settlement and im- 
provement of Texas, and increased security, especially to Mexico. The last, 
in reference to Mexico, may be doubted ; but I hold it not less clear than the 
other two. 

" It would be a great mistake to suppose that this government has any hos- 
tile feelings toward Mexico, or any disposition to aggrandize itself at her ex- 
pense. The fact is the very reverse. 

"It wishes her well, and desires to see her settled down in peace and secu- 
rity ; and is prepared, in the event of the annexation of Texas, if not forced 
into conflict with her, to propose to settle with her the question of boundary, 
and all others growing out of the annexation, on the most liberal terms. Na- 
ture herself has clearly marked the boundary between her and Texas by natural 
limits, too strong to be mistaken. There are few countries whose limits are so 
distinctly marked; and it would be our desire, if Texas should be united to us, 
.,0 see them firmly established, as the most certain means of establishing per- 
manent peace between the two countries, and strengthening and cementing 
their friendship. Such would be the certain consequence of permitting the 
annexation to take place now, with the acquiescence of Mexico ; but very dif- 
ferent would be the case if it should be attempted to resist and defeat it, 
whether the attempt should be successful for the present or not. Any attempt 
of the kind would not improbably lead to a conflict between us and Mexico, 
and involve consequences, in reference to her and the general peace, long to be 
deplored on both sides, and difficult to be repaired. But, should that not be 
the case, and the interference of another power defeat the annexation for the 
present, without the interruption of peace, it would but postpone the conflict, 
and render it more fierce and bloody when it might occur. 

" Its defeat would be attributed to enmity and ambition on the part of that 
power by whose interference it was occasioned, and excite deep jealousy and 
resentment on the part of our people, who would be ready to seize the first fa- 
vorable opportunity to effect by force what was prevented from being done 
peaceably by mutual consent. It is not difficult to see how greatly such a con- 
flict, come when it might, would endanger the general peace, and how much 
Mexico might be the loser by it. 

" In the mean time, the condition of Texas would be rendered uncertain, her 



544 MR. calhoun's letter. 

settlement and prosperity in consequence retarded, and her commerce crippled; 
while the general peace would be rendered much more insecure. It could not 
but greatly affect us. If the annexation of Texas should be permitted to take 
place peaceably now, (as it would without the interference of other powers,) 
the energies of our people would, for a long time to come, be directed to the 
peaceable pursuits of redeeming and bringing within the pale of cultivation, 
improvement, and civilization, that large portion of the continent lying be- 
tween Mexico on one side and the British possessions on the other, which is 
uow, with little exception, a wilderness, with a sparse population, consisting, 
for the most part, of wandering Indian tribes. 

" It is our destiny to occupy that vast region ; to intersect it with roads and 
canals ; to fill it with cities, towns, villages, and farms ; to extend over it our 
religion, customs, constitution, and laws, and to present it as a peaceful and 
splendid addition to the domains of commerce and civilization. It is our pol- 
icy to increase by growing and spreading out into unoccupied regions, assimi- 
lating all we incorporate : 'in a word, to increase by accretion, and not through 
conquest, by the addition of masses held together by the adhesion of force. 

" No system can be more unsuited to the latter process, or better adapted to 
the former, than our admirable federal system. If it should not be resisted in 
its course, it will probably fulfill its destiny without disturbing our neighbors, 
or putting in jeopardy the general peace ; but if it be opposed by foreign in- 
terference, a new direction would be given to our energy, much less favorable 
to harmony with our neighbors, and to the general peace of the world. 

" The change would be undesirable to us, and much less in accordance with 
what I have assumed to be primary objects of policy on the part of France, 
England, and Mexico. 

"But, to descend to particulars: it is certain that while England, like 
France, desires the independence of Texas, with the view to commercial con- 
nections, it is not less so that one of the leading motives of England for desir- 
ing it is the hope that, through her diplomacy and influence, negro slavery 
may be abolished there, and ultimately, by consequence, in the United States 
and throughout the whole of this continent. That its ultimate abolition 
throughout the entire continent is an object ardently desired by her, we have 
decisive proofs in the declaration of the Earl of Aberdeen, delivered to this 
department, and of which you will find a copy among the documents transmit 
ted to congress with the Texan treaty. That she desires its abolition in Texas, 
and has used her influence and diplomacy to effect it there, the same document, 
with the correspondence of this department with Mr. Packenham, also to be 
found among the documents, furnishes proof not less conclusive. That one of 
the objects of abolishing it there is to facilitate its abolition in the United 
States, and throughout the continent, is manifest from the declaration of the 
abolition party and societies both in this country and in England. In fact, 
there is good reason to believe that the scheme of abolishing it in Texas, with 
a view to its abolition in the United States, and over the continent, originated 
with the prominent members of the party in the United States ; and was first 



EFFECTS OF BRITISH EMANCIPATION. 545 

broached by them in the (so called) world's convention, held in London in the 
year 1840, and through its agency brought to the notice of the British gov- 
ernment. 

" ~Now, I hold, not only that France can have no interest in the consumma- 
tion of this grand scheme, which England hopes to accomplish through Texas, 
if she can defeat the annexation, but that her interests, and those of all the 
continental powers of Europe, are directly and deeply opposed to it. 

" It is too late in the day to contend that humanity or philanthropy is the 
great object of the policy of England in attempting to abolish African slavery 
on this continent. I do not question but humanity may have had a consider- 
able influence in abolishing slavery in her West India possessions, aided, in- 
deed, by the fallacious calculation that the labor of the negroes would be at 
least as profitable, if not more so, in consequence of the measure. She acted 
on the principle that tropical products can be produced cheaper by free African 
labor and East India labor, than by slave labor. She knew full well the value 
of such products to her commerce, navigation, navy, manufactures, revenue, 
I and power. She was not ignorant that the support and maintenance of her 
political preponderance depended on her tropical possessions, and had no in- 
tention of diminishing their productiveness, nor any anticipation that such 
would be the effect, when the scheme of abolishing slavery in her colonial pos- 
sessions was adopted. On the contrary, she calculated to combine philan- 
thropy with profit and power, as is not unusual with fanaticism. Experience 
has convinced her of the fallacy of her calculations. She has failed in all her 
objects. The labor of her negroes has proved far less productive, without af- 
fording the consolation of having improved their condition. 

" The experiment has turned out to be a costly one. She expended nearly 
one hundred million of dollars in indemnifying the owners of the emancipated 
slaves. It is estimated that the increased price paid since, by the people of 
Great Britain, for sugar and other tropical productions, in consecpience of the 
measure, is equal to half that sum ; and that twice that amount has been ex- 
pended in the suppression of the slave-trade ; making together two hundred 
and fifty millions of dollars as the cost of the experiment. Instead of real- 
izing her hope, the result has been a sad disappointment. Her tropical pro- 
ducts have fallen off to a vast amount, Instead of supplying her own wants, 
and those of nearly all Europe with them, as formerly, she has now, in some 
of the most important articles, scarcely enough to supply her own. What is 
worse, her own colonies are actually consuming sugar produced by slave-labor, 
brought direct to England, or refined in bond, and exported and sold in her 
colonies as cheap, or cheaper, than can be produced there ; while the slave- 
trade, instead of diminishing, has been in fact carried on to a greater extent 
than ever. So disastrous has been the result, that her fixed capital invested in 
tropical possessions, estimated at the value of nearly five hundred millions of 
dollars, is said to stand on the brink of ruin. 

" But this is not the worst ; while this costly scheme has had such ruinous 
effects on the tropical productions of Great Britain, it has given a powerful 



54G MR. Calhoun's letter. 

stimulus, followed by a corresponding increase of products, to those countries 
which had had the good sense to shun her example. There has been vested, 
it has been estimated by them, in the production of tropical products, since 
1808, in fixed capital, nearly $4,000,000,000, wholly dependent on slave-labor. 
In the same period, the value of their products has been estimated to have risen 
from about $12,000,000, annually, to nearly 220,000,000 ; while the whole of the 
fixed capital of Great Britain, vested iu cultivating tropical products, both in 
the East and West Indies, is estimated at only about $830,000,000, and the 
value of the products annually at about $50,000,000. To present a still more 
striking view of three articles of tropical products (sugar, coffee, and cotton), 
the British possessions, including the East and West Indies, and Mauritius, 
produced in 1842, of sugar, only 3,995,171 pounds; while Cuba, Brazil, and 
the United States, excluding other countries having tropical possessions, pro- 
duced 9,600,000 pounds; of coffee, the British possessions produced only 
27,393,003 pounds, while Cuba and Brazil produced 201,590,125 pounds; and 
of cotton, the British possessions, including shipments to China, only 137,443,- 
446 pounds, while the United States alone produced 190,479,275 pounds. 

" The above facts and estimates have all been drawn from a British periodi- 
cal of high standing and authority,* and are believed to be entitled to credit. 

" The vast increase of the capital and production on the part of those na- 
tions who have continued their former policy toward the negro race, compared 
with that of Great Britain, indicates a corresponding relative increase of the 
means of commerce, navigation, manufactures, wealth, and power. It is no 
longer a question of doubt, that the great source of wealth, prosperity, and 
power of more civilized nations of the temperate zone (especially Europe, 
where the arts have made the greatest advance), depends, in a great degree, 
on the exchange of their products with those of the tropical regions. So great 
has been the advance made in the arts, both chemical and mechanical, within 
the few last generations, that all the old civilized nations can, with but a small 
part of their labor and capital, supply their respective wants ; which tends to 
limit within narrow bounds, the amount of the commerce between them, and 
forces them all to seek for markets in the tropical regions, and the more newly 
settled portions of the globe. Those who can best succeed in commanding 
those markets, have the best prospect of outstripping the others in the career 
of commerce, navigation, manufactures, wealth, and power. 

This is seen and felt by British statesmen, and has opened their eyes to the 
errors which they have committed. The question now with them is, how shall 
it be counteracted ? What has been done cannot be undone. The question 
is, by what means can Great Britain regain and keep a superiority in tropical 
cultivation, commerce, and influence ? Or, shall that be abandoned, and other 
nations be suffered to acquire the supremacy, even to the extent of supplying 
British markets, to the destruction of the capital already vested in their pro- 

*Blackwood's Magazine for June, 1841. 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN AMERICA. 547 

duction ? These are the questions which now profoundly occupy the attention 
of her statesmen, and have the greatest influence over her councils. 

" In order to regain her superiority, she not only seeks to revive and increase 
her own capacity to produce tropical productions, but to diminish and destroy 
the capacity of those who have so far outstripped her in consequence of her 
error. In pursuit of the former, she has cast her eyes to her East India pos- 
sessions—to Central and Eastern Africa, — with the view of establishing colonies 
there, and even to restore, substantially, the slave-trade itself, under the specious 
name of transporting her free laborers from Africa to her West India posses- 
sions, in order, if possible, to compete successfully with those who have refused 
to follow her suicidal policy. But these all afford but uncertain and distant 
hopes of recovering her lost superiority. Her main reliance is on the other 
alternative — to cripple or destroy the productions of her successful rivals. 
There is but one way by which it can be done, and that is by abolishing African 
slavery throughout this continent ; and that she openly avows to be the con- 
stant object of her policy and exertions. It matters not how, or from what 
motive, it may be done — whether it be by diplomacy, influence, or force ; by 
secret or open means ; and whether the motive be humane or selfish, without 
regard to manner, means, or motive. The thing itself, should it be accomplished, 
would put down all rivalry, and give her the undisputed supremacy in supply- 
ing her own wants, and those of the rest of the world ; and thereby more than 
fully retrieve what she lost by her errors. It would give her the monopoly of 
tropical productions, which I shall nest proceed to show. 

" What would be the consequence if this object of her unceasing solicitude 
and exertions should be effected by the abolition of negro slavery throughout 
this continent, some idea may be formed from the immense diminution of pro- 
ductions, as has been shown, which has followed abolition in her West India 
possessions. But, as great as that has been, it is nothing compared with what 
would be the effect, if she should succeed in abolishing slavery in the United 
States, Cuba, and Brazil, and throughout this continent. The experiment in 
her own colonies was made under the most favorable circumstances. It was 
brought about gradually and peaceably by the steady and firm operation of the 
parent country, armed with complete power to prevent or crush at once all in- 
surrectionary movements on the part of the negroes, and able and disposed to 
maintain to the full, the political and social ascendency of the former masters 
over their former slaves. It is not at all wonderful that the change of the 
relation of master and slave took place, under such circumstances, without vio- 
lence and bloodshed, and that order and peace should have been since preserved. 
Very different would be the result of abolition should it be effected by her in- 
fluence and exertions in the possessions of other countries on this continent — 
and especially in the United States, Cuba, and Brazil, the great cultivators of 
the principal tropical products of America. To form a correct conception of 
what would be the result with them, we must look, not to Jamaica, but to St. 
Domingo, for example. The change would be followed by unforgiving hate 
between the two races, and end in a bloody and deadly struggle between them 



548 MR. CALHOUN S LETTER. 

for the superiority. One or the other would have to be subjugated, extirpated, 
or expelled ; and desolation would overspread their territories, as in St. Do- 
mingo, from which it would take centuries to recover. The end would be, that 
the superiority in cultivating the great tropical staples would be transferred 
from them to the British tropical possessions. 

" They are of vast extent, and those beyond the Cape of Good Hope, pos- 
sessed of an unlimited amount of labor, standing ready, by the aid of British 
capital, to supply the deficit which would be occasioned by destroying the tro- 
pical productions of the United States, Cuba, Brazil, and other countries culti- 
vated by slave-labor on this continent, as soon as the increased prices, in 
consequence, would yield a profit. It is the successful competition of that 
labor which keeps the prices of the great tropical staples so low as to prevent 
their cultivation with profit in the possessions of Great Britain, by what she is 
pleased to call free-labor. 

" If she can destroy its competition, she would have a monopoly of these 
productions. She has all the means of furnishiug an unlimited supply — vast 
and fertile possessions in both Indies, boundless command of capital and labor, 
and ample power to suppress disturbances and preserve order throughout her 
wide domain. 

" It is unquestionable that she regards the abolition of slavery in Texas as 
a most important step toward this great object of policy, so much the aim of 
her solicitude and exertions ; and the defeat of the annexation of Texas to 
our Union as indispensable to the abolition of slavery there. She is too saga- 
cious not to see what a fatal blow it would give to slavery in the United States, 
and how certainly its abolition with us will abolish it over the whole continent, 
and thereby give her a monopoly in the productions of the great tropical staples, 
and the command of the commerce, navigation, and manufactures of the world, 
with an established naval ascendency and political preponderance. To this 
continent, the blow would be calamitous beyond description. It would destroy, 
in a great measure, the cultivation and productions of the great tropical staples, 
amounting annually in value to nearly $300,000,000, the fund which stimulates 
and upholds almost every other branch of its industry, commerce, navigation, 
and manufactures. The whole, by their joint influence, are rapidly spreading 
population, wealth, improvement and civilization over the whole continent, and 
vivifying, by their overflow, the industry of Europe, thereby increasing its 
population, wealth, and advancement in the arts, in power, and in civilization. 

"Such must be the result, should Great Britain succeed in accomplishing the 
constant object of her desire and exertions— the abolition of negro slavery over 
this continent — and toward the effecting of which she regards the defeat of the 
annexation of Texas to our Union so important. 

" Can it be possible that governments so enlightened and sagacious as those 
of France and the other great continental powers, can be so blinded by the 
plea of philanthropy as not to see what must inevitably follow, be her motive 
what it may, should she succeed in her object ? It is little short of mockery to 
talk of philanthropy, with the example before us of the effects of abolishing 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN AMERICA. 549 

ne°ro slavery in her own colonies, in St. Domingo, and in the northern states 
of our Union, where statistical facts, not to be shaken, prove that the free 
ne"To, after the experience of sixty years, is iu a far worse condition than in the 
other states, where he has been left in his former condition. No : the effect of 
what is called abolition, where the number is few, is not to raise the inferior 
race to the condition of freemen, but to deprive the negro of the guardian care 
of his owner, subject to all the depression and oppression belonging to his iu- 
ferior condition. But, on the other hand, where the number is great, and bears 
a large proportion to the whole population, it would be still worse. It would 
be to substitute for the existing relation a deadly strife between the two races, 
to end in the subjection, expulsion, or extirpation of one or the other ; and 
such would be the case over the greater part of this continent where negro 
slavery exists. It would not end there ; but would, in all probability, extend, 
by its example, the war of races over all South America, including Mexico, 
and extending to the Indian as well as the African race, and make the whole 
one scene of blood and devastation. 

" Dismissing, then, the stale and unfounded plea of philanthropy, can it be 
that France and the other great continental powers — seeing what must be the 
result of the policy, for the accomplishment of which England is constantly 
exerting herself, and that the defeat of the annexation of Texas is so important 
towards its consummation — are prepared to back or countenance her in her 
efforts to produce either ? What possible motives can they have to favor her 
cherished policy ? Is it not better for them that they should be supplied with 
tropical products in exchange for their labor from the United States, Brazil, 
Cuba, and this continent generally, than to be dependent on one great monopo- 
lizing power for their supply ? Is it not better that they should receive them 
at the low prices which competition, cheaper means of production, and near- 
ness of market, would furnish them by the former, than to give the high prices 
which monopoly, dear labor, and great distance from market would impose ? 
Is it not better that their labor should be exchanged with a new continent, 
rapidly increasing in population and capacity for consuming, and which would 
furnish, in the course of a few generations, a market nearer to them, and al- 
most of unlimited extent, for the products of their industry and arts, than 
with old and distant regions, whose population has long since reached its 
growth ? 

" The above contains those enlarged views of policy which, it seems to me, 
an enlightened European statesman ought to take, in making up his opinion 
on the subject of the annexation of Texas, and the grounds, as it may be infer- 
red, on which England vainly opposes it. They certainly involve considera- 
tions of the deepest importance, and demanding the greatest attention. Viewed 
in connection with them, the question of annexation becomes one of the first 
magnitude, not only to Texas and the United States, but to this continent and 
Europe. They are presented that you may use them on all suitable occasions 
where you think they may be with effect, in your correspondence, where it can 
be done with propriety, or otherwise. The president relies with confidence on 



550 ANNEXATION OF TEXAK. 

your sagacity, prudence, and zeal. Your mission is one of the first magnitude 
at all times, but especially now ; and he feels assured that nothing will be left 
undone on your part to do justice to the country and the government in refer- 
ence to this measure. 

" I have said nothing as to our right of treaty with Texas, without con- 
sulting Mexico. Tou so fully understand the grounds on which we rest our 
right, and are so familiar with all the facts necessary to maintain them, that it 
was thought unnecessary to add anything in reference to it. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
"William R. King, Esq., &c, &c. J. C. Calhoun." 

The presidential contest of 1844 resulted in the election of Jas. K. Polk. 
The second session of the 28th congress commenced Dec. 2d, to terminate with 
the close of Mr. Tyler's presidential term. On the 19th of December, Mr. 
John B. Weller, of Ohio, introduced a joint resolution providing for the an- 
nexation of Texas to the United States, which he moved to the committee of 
the whole. Mr. Hamlin, of Ohio, moved its reference to a committee of one 
from each state, with instructions to report to the house, 

" 1st. Whether congress has any constitutional power to annex a foreign, independent 
nation to this government ; and if so, by what article and section of the constitution it 
is conferred ; whether it is among the powers expressly granted, or among those which 
are implied ; whether it is necessary to carry into effect any expressly-granted power ; 
and if so, which one. 

"2d. Whether annexation of Texas would not extend and perpetuate slavery in the 
slave states, and also the internal slave-trade ; and whether the United States govern- 
ment has any constitutional power over slavery in the states, either to perpetuate it 
there, or to do it away. 

"3d. Whether the United States, having acknowledged the independence of Texas, 
Mexico is thereby deprived of her right to reconquer that province. 

"4th. That they report whether Texas is owing any debts or not ; and if she is, what 
is the amount, and to whom payable ; and whether, if she should be annexed to the 
United States, the United States government would be bound to pay them all. 

"5th. That they report what treaties are in existence between Texas and foreign gov- 
ernments ; and, if she should be annexed to the United States, whether the United States 
government would be bound, by the law of nations, to fulfill those treaties." 

The question was first taken on Mr. Weller's motion, and carried. Yeas, 
109, democrats; nays, 61, whigs ; whereupon it was held that Hamlin's amend= 
ment was defeated, and the original proposition alone committed. 

On the 10th of January, 1845, John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, proposed 
the following as an amendment to any act or resolve contemplating the annex- 
ation of Texas to the Union : 

" Provided, that immediately after the question of boundary between the United 
States of America and Mexico shall have been definitively settled by the two govern- 
ments, and before any state formed out of the territory of Texas shall be admitted iDto 
the Union, the said territory of Texas shall be divided as follows, to wit: beginning at 
a point on the Gulf of Mexico, midway between the northern and southern boundaries 
<■< -reof on the coast; and thence by a line running in a northwesterly direction to tb» 



HOUSE RESOLUTION. 551 

extreme boundary thereof, so as to divide the same as nearly as possible into two equal 
parts ; and in that portion of said territory lying south and west of the line to be run as 
aforesaid, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the 
punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. 

"And provided further, that this provision shall be considered as a compact between 
the people of the United States and the people of the said territory, and forever remain 
unalterable, unless by the consent of three-fourths of the states of the Union." 

Mr. Hale asked for a suspension of the rules to enable him to offer it now, 
and have it printed and committed. Refused by a vote of yeas 92, not two- 
third?; nays, 81. All the whigs and most of the democrats from the free 
states voted aye; all the members from slave states except three, and 17 dem- 
ocrats from free states, voted nay. On the 12th of January, Mr. Ingersoll, of 
Pa., from the committee on foreign affairs, reported a joint resolution for the 
annexation of Texas, which was discussed in committee of the whole, and on 
the 25th reported to the house in the following form ; that portion relating to 
slavery having been added in committee, on motion of Milton Brown, of Ten- 
nessee : 

' ' Resolved by the senate and house of representatives in congress assembled, That 
congress doth consent that the territory properly included within, and rightfully belong- 
ing to, the republic of Texas, may be erected into a new state, to be called the state of 
Texas, with a republican form of government, to be adopted by the people of said re- 
public, by deputies in convention assembled, with the consent of the existing govern- 
ment, in order that the same may be admitted as one of the states of this Union. 

" 2. And be it further resolved, That the foregoing consent of congress is given upon 
the following conditions and with the following guaranties, to wit : 

"First. Said state to be formed, subject to the adjustment by this government of all 
questions of boundary that may arise with other governments ; and the constitution 
thereof, with the proper evidence of its adoption by the people of said republic of Texas, 
Bhall be transmitted to the President of the United States, to be laid befere congress for 
its final action, on or before the 1st day of January, 1846. 

"Second. Said state, when admitted into the Union, after ceding to the United States 
all public edifices, fortifications, barracks, ports, and harbors, navy and navy-yards, 
docks, magazines, arms, armaments, and all other property and means pertaining to the 
public defense, belonging to the said republic of Texas, shall retain all the public funds, 
debts, taxes, and dues of every kind which may belong to, or be due or owing said re- 
public ; and shall also retain all the vacant and unappropriated lands lying within its 
limits, to be applied to the payment of the debts and liabilities of said republic of Texas ; 
and the residue of said lands, after discharging said debts and liabilities, to be disposed 
of as said state may direct ; but in no event are said debts and liabilities to become a 
charge upon the United States. 

"Third. New states of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to 
said state of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of 
said state, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission 
under the provisions of the federal constitution. And such states as maybe formed out 
of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north 
latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the 
Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each state asking admission may de- 
sire ; and in such state or states as shall be formed out of said territory north of said 
Missouri compromise hue, slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime} shall be 
prohibited." 



552 TEXAS ANNEXED. 

Cave Johnson, of Tenn., moved the previous question, which the house sec- 
onded — yeas, 113 ; nays, 10G — and then the amendment was agreed to ; yeas, 
118; nays, 101. The yeas comprised 114 democrats and i southern whigs: 
the nays, all the whigs present but the four just mentioned, and 23 democrats 
from free states. The house then ordered the whole proposition to a third 
reading forthwith ; and passed it by yeas 120 to 98 nays. Sent to the senate 
for concurrence, where, on the 24th February, it was taken up for considera- 
tion. Mr. Walker, of Wis., moved to add an alternative proposition contem- 
plating negotiation as the means of effecting the meditated end. Several 
amendments were moved and rejected. Walker's was carried by a vote of 
27 to 25. The resolution, as amended, was adopted ; yeas, 26, all democrats 
but three ; nays, 25, all whigs. The senate amendment was agreed to by the 
house, and the annexation of Texas decreed. The resolutions were the next 
day, March 2, approved by the President. Mr. Tyler seized upon the last mo- 
ment of his official existence to exercise the power conferred by the resolu- 
tions. Almonte, the Mexican minister, protested against the aet, and asked 
for his passports. 

The following is the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas : 

" Besolved by the senate and house of rejn'esentatives of the United States 
in congress assembled, That congress doth consent that the territory properly 
included within, and rightfully belonging to, the republic of Texas, may be 
erected into a new state, to be called the state of Texas, with a republican 
form of government, to be adopted by the people of said republic, by deputies 
in convention assembled, with the consent of the existing government, m order 
that the same may be admitted as one of the states of this Union. 

" Sec. 2. And be it further rseolved, That the foregoing consent of con- 
gress is given upon the following conditions, and with the following guaran- 
ties, to wit: 

" First. Said state to be formed, subject to the adjustment by this govern- 
ment of all questions of boundary that may arise with other governments ; and 
the constitution thereof, with the proper evidence of its adoption by the peo- 
ple of said republic of Texas, shall be transmitted to the President of the 
United States, to be laid before congress for its final action, on or before the 
first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-six. 

" Second. Said state, when admitted into the Union, after ceding to the 
United States all public edifices, fortifications, barracks, ports, and harbors, 
navy and navy-yards, docks, magazines, arms, armaments, and all other prop- 
erty and means pertaining to the public defense, belonging to the said republic 
of Texas, shall retain all the public funds, debts, taxes, and dues of every kind 
which may belong to, or be due or owing said republic ; and shall also retain 
all the vacant or unappropriated lands lying within its limits, to be applied to 
the payment of the debts and liabilities of said republic of Texas ; and the 
residue of said lands, after discharging said debts and liabilities, to be disposed 
of as said state may direct ; but in no event are said debts and liabilities to be- 
come a charge upon the United States. 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 553 

" Third. New states of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in ad- 
dition to the said state of Texas, and having sufficient population, may here- 
after, by the consent of said state, be formed out of the territory thereof, which 
shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution ; 
and such states as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying 
south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as 
the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or with- 
out slavery, as the people of each state asking admission may desire ; and in 
such state or states as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Mis- 
souri compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude, (except for crime,) shall 
be prohibited. 

"And be it further resolved, That if the President of the United States 
shall, in his judgment and discretion, deem it most advisable, instead of pro- 
ceeding to submit the foregoing resolution to the republic of Texas, as an 
overture on the part of the United States, for admission, to negotiate with 
that republic ; then, 

" Be it resolved, That a state to be formed out of the present republic of 
Texas, with suitable extent and boundaries, and with two representatives in 
congress, until the next apportionment of representation, shall be admitted into 
the Union by virtue of this act, on an equal footing with the existing states, 
as soon as the terms and conditions of such admission, and the cession of the 
remaining Texan territory to the United States, shall be agreed upon by the 
governments of Texas and the United States. 

" And be it further enacted, That the sum of one hundred thousand dol- 
lars be, and the same is hereby appropriated to defray the expenses of missions 
and negotiations, to agree upon the terms of said admission and cession, either 
by treaty to be submitted to the senate, or by articles to be submitted to the 
' two houses of congress, as the president may direct. 
: "Approved March 2, 1845." 

Texas having been annexed in pursuance of the foregoing joint resolution 
'of the two houses of congress, a portion of the United States army, under 
Gen. Taylor, was, early in the spring of 1846, moved down to the east bank 
■ of the Rio Grande del Norte, claimed by Texas as her western boundary, but 
not so regarded by Mexico. A hostile collision ensued, resulting in war be- 
tween the United States and Mexico. 

It was early thereafter deemed advisable that a considerable sum should be 
placed by congress at the president's disposal, to negotiate an advantageous 
treaty of peace and limits with the Mexican government. A message to this 
effect was submitted by President Polk to congress, August 8th, 1846, and a 
bill in accordance with its suggestions laid before the house, which proceeded 
to consider the subject in committee of the whole. The bill appropriating 
$30,000 for immediate use in negotiations with Mexico, and placing $2,000,000 
more at the disposal of the president, to be employed in making peace, Mr. 
David Wilmot, of Pa., after consultation with other northern democrats, of- 
fered the following proviso, in addition to the first section of the bill : 
36 



554 WILMOT PROVISO. . 

" Provided, that an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any ter- 
ritory from the republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which, 
may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the executive of the moneys herein 
appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of 
said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." 

This proviso was carried in committee by a vote of 84 to 63. The bill was 
then reported to the house, and the previous question moved on its engross- 
ment, which was carried, and the bill sent to the senate. Mr. Lewis, senator 
from Alabama, moved that the proviso be struck out, on which debate arose, 
and Mr. John Davis, of Mass., was speaking, when twelve o'clock, August 10th, 
arrived, the time fixed for adjournment, and both houses adjourned without day. 

The 30th congress assembled Dec. 6, 1847. On the 28th February, Mr. 
Putnam, of New York, moved the following resolution : 

"Whereas, In the settlement of the difficulties pending between this country and 
Mexico, territory may be acquired in which slavery does not now exist : 

' ' And whereas, Congress, in the organization of a territorial government, at an early 
period of our political history, established a principle worthy of imitation in all future 
time, forbidding the existence of slavery in free territory ; therefore, 

"Kesolved, That in any territory that may be acquired from Mexico, over which shall 
be established territorial governments, slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a pun- 
ishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be forever 
prohibited ; and that in any act or resolution establishing such governments, a funda- 
mental provision ought to be inserted to that effect." 

The resolution was ordered to lie on the table by a vote of 105 to 93. This 
terminated all direct action on the Wilinot proviso for that session. 

A bill for the establishment of a territorial government for Oregon was re- 
ported in the senate early in the session, and the question of slavery furnished 
matter for a protracted debate. The power of congress to legislate on the 
subject of slavery in the territories was discussed in the senate by Mr. Dix, of 
New York, who maintained the affirmative, and Mr. Calhoun the negative. 

Mr. Dix stated certain positions which he thought constituted a proper basis 
for the settlement of the question ; positions, the correctness of which a ma- 
jority of the friends of free territory, it is believed, do not concede. They are 
these : 1. All external interference with slavery in the states is a violation 
of the compromises of the constitution, and dangerous to the harmony and 
perpetuity of the federal union. 2. Territory acquired by the United States 
should, in respect to slavery, be received as it is found. If slavery exists there- 
in at the time of the acquisition, it should be left to remain undisturbed by 
congress. If it does not exist therein at the time of the acquisition, its intro- 
duction ought to be prohibited while the territory continues to be governed as 
such. 3. All legislation by congress in respect to slavery in the territory, 
ceases to be operative when the inhabitants are permitted to form a state gov- 
ernment ; and the admission of a state into the Union carries with it, by force 
of the sovereignty such admission confers, the right to dispose of the whole 
question of slavery at its discretion, without external interference. 



DIX AND CALHOUN. 555 

Mr. Calhoun denied the existence of the power of congress to exclude the 
south from a free admission into the territories with its slaves. He denied 
what had been by many assumed, that congress had an absolute right to govern 
the territories. The clause of the constitution which gives " power to dispose 
of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other 
property belonging to the United States," did not, he said, convey such a right: 
"it conferred no governmental power whatever; no, not a particle." It only 
referred to territory as public lands — as property — and gave to congress the 
right to dispose of it as such, but not to exercise over it the power of govern- 
ment. Mr. Calhoun thought the best method of settling the slavery question 
was by non-action — by leaving the territories free and open to the emigration 
of all the world, and when they became states, to permit them to adopt what- 
ever constitution they pleased. 

Mr. Calhoun considered the interference on the subject dangerous to the 
Union. If the Union and our system of government were ever doomed to 
perish, the historian who should record the events ending in so calamitous a 
result, would devote his first chapter to the ordinance of 1187 ; his next to 
the Missouri compromise ; and the next to the present agitation. Whether 
there would be another beyond, he knew not. He reviewed and controverted 
the doctrines of the declaration of independence. The proposition that " all 
men are created free and equal," he called a "hypothetical truism." Liter- 
ally, there was not a word of truth in it. This assertion he supported with the 
singular argument, that " Men are not born free. Infants are born. They 
grow to be meu. They were not born free. While infants, they are incapable 
of freedom ; they are subject to their parents." Nor was it less false that they 
are born "equal." But in the declaration of independence the word "free" 
did not occur. Still the expression was erroneous. " All men are not created. 
Only two, a man and a woman, were created, and one of these was pronounced 
subordinate to the other. All others have come into the world by being born, 
and in no sense, as I have shown, either free or equal." This expression, Mr. 
C. said, had been inserted in the declaration without any necessity. It made 

; no necessary part of our justification in separating ourselves from the parent 
country. Nor had it any weight in constructing the governments which were 

! to be substituted in the place of the colonial. They were formed from the old 
materials, and on practical and well established principles, borrowed, for the 

; most part, from our own experience, and that of the country from which we 
sprang. 

Mr. Calhoun argued, that, instead of liberty and equality being born with 
men, and instead of all men and all classes being entitled to them, they were 
high prizes to be won ; they were rewards bestowed on mental and moral de- 
velopment. The error which he was combating had done more to retard the 
cause of liberty and civilization, and was doing more at present, than all other 
causes combined. It was the leading cause which had placed Europe in its 

1 present state of anarchy, and which stood in the way of reconstructing good 
governments. He concluded as follows : 



556 LETTER OF GEN. CASS 

" Nor are we exempt from its disorganizing effects. We now begin to ex. 
perience the danger of admitting so great an error to have a place in the 
declaration of our independence. For a long time it lay dormant ; but in 
process of time it began to germinate, and produce its poisonous fruits. It 
had strong hold ou the mind of Jefferson, the author of that document, which 
caused him to take an utterly false view of the subordinate relation of the 
black to the white race in the south ; and to hold, in consequence, that the 
latter, though utterly unqualified to possess liberty, were as fully entitled to 
both liberty and equality as the former ; and that to deprive them of it was 
unjust and immoral. To this error, his proposition to exclude slavery from the 
territory northwest of the Ohio may be traced, and to that the ordinance of 
1T8T, and through it the deep and dangerous agitation which now threatens to 
engulf, and will certainly engulf, if not speedily settled, our political insti- 
tutions, and involve the country in countless woes. " 

The house bill providing a government for Oregon was passed by that body 
on the second of August, 129 to 71. It contained a provision for extending 
the ordinance of 118*1 over the territory. The bill passed the senate on the 
13th August — the session closing the next day. 

The followiug letter from Gen. Cass to A. O. P. Nicholson, appeared dur- 
ing the winter of 1847-8. It is regarded as the first well considered enunci- 
ation of squatter sovereignty : 

Washington, December 24, 1847. 

Dear Sm : I have received your letter, and shall answer it as frankly as it 
is written. 

You ask me whether I am in favor of the acquisition of Mexican territory, 
and what are my sentiments with regard to the Wilmot proviso. 

I have so often and so explicitly stated my views of the first question, in the 
senate, that it seems almost unnecessary to repeat them here. As you request 
it, however, I shall briefly give them. 

I think, then, that no peace should be granted to Mexico, till a reasonable 
indemnity is obtained for the injuries which she has done us. The territorial 
extent of this indemnity is, in the first instance, a subject of executive consid- 
eration. There the constitution has placed it, and there I am willing to leave 
it : not only because I have full confidence in its judicious exercise, but because, 
in the ever-varying circumstances of a war, it would be indiscreet, by a public 
declaration, to commit the country to any line of indemnity, which might other- 
wise be enlarged, as the obstinate injustice of the enemy prolongs the contest, 
with its loss of blood and treasure. 

It appears to me, that the kind of metaphysical magnanimity which would 
reject all indemnity at the close of a bloody and expensive war, brought on by 
a direct attack upon our troops by the enemy, and preceded by a succession of 
unjust acts for a series of years, is as unworthy of the age in which we live, as 
it is revolting to the common sense and practice of mankind. It would con- 
duce but little to our future security, or, indeed, to our present reputation, to 
declare that we repudiate all expectation of compensation from the Mexican 



TO A. 0. P. NICHOLSON. 557 

government, and are fighting, not for any practical result, but for some vague, 
perhaps philanthropic object, which escapes my penetration, and must be defined 
by those who assume this new principle of national intercommunication. All 
wars are to be deprecated, as well by the statesman as by the philanthropist. 
They are great evils ; but there are greater evils than these, and submission to 
Injustice is among them. The nation which should refuse to defend its rights 
and its honor, when assailed, would soon have neither to defend ; and, when 
driven to war, it is not by professions of disinterestedness and declarations of 
magnanimity that its rational objects can be best obtained, or other nations 
taught a lesson of forbearance — the strongest security for a permanent peace. 
We are at war with Mexico, and its vigorous prosecution is the surest means 
of its speedy termination, and ample indemnity the surest guaranty against the 
recurrence of such injustice as provoked it. 

The Wilmot proviso has been before the country for some time. It has 
been repeatedly discussed in congress, and by the public press. I am strongly 
impressed with the opinion, that a great change has been going on in the public 
mind upon this subject, in my own as well as others ; and that doubts are re- 
solving themselves into convictions, that the principle it involves should be kept 
out of the national legislature, and left to the people of the confederacy in 
their respective local governments. 

The whole subject is a comprehensive one, and fruitful of important conse- 
quences. It would be ill-timed to discuss it here. I shall not assume that re 
sponsible task, but shall confine myself to such general views as are necessary 
to the fair exhibition of my opinions. 

We may well regret the existence of slavery in the southern states, and wish 
they had been saved from its introduction. But there it is, not by the act of 
the present generation ; and we must deal with it as a great practical question, 
involving the most momentous consequences. We have neither the right nor 
the power to touch it where it exists ; and if we had both, their exercise, by 
any means heretofore suggested, might lead to results which no wise man would 
willingly encounter, and which no good man could contemplate without anxiety. 

The theory of our government presupposes that its various members have re- 
served to themselves the regulation of all subjects relating to what may be termed 
their infernal police. They are sovereign within their boundaries, except in 
those cases where they have surrendered to the general government a portion 
of their rights, in order to give effect to the objects of the Union, whether these 
concern foreign nations or the several states themselves. Local institutions, if 
I may so speak, whether they have reference to slavery orto any other relations, 
domestic or public, are left to local authority, either original or derivative 
Congress has no right to say that there shall be slavery in New York, or that 
there shall be no slavery in Georgia; nor is there any other human power, but 
the people of those states, respectively, which can change the relations existing 
therein ; and they can say, if they will, 'we will have slavery in the former, and 
we will abolish it in the latter.' 

In various respects, the territories differ from the states. Some of their 



558 LETTER OF GEN. CASS 

rights are inchoate, and they do not possess the peculiar attributes of sover- 
eignty. Their relation to the general government is very imperfectly defined 
by the constitution ; and it will be found, upon examination, that in that in- 
strument the only grant of power concerning them is conveyed in the phrase^ 
"congress shall have the power to dispose of and make all needful rules and 
regulations respecting the territory and other property belonging to the United 
States." Certainly this phraseology is very loose, if it were designed to in- 
clude in the grant the whole power of legislation over persons, as well as things. 
The expression, the "territory and other property," fairly construed, relates 
to the public lands, as such ; to arsenals, dockyards, forts, ships, and all the 
various kinds of property which the United States may and must possess. 

But surely the simple authority to dispose of and regulate these does not 
extend to the unlimited power of legislation ; to the passage of all laws, in 
the most general acceptation of the word ; which, by-the-by, is carefully ex- 
cluded from the sentence. And, indeed, if this were so, it would render un- 
necessary another provision of the constitution, which grants to Congress the 
power to legislate, with the consent of the states, respectively, over all places 
purchased for the "erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards," etc. 
These being the property of the United States, if the power to make "need- 
ful rules and regulations concerning " them includes the general power of leg- 
islation, then the grant of authority to regulate "the territory and other prop- 
erty of the United States " is unlimited, wherever subjects are found for its 
operation, and its exercise needed no auxiliary provisision. If, on the other 
hand, it does not include such power of legislation over the " other property" 
of the United States, then it does not include it over their " territory;" for the 
same terms which grant the one, grant the other. "Territory 1 ' is here classed 
with property, and treated as such ; and the object was evidently to enable the 
general government, as a property-holder — which, from necessity it must 
be — to manage, preserve and "dispose of" such property as it might possess, 
and which authority is essential almost to its being. But the lives and persons 
of our citizens, with the vast variety of objects connected with them, cannot 
be controlled by an authority which is merely called into existence for the pur- 
pose of making rules and regulations for the disposition and management 
of property. 

Such, it appears to me, would be the construction put upon this provision of 
the constitution, were this question now first presented for consideration, and 
not controlled by imperious circumstances. The original ordinance of the con- 
gress of the confederation, passed in 1181, and which was the only act upon 
this subject in force at the adoption of the constitution, provided a complete 
frame of government for the country north of the Ohio, while in a territorial 
condition, and for its eventual admission in separate states into the Union. 
And the persuasion that this ordinance contained within itself all the necessary 
means of execution, probably prevented any direct reference to the subject in 
the constitution, further than vesting in congress the right to admit the states 
formed under it into the Union. However, circumstances arose which required 



TO A. 0. P. NICHOLSON. 559 

legislation, as well over the territory north of the Ohio as over other territory, 
both within and without the original Union, ceded to the general government, 
and, at various times, a more enlarged power has been exercised over the ter- 
ritories — meaning thereby the different territorial governments — than is con- 
veyed by the limited grant referred to. How far an existing necessity may 
have operated in producing this legislation, and thus extending, by rather a 
violent implication, powers not directly given, I know not. But certain it is 
that the principle of interference should not be carried beyond the necessary 
implication which produces- it. It should be limited to the creation of proper 
governments for new countries, acquired or settled, and to the necessary pro- 
vision for their eventual admission into the Union ; leaving, in the meantime, 
the people inhabiting them, to regulate their internal concerns in their own 
way. They are just as capable of doing so as the people of the states ; and 
they can do so, at any rate as soon as their political independence is recogniz- 
ed by admission into the Union. During this temporary condition, it is hardly 
expedient to call into exercise a doubtful and invidious authority, which ques- 
tions the intelligence of a respectable portion of our citizens, and whose limi- 
tation, whatever it may be, will be rapidly approaching its termination — an au- 
thority which would give to congress despotic power, uncontrolled by the 
constitution, over most important sections of our common country. For, if 
the relation of master and servant may be regulated or annihilated by its legis- 
lation, so may the regulation of husband and wife, of parent and child, and of 
any other condition which our institutions and the habits of our society recog- 
nize. What would be thought if congress should undertake to prescribe the 
terms of marriage in New York, or to regulate the authority of parents over 
their children in Pennsylvania ? It would be vain to seek an argument jus- 
tifying the interference of the national legislature in the cases referred to in the 
original states of the Union. I speak here of the inherent power of congress, 
and do not touch the question of such contracts as may be formed with new 
states when admitted into the confederacy. 

Of all the questions that can agitate us, those which are merely sectional in 
their character are the most dangerous, and the most to be deprecated. The 
warning voice of him who from his character and services and virtue had the 
best right to warn us, proclaimed to his countrymen, in his farewell address, 
that monument of wisdom for him, as I hope it will be of safety for them, how 
much we had to apprehend from measures peculiarly affecting geographical 
sections of our country. The grave circumstances in which we are now placed 
make these words words of safety ; for I am satisfied, from all I have seen and 
heard here, that a successful attempt to engraft the principles of the Wilmot 
proviso upon the legislation of this government, and to apply them to new 
territory, should new territory be acquired, would seriously affect our tranquili- 
ty. I do not suffer myself to foresee or to foretell the consequences that would 
ensue ; for I trust and believe there is good sense and good feeling enough in 
the country to avoid them, by avoiding all occasions which might lead to them. 

Briefly, then, I am opposed to the exercise of any jurisdiction by congress 



560 LETTER OP GEN. CASS 

over this matter ; and I am in favor of leaving to the people of any territory, 
which may be hereafter acquired, the right to regulate it for themselves, under 
the general principles of the constitution. Because — 

1. I do not see in the constitution any grant of the requisite power to con- 
gress ; and I am not disposed to extend a doubtful precedent beyond its neces- 
sity the establishment of territorial governments when needed — leaving to the 

inhabitants all the rights compatible with the relations they bear to the con- 
federation. 

2. Because I believe this measure, if adopted, would weaken, if not impair, 
the union of the states ; and would sow the seeds of future discord, which 
would grow up and ripen into an abundant harvest of calamity. 

3. Because I believe a general conviction that such a proposition would suc- 
ceed, would lead to an immediate witholding of the supplies, and thus to a dis- 
honorable termination of the war. I think no dispassionate observer at the 
seat of government can doubt this result. 

4. If, however, in this I am under a misapprehension, I am under none in 
the practical operation in this restriction, if adopted by congress, upon a 
treaty of peace, making any acquisition of Mexican territory. Such a treaty 
would be rejected as certainly as presented to the senate. More than one- 
third of that body would vote against it, viewing such a principle as an ex- 
clusion of the citizens of the slaveholdiug states from a participation in the 
benefits acquired by the treasure and exertions of all, and which should be 
common to all. I am repeating — neither advancing nor defending these views. 
That branch of the subject does not lie in my way, and I shall not turn aside 
to seek it. 

In this aspect of the matter, the people of the United States must choose be- 
tween this restriction and the extension of their territorial limits. They can- 
not have both ; and which they will surrender must depend upon their repre- 
sentatives first, and then, if these fail them, upon themselves. 

5. But after all, it seems to be generally conceded that this restriction, if 
carried into effect, could not operate upon 'any state to be formed from newly- 
acquired territory. The well-known attributes of sovereignty, recognized by 
us as belonging to the state governments, would sweep before them any such 
barrier, and would leave the people to express aud exert their will at pleas- 
ure. Is the object, then, of temporary exclusion for so short a period as the 
duration of the territorial governments, worth the price at which it would be 
purchased? — worth the discord it would engender, the trial to which it would 
expose our union, and the evils that would be the certain consequence, let the 
trial result as it might ? As to the course, which has been intimated, rather 
than proposed, of engrafting such a restriction upon any treaty of acquisition, 
I persuade myself it would find but little favor in any portion of this country. 
Such an arrangement would render Mexico a party, having a right to inter- 
fere in our internal institutions in questions left by the constitution to the state 
governments, and would inflict a serious blow upon our fundamental principles. 
Few, indeed, I trust, there are among us who would thus grant to a foreign 



TO A. 0. P. NICHOLSON. 561 

power the right to inquire into the constitution and conduct of the sovereign 
. states of this union ; and if there are any, I am not among them, nor never 
shall be. To the people of this country, under God, now and hereafter, are 
its destinies committed; and we want no foreign power to interrogate as, treaty 
in hand, and to say, "why have you done this, or why have you left that un- 
done ? " Our own dignity and the principles of national independence unite 
to repel such a proposition. 

But there is another important consideration, which ought not to be lost 
sight of, in the investigation of this subject. The question that presents itself 
is not a question of the increase, but of the diffusion of slavery. Whether its 
sphere be stationary or progressive, its amount will be the same. The rejec- 
tion of this restriction will not add one to the class of servitude, nor will its 
adoption give freedom to a single being who is now placed therein. The same 
numbers will be spread over greater territory ; and, so far as compression, 
with less abundance of the necessaries of life, is an evil, so far will that evil be 
mitigated by transporting slaves to a new country, and giving them a larger 
space to occupy. 

I say this in the event of the extension of slavery over any new acquisition. 
But can it go there ? This may well be doubted. All the descriptions which 
reach us of the condition of the Californias and of New-Mexico, to the acqui- 
sition of which our efforts seem at present directed, unite in representing those 
countries as agricultural regions, similar in their products to our middle states, 
and generally unfit for the production of the great staples which can alone ren- 
der slave labor valuable. If we are not grossly deceived — and it is difficult to 
conceive how we can be — the inhabitants of those regions, whether they de- 
pend upon their plows or their herds, cannot be slaveholders. Involuntary la- 
bor, requiring the investment of large capital, can only be profitable when em- 
ployed in the production of a few favored articles confined by nature to special 
districts, and paying larger returns than the usual agricultural products spread 
over more considerable portions of the earth. 

In the able letter of Mr. Buchanan upon this subject, not long since given 
to the public, he presents similar considerations with great force. "Neither," 
says the distinguished writer, "the soil, the climate, nor the productions of 
California south of 36° 30', nor indeed of any portion of it, north or south, 
is adapted to slave labor ; and beside, every facility would be there afforded for 
the slave to escape from his master. Such property would be entirely insecure 
in any part of California. It is morally impossible, therefore, that a majority 
of the emigrants to that portion of the territory south of 36° 30', which will 
be chiefly composed of our citizens, will ever reestablish slavery within its 
limits. 

" In regard to New Mexico, east of the Rio Grande, the question has al- 
ready been settled by the admission of Texas into the Union. 

" Should we acquire the territory beyond the Rio Grande and east of the 
Rocky Mountains, it is still more impossible that a majority of the people 
would consent to reestablish slavery. They are themselves a colored popula- 



562 LETTER OF GEN. CASS. 

tion, and among tbem the negro does not belong socially to a degraded race." 
With this last remark, Mr. Walker fully coincides in his letter written hi 
1844, upon the annexation of Texas, and which everywhere produced so fa- 
vorable an impression upon the public mind, as to have conduced very materi- 
ally to the accomplishment of that great measure. "Beyond the Del Norte," 
says Mr. Walker, " slavery will not pass ; not only because it is forbidden by 
law, but because the colored race there preponderates in the ratio of ten to one 
over the whites ; and holding, as they do, the government and most of the of- 
fices in their possession, they will not permit the enslavement of any portion of 
the colored race, which makes and executes the laws- of the country." 

The question, it will be therefore seen on examination, does not regard the 
exclusion of slavery from a region where it now exists, but a prohibition 
against its introduction where it does not exist, and where, from the feelings of 
the inhabitants and the laws of nature, "it is morally impossible," as Mr. 
Buchanan says, that it can ever reestablish itself. 

It augurs well for the permanency of our confederation, that during more 
than half a century, which has elapsed since the establishment of this govern- 
ment, many serious questions, and some of the highest importance, have agi- 
tated the public mind, and more than once threatened the gravest consequences; 
but that they have all in succession passed away, leaving our institutions un- 
scathed, and our country advancing in numbers, power and wealth, and in all 
the other elements of national prosperity, with a rapidity unknown in ancient 
or in modern days. In times of political excitement, when difficult and deli- 
cate questions present themselves for solution, there is one ark of safety for us; 
and that is, an honest appeal to the fundamental principles of our Union, and a 
stern determination to abide their dictates. This course of proceeding has 
carried us in safety through many a trouble, and I trust will carry us safely 
through many more, should many more be destined to assail us. The Wilmot 
proviso seeks to take from its legitimate tribunal a question of domestic poli- 
cy, having no relation to the Union, as such, and to transfer it to another, cre- 
ated by the people for a special purpose, and foreign to the subject matter in- 
volved in this issue. By going back to our true principles, we go back to the 
road of peace and safety. Leave to the people, who will be affected by this 
question, to adjust it upon their own responsibility, and in their own manner, 
and we shall render another tribute to the original principles of our govern- 
ment, and furnish another guaranty for its permanence and prosperity. I am, 
dear sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, Lewis Cass. 

A. 0. P. Nicholson, Esq., Nashville, Tenn. 



president taylor's message. 563 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Political History of Slavery. — Compromises of 1850. 

Message of President Taylor. — Sam Houston's propositions. — Taylor's Special Message 
— Mr. Clay's propositions for arrangement of slavery controversy. — His resolutions. — 
Resolutions of Mr. Bell. — The debate on Clay's resolutions, by Rusk, Foote, of Mis- 
sissippi, Mason, Jefferson Davis, King, Clay, and Butler. — Remarks of Benton, Cal- 
houn, Webster, Seward, and Cass. — Resolutions referred. — Report of Committee. — 
The omnibus bill.— California admitted. — New Mexico organized. — Texas boundary es- 
tablished. — Utah organized.— Slave- trade in the District of Columbia abolished. — 
Fugitive Slave law passed. 



T 



HE slave population of the United States amounted, in 1850, to 3,204,313; 
exhibiting an increase, for the last decade, of 716,858. Of the slaves in 1850, 
2,957,051 were black, or of unmixed African descent, and 240,656 were mu- 
latto. The free colored population in 1850 amounted to 434,495; of whom 
275,400 were black, and 159,095 mulattoes. The total number of families, 
holding slaves, was, by the same census, 347,525. 

CENSUS OF 1850.— SLAVE POPULATION. 

Alabama 342,844 Mississippi 309,878 

Arkansas 47,100 Missouri 87,422 

District of Columbia 3,687 New Jersey 236 

Delaware 2,290 North Carolina 268,548 

Florida 39,310 South Carolina 384,984 

Georgia 381,682 Tennessee 239,459 

Kentucky 210,981 Texas 58,161 

Louisiana 244,809 Virginia 472,528 

Maryland 90,368 Utah Territory 26 

The first session of the thirty-first congress commenced on the third day of 
December, 1849. Much time was spent in unsuccessful efforts to organize, 
until the 23d, when Mr. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, was elected speaker, by a 
plurality vote. 

On the 24th, President Zachary Taylor transmitted to both houses his first 
annual message. In reference to the new territories, he says : 

"No civil government having been provided by congress for California, the 
people of that territory, impelled by the necessities of their political condition, 
recently met in convention, for the purpose of forming a constitution and state 
government; which, the latest advices give me reason to suppose, has been 
accomplished ; and it is believed they will shortly apply for the admission of 
California into the TJnion, as a sovereign state. Should such be the case, and 
should their constitution be conformable to the requisitions of the constitution 
of the United States, I recommend their application to the favorable consid- 
eration of congress. 



564 GENERAL HOUSTON'S PROPOSITION. 

" The people of New Mexico will also, it is believed, at no very distant pe- 
riod, present themselves for admission into the Union. Preparatory to the ad- 
mission of California and New Moxico, the people of each will have instituted 
for themselves a republican form of government, laying its foundation in such 
principles, and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness. 

"By awaiting their action, all causes of uneasiness may be avoided, and 
confidence and kind feeling preserved. With a view of maintaining the har- 
mony and tranquility so dear to all, we should abstain from the introduction of 
those exciting topics of a sectional character which have hitherto produced 
painful apprehensions in the public mind ; and I repeat the solemn warning of 
the first and most illustrious of my predecessors, against furnishing any ground 
for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations." 

On the 4th of January, 1850, General Sam Houston, of Texas, submitted 
the following proposition to the senate : 

"Whereas, The congress of the United States, possessing only a delegated authority, 
have no power over the subject of negro slavery within the limits of the United States, 
either to prohibit or to interfere with it in the states, territories, or district, where, by ] 
municipal law, it now exists, or to establish it in any state or territory where it does not| 
exist; but as an assurance and guarantee to promote harmony, quiet apprehension, and J 
remove sectional prejudice, which by possibility might impair or weaken love and de- 
votion to the Union in any part of the country, it is hereby 

"Resolved, That, as the people in territories have the same inherent rights of self- 
government as the people in the states, if, in the exercise of such inherent rights, 
the people in the newly-acquired territories, by the annexation of Texas and the 
acquisition of California and New Mexico, south of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 min- 
utes of north latitude, extending to the Pacific Ocean, shall establish negro slavery in 
the formation of their state governments, it shall be deemed no objection to their admis- 
sion as a state or states into the Union, in accordance with the constitution of the United 
States." 

In answer to a resolution of inquiry, General Taylor sent a message to the 
house stating that he had urged the formation of state governments in Califor- 
nia and New Mexico, and adds : 

" In advising an early application by the people of these territories for ad- 
mission as states, I was actuated principally by an earnest desire to afford to 
the wisdom and patriotism of congress the opportunity of avoiding occasions 
of bitter and angry discussions among the people of the United States. 

"Under the constitution, every state has the right to establish, and, from 
time to time, alter its municipal laws and domestic institutions, independently 
of every other state and of the general government, subject only to the prohi- 
bitions and guarantees expressly set forth in the constitution of the United 
States. The subjects thus left exclusively to the respective states, were not 
designed or expected to become topics of national agitation. Still as, under 
the constitution, congress has power to make all needful rules and regulations 
respecting the territories of the United States, every new acquisition of ter- 
ritory has led to discussions on the question whether the system of involuntary 



president tavlor's message. 565 

servitude, which prevails in many of the states, should or should not be prohi- 
bited in that territory. The periods of excitement from this cause, which have 
heretofore occurred, have been safely passed ; but, during the interval, of what- 
ever length, which may elapse before the admission of the territories ceded by 
Mexico, as states, it appears probable that similar excitement will prevail to 
an undue extent. 

" Under these circumstances, I thought, and still think, that it was my duty 
to endeavor to put in the power of congress, by the admission of California 
and New Mexico as states, to remove all occasion for the unnecessary agitation 
of the public mind. 

" It is understood that the people of the western part of California have 
formed the plan of a state constitution, and will soon submit the same to the 
judgment of congress, and apply for admission as a state. This course on 
their part, though in accordance with, was not adopted exclusively in conse- 
quence of, any expression of my wishes, inasmuch as measures tending to this 
end had been promoted by officers sent there by my predecessor, and were al- 
ready in active progress of execution, before any communication from me 
reached California. If the proposed constitution shall, when submitted to 
congress, be found to be in compliance with the requisitions of the constitution 
of the United States, I earnestly recommend that it may receive the sanction 
of congress. 

" Should congress, when California shall present herself for incorporation 
into the Union, annex a condition to her admission as a state affecting her do- 
mestic institutions contrary to the wishes of the people, and even compel her 
temporarily to comply with it, yet the state could change her constitution at 
any time after admission, when to her it should seem expedient. Any attempt 
to deny to the people of the v state the right of self-government, in a matter 
which peculiarly affects themselves, will infallibly be regarded by them as an 
invasion of their rights ; and, upon the principles laid down in our own Decla- 
ration of Independence, they will certainly be sustained by the great mass of 
the American people. To assert that they are a conquered people, and must, 
as a state, submit to the will of their conquerors, in this regard, will meet with 
no cordial response among American freemen. Great numbers of them are 
native citizens of the United States, and not inferior to the rest of our coun- 
trymen in intelligence and patriotism ; and no language of menace to restrain 
them in the exercise of an undoubted right, substantially guarantied to them 
by the treaty of cession itself, shall ever be uttered by me, or encouraged and 
sustained by persons acting under my authority. It is to be expected that, in 
the residue of the territory ceded to us by Mexico, the people residing there 
will, at the time of their incorporation into the Union as a state, settle all 
questions of domestic policy to suit themselves." 

On the 29th of January, Mr. Clay submitted to the senate of the United 
States the following propositions for an amicable arrangement of the whole 
slavery controversy : 



566 clay's resolutions. 

"1. Resolved, That California, with suitable boundaries, ought, upon her application, 
to be admitted as one of the states of this Union, without the imposition by congress of any 
restriction in respect to the exclusion or introduction of slavery within those boundaries. 

" 2. Resolved, That as slavery does not exist by law, and is not likely to be intro- 
duced into any of the territory acquired by the United States from the republic of Mex- 
ico, it is inexpedient for congress to provide by law either for its introduction into, or 
exclusion from, any part of the said territory : and that appropriate territorial govern- 
ments ought to be established by congress in all the said territory, not assigned as within 
the boundaries of the proposed state of California, without the adoption of any restric- 
tion or condition on the subject of slavery. 

"3. Resolved, That the western boundary of the state of Texas ought to be fixed on 
the Rio del Norte, commencing one marine league from its mouth, and running up that 
river to the southern line of New Mexico ; thence with that line eastwardly, and so con- 
tinuing in the same direction to the line as established between the United States and 
Spain, excluding any portion of New Mexico, whether lying on the east or west of that river. 

"4. Resolved, That it be proposed to the state of Texas, that the United States will 
provide for the payment of all that portion of the legitimate and bona fide public debt 
of that state contracted prior to its annexation to the United States, and for which the 
duties on foreign imports were pledged by the said state to its creditors, not exceeding 

the sum of dollars, in consideration of the said duties so pledged having been 

no longer applicable to that object after the said annexation, but having thenceforward 
become payable to the United States ; and upon the condition, also, that the said state 
of Texas shall, by some solemn and authentic act of her legislature, or of a convention, 
relinquish to the United States any claim which she has to any part of New Mexico. 

"5. Resolved, That it is inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia 
whilst that institution continues to exist in the state of Maryland, without the consent 
of that state, without the consent of the people of the district, and without just com- 
pensation to the owners of slaves within the district. 

"6. But Resolved, That it is expedient to prohibit, within the district, the slave-trade 
in slaves brought into it from states or places beyond the' limits of the district, either to 
be sold therein as merchandise, or to be transported to other markets without the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. 

"7. Resolved, That more effectual provision ought to be made by law, according to 
the requirement of the constitution, for the restitution and delivery of persons bound to 
service or labor in any state, who may escape into any other state or territory in the 
Union. And 

"8. Resolved, That congress has no power to prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves 
between the slaveholding states, but that the admission or exclusion of slaves brought 
from one into another of them, depends exclusively upon their own particular laws." 

Among the propositions to dispose of the territorial and slavery questions 
in both houses was a series of resolutions offered by Mr. Bell, of Tenn., in the 
senate, on the 28th of February, providing for the future division of Texas, 
and the admission of the different portions as states ; also, by consent of Texas, 
that portion of lauds claimed by Texas, lying west of the Colorado, and north 
of latitude 42, was to be ceded to the United States for a sum not exceeding 
millions of dollars. California to be admitted as a state ; but in fu- 
ture the formation of state constitutions by the inhabitants of the territories 
was to be regulated by law, and the inhabitants were to have power " to regu- 
late and adjust all questions of internal state policy of whatever nature they 
may be." The following are Mr. Bell's resolutions: 



bell's resolutions. 567 

' ' Whereas, Considerations of the highest interest to the whole country demand that 
the existing and increasing dissensions between the north and the south, on the subject 
of slavery, should be speedily arrested, and that the questions in controversy be adjusted 
upon some basis which shall tend to give present quiet, repress sectional animosities, re- 
move, as far as possible, the causes of future discord, and secure the uninterrupted en- 
joyment of those benefits and advantages which the Union was intended to confer in 
equal measure upon all its members ; 

"And whereas, It is manifest, under present circumstances, that no adjustment can 
be effected of the points of difference unhappily existing between the northern and south- 
ern sections of the Union, connected with the subject of slavery, which shall secure to 
either section all that is contended for ; and that mutual concessions upon questions of 
mere policy, not involving the violation of any constitutional right or principle, must be 
the basis of every project affording any assurance of a favorable acceptance ; 

"And whereas, The joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, approved 
March 1, 1845, contains the following condition and guarantee — that is to say: 'New 
states of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said state of Texas, 
and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said state, be formed 
out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions 
of the federal constitution ; and such states as may be formed out of that portion of said 
territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly 
known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or with- 
out slavery, as the people of each state asking admission may desire ; and in such state 
or states as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri compromise line, 
slavery or involuntary servitude, (except for crime, _) shall be prohibited;' therefore, 

"1. Resolved, That the obligation to comply with the condition and guarantee above 
recited in good faith be distinctly recognized ; and that, in part compliance with the same, 
as soon as the people of Texas shall, by an act of their legislature, signify their assent 
by restricting the limits thereof, within the territory east of the Trinity and south of the 
Red river, and when the people of the residue of the territory claimed by Texas adopt a 
constitution, republican in form, they be admitted into the Union upon an equal footing 
in all respects with the original states. 

"2. Resolved, That if Texas shall agree to cede, the United States will accept, a ces- 
sion of all the unappropriated domain in all the territory claimed by Texas, lying west 
of the Colorado and extending north to the forty-second parallel of north latitude, to- 
gether with the jurisdiction and sovereignty of all the territory claimed by Texas north 
of the thirty-fourth parallel of north latitude, and to pay therefor a sum not exceeding 

millions of dollars, to be applied in the first place to the extinguishment of any 

portion of the existing public debt of Texas, for the discharge of which the United States 
are under any obligation, implied or otherwise, and the remainder as Texas shall require. 

"3. Resolved, That when the population of that portion of the territory claimed by 
Texas lying south of the thirty-fourth parallel of north latitude and west of the Colo- 
rado, shall be equal to the ratio of representation in congress, under the last preceding 
apportionment, according to the provisions of the constitution, and the people of such 
territory shall, with the assent of the new state contemplated in the preceding resolu- 
tion, have adopted a state constitution, republican in form, they be admitted into 
the Union as a state, upon an equal footing with the original states. 

"4. Resolved, That all the territory now claimed by Texas lying north of the thirty- 
fourth parallel of north latitude, and which may be ceded to the United States by Texas, 
be incorporated with the territory of New Mexico, except such part thereof as lies east 
of the Rio Grande and south of the thirty-fourth degree of north latitude, and that the 
territory so composed form a state, to be admitted into the Union when the inhabitants 
thereof shall adopt a state constitution, republican in form, with the consent of congress ; 



568 REMAKES OF MR. FOOTE. 

but, in the mean time, and until congress shall give such consent, provision be made 
for the government of the inhabitants of said territory suitable to their condition, but 
without any restriction as to slavery. 

"5. Resolved, That all the territory ceded to the United States, by the treaty of Gua- 
daloupe Hidalgo, lying west of said territory of New Mexico, and east of the contem- 
plated new state of California, for the present, constitute one territory, and for which 
some form of government suitable to the condition of the inhabitants be provided, with- 
out any restriction as to slavery. 

" 6. Resolved, That the constitution recently formed by the people of the western por- 
tion of California, and presented to congress by the president on the 13th of FebruarjR 
1850, be accepted, and that they be admitted into the Union as a state, upon an equal 
footing in all respects with the original states. 

" 7. Resolved, That, in future, the formation of state constitutions, by the inhabitants 
of the territories of the United States, be regulated by law ; and that no such constitu- 
tion be hereafter formed or adopted by the inhabitants of any territory belonging to the 
United States, without the consent and authority of congress. 

"8. Resolved, That the inhabitants of any territory of the United States, when they 
shall be authorized by congress to form a state constitution, shall have the sole and ex- 
clusive power to regulate and adjust all questions of internal state policy, of whatever 
nature they may be, controlled only by the restrictions expressly imposed by the con- 
stitution of the United States. 

" 9. Resolved, That the committee on territories be instructed to report a bill in con- 
formity with the spirit and principles of the foregoing resolutions." 

A debate of unusual duration, earnestness, and ability ensued, mainly on 
Mr. Clay's resolutions. Mr. Clay having read and briefly commented on his 
propositions, seriatim, lie desired that they should be held over without de- 
bate, to give time for consideration, and made a special order for Monday or 
Tuesday following. Mr. Rusk rose at once to protest agaiust that portion of 
them which called in question the right of Texas to so much of New Mexico 
as lies east of the Rio del Norte. Mr. Foote, of Miss., spoke against them 
generally, saying : 

" If I understand the resolutions properly, they are objectionable, as it seems 
to me, 

" 1. Because they only assert that it is not expedient that congress should 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia ; thus allowing the implication to 
arise that congress has power to legislate on the subject of slavery in the dis- 
trict, which may hereafter be exercised, if it should become expedient to do 
so ; whereas, I hold that congress has, under the constitution, no such power 
at all, and that any attempt thus to legislate would be a gross fraud upon all 
the states of the Union. 

" 2. The resolutions of the honorable senator assert that slavery does not 
now exist by law in the territories recently acquired from Mexico ; whereas, I 
am of opinion that the treaty with the Mexican republic carried the constitu- 
tion, with all its guaranties, to all the territory obtained by treaty, and se- 
cured the privilege to every southern slaveholder to enter any part of it, at- 
tended by his slave property, and to enjoy the same therein, free from all mo- 
lestation or hindrance whatsoever. 

" 3. Whether slavery is or is not likely to be introduced into these territo- 



REMARKS OF MR. MASON. 569 

rtfes, or into any of them, is a proposition too uncertain, in my judgment, to be 
at present positively affirmed ; and I am unwilling to make a solemn legisla- 
tive declaration on the point. Let the future provide the appropriate solu- 
tion of this interesting question. 

" 4. Considering, as I have several times heretofore formally declared, the 
title of Texas to all the territory embraced in her boundaries, as laid down in 
her law of 1836, full, complete, and undeniable, I am unwilling to say any 
thing, by resolution or otherwise, which may in the least degree draw that ti- 
tle into question, as I think is done in one of the resolutions of the honorable 
senator from Kentucky. * 

" 5. I am, upon constitutional and other grounds, wholly opposed to the 
principle of assuming state debts, which I understand to be embodied in one 
of the resolutions of the honorable senator from Kentucky. If Texan soil is 
to be bought, (and with certain appropriate safeguards, I am decidedly in fa- 
vor of it,) let us pay to the sovereign state of Texas the value thereof in mon- 
ey, to be used by her as she pleases. It will be, as I think, more delicate and 
respectful to let her provide for the management of this matter, which is strictly 
domestic in its character, in such manner as she may choose — presuming that 
she will act wisely, justly, and honorably towards all to whom she may be in- 
debted. 

" 6. As to the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, I 
see no particular objection to it, provided it is done in a delicate and judicious 
manner, and is not a concession to the menaces and demands of factionists 
and fanatics. If other questions can be adjusted, this one will, perhaps, occa- 
sion but little difficulty. 

" 7. The resolutions which provide for the restoration of fugitives from la- 
bor or service, and for the establishment of territorial governments, free from 
all restriction on the subject of slavery, have my hearty approval. The last 
resolution, which asserts that congress has no power to prohibit the trade in 
slaves from state to state, I equally approve. 

" 8. If all other questions connected with the subject of slavery can be sat- 
isfactorily adjusted, I can see no objection to admitting all California, above 
'the line of 36° 30', into the Union; provided another new slave state 
can be laid off within the present limits of Texas, so as to keep the present 
equiponderance between the slave and free states of the Union ; and provided 
further, all this is done by way of compromise, and in order to save the Union, 
as dear to me as to any man living." 

Mr. Mason, of Va , after expressing his deep anxiety to " go with him who 
went furthest, but within the limits of strict duty, in adjusting these unhappy 
differences," added : "Sir, so far as I have read these resolutions, there is but 
one proposition to which I can give a hearty assent, and that is the resolution 
which proposes to organize territorial governments at once in these territories, 
without a declaration one way or the other as to their domestic institutions. 
But there is another which I deeply regret to see introduced into this senate, 
by a senator from a slaveholding state ; it is that which assumes that slavery 
37 



570 DEBATE ON CLAY'S RESOLUTIONS. 

does not now exist by law in those countries. I understand one of these prop- 
ositions to declare that, by law, slavery is now abolished in New Mexico and 
California. That was the very proposition advanced by the non-slaveholding 
states at the last session ; combated and disproved, as I thought, by gentlemen 
from the slaveholding states, and which the compromise bill was framed to test. 
So far, I regarded the question of law as disposed of, and it was very clearly 
and satisfactorily shown to be against the spirit of the resolution of the sena- 
tor from Kentucky. If the contrary is true, I presume the senator from Ken- 
tucky would declare that if a law is now valid in the territories abolishing 
slavery, that it could not be introduced there, even if a law was passed creat- 
ing the institution, or repealing the statutes already existing ; a doctrine never 
assented to, as far as I know, until now, by any senator representing one of 
the slaveholding states. Sir, I hold the very opposite, and with such confi- 
dence, that at the last session I was willing and did vote for a bill to test this 
question in the supreme court. Yet this resolution assumes the other doctrine 
to be true, and our assent is challenged to it as a proposition of law. 

" I do not mean to detain the senate by any discussion ; but I deemed it to 
be my duty to enter a decided protest, on the part of Virginia, against such 
doctrines. They concede the whole question at once, that our people shall not 
go iuto the new territories and take their property with them ; a doctrine to 
which I never will assent, and for which, sir, no law can be found. There are 
other portions of the resolution, for which, if they could be separated, I should 
be very willing to vote. That respecting fugitive slaves, and that respecting 
the organization of governments in these territories, I should be willing to 
vote for ; and I am happy to declare the gratification I experience at finding 
the senator from Kentucky differing so much, on this subject, from the execu- 
tive message recently laid before the senate. I beg not to be understood as 
having spoken in any spirit of unkinduess towards the senator from Kentucky, 
for whom I entertain the warmest and most profound respect ; but I cannot 
but express also my regret that he has felt it to be his duty, standing as he 
does before this people, and representing the people he does, to introduce into 
this body resolutions of this kind." 

Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Miss., said : " Sir, we are called upon to receive 
this as a measure of compromise 1 As a measure in which we of the minority 
are to receive nothing. A measure of compromise ! I look upon it as but a 
modest mode of taking that, the claim to which has been more boldly asserted 
by others ; and, that I may be understood upon this question, and that my po- 
sition may go forth to the country iu the same columns that convey the senti- 
ments of the senator from Kentucky, I here assert, that never will I take less 
than the Missouri compromise line extended to the Pacific ocean, with the spe- 
cific recognition of the right to hold slaves in the territory below that line ; 
and that, before such territories are admitted into the Union as states, slaves 
may be taken there from any of the United States at the option of the owners. 
I can never consent to give additional power to a majority to commit further 
aggressions upon the minority in this Union ; and will never consent to any 



REMARKS OF MR. KING. 571 

proposition which will have such a tendency, without a full guaranty or coun- 
teracting measure is connected with it." 

Mr. Clay, in reply, said : " I am extremely sorry to hear the senator from 
Mississippi say that he requires, first, the extension of the Missouri compro- 
mise line to the Pacific, and also that he is not satisfied with that, but requires, 
if I understood him correctly, a positive provision for the admission of slavery 
south of that line. And now, sir, coming from a slave state, as I do, I owe it 
to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to state that no earthly 
power could induce me to vote for a specific measure for the introduction of 
slavery where it had not before existed, either south or north of that line. 
Coming as I do from a slave state, it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-ma- 
tured determination that no power — no earthly power — shall compel me to 
vote for the positive introduction of slavery either south or north of that line. 
Sir, while you reproach, and justly, too, our British ancestors for the introduc- 
tion of this institution upon the continent of America, I am, for one, unwilling 
that the posterity of the present inhabitants of California and of New Mexico 
shall reproach us for doing just what we reproach Great Britain for doing to 
us. If the citizens of those territories choose to establish slavery, I am for 
admitting them with such provisions in their constitutions ; but then, it will be 
their own work, and not ours, and their posterity will have to reproach them, 
and not us, for forming constitutions allowing the institution of slavery to ex- 
ist among them. These are my views, sir, and I choose to express them ; and 
I care not how extensively or universally they are known. The honorable sen- 
ator from Virginia has expressed his opinion that slavery exists in these terri- 
tories, and I have no doubt that opinion is sincerely and honorably entertained 
by him ; and I would say with equal sincerity and honesty, that I believe that 
slavery nowhere exists within any portion of the territory acquired by us from 
Mexico. He holds a directly contrary opinion to mine, as he has a perfect 
right to do ; and we will not quarrel about that difference of opinion. " 

Mr. William R. King, of Ala., on the question of slavery in the new terri- 
'tories, said: "With regard to the opinions of honorable senators, respecting 
the operation of the laws of Mexico in our newly-acquired territories, there 
may be, and no doubt is, an honest difference of opinion with regard to that 
matter. Some believe that the municipal institutions of Mexico overrule the 
provisions of our constitution, and prevent us from carrying our slaves there. 
That is a matter which I do not propose to discuss ; it has been discussed at 
length in the debate upon the compromise bill, putting it on the ground of a 
judicial decision. Sir, I know not — nor is it a matter of much importance 
with me — whether that which the honorable senator states to be a fact, and 
which, as has been remarked by the senator from Mississippi, can only be con- 
jectural, be in reality so or not — that slavery never can go there. This is what 
is stated, however. Well, be it so. If slave labor be not profitable there, it 
will not go there ; or, if it go, who will be benefited ? Not the south. They 
will never compel it to go there. We are misunderstood — grossly, I may say — 
by honorable senators, though not intentionally ; but we are contending for a 



572 REMARKS OF MR. BUTLER. 

principle, and a great principle — a principle lying at the very foundation of 
our constitutional rights — involving, as has been remarked, our property ; in 
one word, involving our safety, our honor, all that is dear to us, as American 
freemen. Well, sir, for that principle we will be compelled to contend to the 
utmost, and tc resist aggression at every hazard and at every sacrifice. That 
is the position in which we are placed. We ask no act of congress — as has 
been properly intimated by the senator from Mississippi — to carry slavery any- 
where. Sir, I believe we have as much constitutional power to prohibit slavery 
from going into the territories of the United States, as we have to pass an act 
carrying slavery there. We have no right to do either the one or the other. 
I would as soon vote for the Wilmot proviso as I would vote for any law which 
required that slavery should go into any of the territories." 

Mr. Downs, of Louisiana, said : " I must confess, that in the whole course 
of my life, my astonishment has never been greater than it was when I saw 
this (Mr. Clay's) proposition brought forward as a compromise ; and I rise 
now, sir, not for the purpose of discussing it at all, but to protest most solemn- 
ly against it. I consider this compromise as no compromise at all. What, 
sir, does it grant to the south ? I can see nothing at all. The first resolution 
offered by the honorable senator proposes to admit the state of California with 
a provision prohibiting slavery in territory which embraces all our possessions 
on the Pacific. It is true, there may be a new regulation of the boundary 
hereafter ; but if there were to be such a regulation, why was it not embraced 
in this resolution ? As no boundary is mentioned, we have a right to presume 
that the boundary established by the constitution of California was to be re- 
ceived as the established boundary. What concession, then, is it from the 
north, that we admit a state thus prohibiting slavery, embracing the whole of 
our possessions on the Pacific coast, according to these resolutions ? As to 
the resolution relating to New Mexico and Deseret, if it had simply contained 
the provision that a constitutional government shall be established there, with- 
out any mention of slavery whatever, it would have been well enough. But, 
inasmuch as it is affirmed that slavery does not now exist in these territories, 
does it not absolutely preclude its admission there ? and the resolutions might 
just as well affirm that slavery should be prohibited in these territories. The 
senator from Alabama, if I understood him aright, maintains that the proposi- 
tion is of the same import as the Wilmot proviso ; and, in view of these facts, 
I would ask, is there anything conceded to us of the south ? " 

Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, said : "Perhaps our northern brethern ought 
to understand that all the compromises that have been made, have been by con- 
cessions — acknowledged concessions — on the part of the south. When other 
compromises are proposed, that require new concessions on their part, whilst 
none are exacted on the other, the issue, at least, should be presented for their 
consideration before they come to the decision of their great question. If I 
understand it, the senator from Kentucky's whole proposition of compromise 
is nothing more than this : That California is already disposed of, having 
formed a state constitution, and that territorial governments shall be organized 



REMARKS OF MR. BENTON. 573 

for Deseret and New Mexico, under which, by the operation of laws already 
existing, a slaveholding population could not carry with thern, or own slaves 
there. What is there in the nature of a compromise here, coupled, as it is, 
with the proposition that by the existing laws in the territories, it is almost 
certain that slaveholders cannot, and have no right to go there with their pro- 
perty? What is there in the nature of a compromise here ? I am willing, 
however, to run the risks, and am ready to give to the territories the govern- 
ments they require. I shall always think, that under a constitution giving 
equal rights to all parties, the slaveholding people, as such, can go to these ter- 
ritories, and retain their property there. But, if we adopt this proposition of 
the senator from Kentucky, it is clearly on the basis that slavery shall not go 
there. 

" I do not understand the senator from Mississippi (Mr. Davis) to maintain 
the proposition, that the south asked or desired a law declaring that slavery 
should go there, or that it maintained the policy even that it was the duty of 
congress to pass such a law. We have only asked, and it is the only compro- 
mise to which we will submit, that congress shall withhold the hand of violence 
from the territories. The only way in which this question can be settled is, for 
gentlemen from the north to withdraw all their opposition to the territorial 
governments, and not insist on their slavery prohibition. The Union is then 
safe enough. Why, then, insist on a compromise, when those already made 
are sufficient for the peace of the north and south, if faithfnlly observed ? 
These propositions are in the name of a compromise, when none is necessary." 

Mr. Benton said, "it had been affirmed and denied that slavery had been 
abolished in Mexico. He affirmed its abolition, and read copious extracts 
from the laws and constitution of Mexico, in proof of the affirmation. Slavery 
having been abolished by Mexican law before we acquired the countries, the 
Wilmot proviso in relation to these countries was a thing of nothing — an 
empty provision. He said, also, that African slavery never had existed in 
Mexico in the form in which it existed in the states of this Union ; and that, 
if the Mexican law was now in force in New Mexico and California, no slave- 
holder from the Union would carry a slave thither, except to set him free. 
The policy of this country was to discourage emancipation ; that of Mexico 
had been to promote it. This was shown by numerous quotations of the laws 
of Mexico. Slavery was defined by Spanish law to be 'the condition of a 
man who is the property of another against natural right.' Therefore, not be- 
ing derived from nature, or divine law, but existing only by positive enact- 
ment, it had no countenance from Spanish law. He affirmed these three 
points : 1. Slavery was abolished in California and New Mexico before we got 
them. 2. Even if not abolished, no person would carry a slave to those coun- 
tries to be held under such law. 3. Slavery could not exist there, except by 
positive law yet to be passed. According to this exposition, the proviso 
would have no more effect there than a piece of blank paper pasted on the 
statute book." 

Mr. Calhoun said " the Union was in danger. The cause of this danger 



574 REMARKS OF MR. CALHOUN. 

was the discontent at the south. And what was the cause of this discontent ? 
It was found in the belief which prevailed among them that they could not, 
consistently with honor and safety, remain in the Union. And what had 
caused this belief ? One of the causes was the long-continued agitation of 
the slave question at the north, and the many aggressions they had made on 
the rights of the south. But the primary cause was in the fact, that the equi- 
librium between the two sections at the time of the adoption of the constitu- 
tion had been destroyed. The first of the series of acts by which this had 
been done, was the ordinance of 17S7, by which the south had been excluded 
from all the northwestern region. The next was the Missouri compromise, 
excluding them from all the Louisiana territory north of 36 degrees 30 min- 
utes, except the state of Missouri ; in all 1,238,025 square miles, leaving to 
the south the southern portion of the original Louisiana territory, with Flor- 
ida ; to which had since been added the territory acquired with Texas; ma- 
king in all but 609,023 miles. And now the north was endeavoring to appro- 
priate to herself the territory recently acquired from Mexico, adding 526,078 
miles to the territory from which the south was if possible to be excluded. 
Another cause of the destruction of this equilibrium was our system of revenue, 
(the tariff,) the duties falling mainly upon the southern portion of the Union, 
as being the greatest exporting states, while more than a due proportion of the 
revenue had been disbursed at the north. 

But while these measures were destroying the equilibrium between the two 
sections, the action of the government was leading to a radical change in its 
character. It was maintained that the government itself had the right to de- 
cide, in the last resort, as to the extent of its powers, and to resort to force to 
maintain the power it claimed. The doctrines of General Jackson's proclama- 
tion, subsequently asserted and maintained by Mr. Madison, the leading fra- 
mer and expounder of the constitution, were the doctrines which, if carried 
out, would change the character of the government from a federal republic, as 
it came from the hands of its framers, into a great national consolidated de- 
mocracy. 

Mr. Calhoun also spoke of the anti-slavery agitation, which, if not arrested, 
would destroy the Union ; and he passed a censure upon congress for receiving 
abolition petitions. Had congress in the beginning adopted the course which 
he had advocated, which was to refuse to take jurisdiction, by the united voice 
of all parties, the agitation would have been prevented. He charged the north 
with false professions of devotion to the Union, and with haviug violated the 
constitution. Acts had been passed in northern states to set aside and annul 
the clause of the constitution which provides for delivering up fugitive slaves. 
The agitation of the slavery question, with the avowed purpose of abolishing 
slavery in the states, was another violation of the constitution. And during 
the fifteen years of this agitation, in not a single instance had the people of 
the north denounced these agitators. How then could their professions of de- 
votion to the Union be sincere ? 

Mr. Calhoun disapproved both the plan of Mr. Clay and that of President 



REMARKS OF MR. WEBSTER. 575 

Taylor, as incapable of saving the Union. He would pass by the former with- 
out remark, as Mr. Clay had been replied to by several senators. The execu- 
tive plan could not save the Union, because it could not satisfy the south that 
it could safely or honorably remain in the Union. It was a modification of the 
Wilmot proviso, proposing to effect the same object, the exclusion of the south 
from the new territory. The executive proviso was more objectionable than 
the Wilmot. Both inflicted a dangerous wound upon the constitution, by de- 
priving the southern states of equal rights, as joint partners, in these territo- 
ries ; but the formerinflicted others equally great. It claimed for the inhabit- 
ants the right to legislate for the territories, which belonged to congress. The 
assumption of this right was utterly unfounded, unconstitutional, and without 
example. Under this assumed right, the people of California had formed a 
constitution and a state government, and appointed senators and representa- 
tives. If the people as adventurers had conquered the territory and estab- 
lished their independence, the sovereignty of the country would have been 
vested in them. In that case, they would have had the right to form a state 
government ; and afterward they might have applied to congress for admission 
into the Union. But the United States had conquered and acquired Califor- 
nia ; therefore, to them belonged the sovereignty, and the powers of govern- 
ment over the territory. Michigan was the first case of departure from the 
uniform rule of acting. Hers, however, was a slight departure from establish- 
ed usage. The ordinance of 1781 secured to her the right of becoming a state 
when she should have 60,000 inhabitants. Congress delayed taking the cen- 
sus. The people became impatient ; and after her population had increased 
to twice that number, they formed a constitution without waiting for the 
taking of the census ; and congress waived the omission, as there was no 
doubt of the requisite number of inhabitants. In other cases there had existed 
territorial governments. 

Having shown how the Union could not be saved, he then proceeded to an- 
swer the question how it could be saved. There was but one way certain. 
Justice must be done to the south, by a full and final settlement of all the 
questions at issue. The north must concede to the south an equal right to the 
acquired territory, and fulfill the stipulations respecting fugitive slaves ; must 
cease to agitate the slave question, and join in an amendment of the constitu- 
tion, restoring to the south the power she possessed of protecting herself, be- 
fore the equilibrium between the two sections had been destroyed by the action 
of the government." 

Mr. Webster, on the 7th of March, spoke at length on the resolutions of 
Mr. Clay, and in reply to Mr. Calhoun. In the course of his history of the 
slave question iu this country, he remarked, " that a change had taken place 
since the adoption of the constitution. Both sections then held slavery to be 
equally an evil, moral and political. It was inhuman and cruel ; it weakened 
the social fabric, and rendered labor less productive. The eminent men of the 
south then held it to be an evil, a blight, a scourge, and a curse. The framers 
of the constitution, in considering how to deal with it, concluded that it could 



576 REMARKS OF MR. WEBSTER. 

not be continued if the importation of slaves should cease. The prohibition 
of the importation after twenty years was proposed : a term which some south- 
ern gentlemen, Mr. Madison for one, thought too long. The word 'slaves' 
was not allowed in the constitution ; Mr. Madison was opposed to it ; he did 
not wish to see it recognized in that instrument, that there could be property 
in men. The ordinance of H87 also received the unanimous support of the 
south ; a measure which Mr. Calhoun had said was the first in a series of 
measures which had enfeebled that section. 

Soon after this, the age of cotton came. The south wanted land for its 
cultivation. Mr. Calhoun had observed that there had always been a majority 
in favor of the north. If so, the north had acted very liberally or very weak- 
ly ; for they had seldom exercised their power. The truth was, the general 
lead in politics for three-fourths of the time had been southern lead. In 1802, 
a great cotton region, now embracing all Alabama, had been obtained from 
Georgia by the general government. In 1803, Louisiana was purchased, out 
of which several large slaveholding states had been formed. In 1819, Florida 
•was ceded, which also had come in as slave territory. And lastly, Texas — great, 
vast, illimitable Texas — had been admitted as a slave state. In this, the sen- 
ator himself, as secretary of state, and the late secretary of the treasury, then 
senator, had taken the lead. They had done their work thoroughly ; having 
procured a stipulation for four new states to be formed out of that state ; and 
all south of the line 36° 30' might be admitted with slavery. Even New. 
England had aided in this measure. Three-fourths of liberty-loving Connec- 
ticut in the other house, and one-half in this, had supported it. And it had 
one vote from each of the states of Massachusetts and Maine. 

Mr. Webster said he had repeatedly expressed the dertermination to vote 
for no acquisition, or cession, or annexation, believing we had territory enough. 
But Texas was now in with all her territories, as a slave state, with a pledge 
that, if divided into many states, those south of 36° 30' might come in as 
slaves states ; and he, for one, meant to fulfill the obligation. As to Califor- 
nia and New Mexico, he held that slavery was effectually excluded from those 
territories by a law even superior to that which admits and sanctions it in 
Texas — he meant the law of nature. The physical geography of the country 
would forever exclude African slavery there ; and it needed not the application 
of a proviso. If the question was now before the senate, he would not vote 
to add a prohibition — to reaffirm an ordinance of nature, nor reenact the will 
of God If they were making a government for New Mexico, and a "Wilmot 
proviso were proposed, he would treat it as Mr. Polk had treated it in the 
Oregon bill. Mr Polk was opposed to it ; but some government was neces- 
sary, and he signed the bill, knowing that the proviso was entirely nugatory. 

Both the north and the south had grievances. The south justly complain- 
ed that individuals and legislatures of the north refused to perform their con- 
stitutional duties in regard to returning fugitive slaves. Members of the north- 
ern legislatures were bound by oath to support the constitution of the United 
States ; and the clause requiring the delivery of fugitive slaves was as binding 



REMARKS OF MR. WEBSTER. 577 

as any other. Complaints bad also been made against certain resolutions em- 
anating from legislatures at the north on the subject of slavery in the district, 
and sometimes even in regard to its abolition in the states. Abolition societies 
were another subject of complaint. These societies had done nothing useful ; 
but they had produced mischief by their interference with the south. He re- 
1 ferred to the debate in the Virginia legislature in 1832, when the subject of 
gradual abolition was freely discussed. But since the agitation of this ques- 
tion, the bonds of the slave had been more firmly riveted. Again, the violence 
of the press was complained of. But wherever the freedom of the press ex- 
isted, there always would be foolish and violent paragraphs, as there were 
foolish and violent speeches in both houses of congress. He thought, however, 
the north had cause for the same complaint of the south. But of these griev- 
ances of the south, one only was within the redress of the government ; that 
was the want of proper regard to the constitutional injunction for the delivery 
of fugitive slaves. 

The north complained of the south, that, when the former, in adopting the 
constitution, recognized the right of representation of the slaves, it was under 
a state of sentiment different from that which now existed. It was generally 
hoped and believed, that the institution would be gradually extinguished ; 
instead of which, it was now to be cherished, and preserved, and extended ; 
and for this purpose, the south was constantly demanding new territory. A 
southern senator had said that the condition of the slaves was preferable to 
that of the laboring population of the north. Said Mr. Webster : Who are 
the north ? Five-sixths of the whole property of the north is in the hands of 
laborers, who cultivate their own farms, educate their children, and provide 
the means of independence. Those who were not freeholders, earned wages, 
which, as they were accumulated, were turned into capital. 

Another grievance at the north was, that their free colored citizens em- 
ployed on vessels arriving at southern ports, were taken on shore by the muni- 
cipal authorities, and imprisoned till the vessel was ready to sail. This was 
inconvenient in practice ; and was deemed unjustifiable, oppressive, and uncon- 
stitutional. It was a great grievance. So far as these grievances had their 
foundation iu matters of law, they could and ought to be redressed ; and so 
far as they rested in matters of opinion, in mutual crimination and recrimina- 
tion, we could only endeavor to allay the agitation, and cultivate a better feel- 
ing between the south and the north. 

Mr. W ebster expressed great pain at hearing secession spoken of as a pos- 
sible event. Said he : Secession ! Peaceable secession 1 Sir, your eyes and 
mine are never destined to see that miracle. Who is so foolish — I beg every 
body's pardon — as to expect to see any such thing ? There could be no such 
thing as peaceable secession — a concurrent agreement of the members of this 
great republic to separate ? Where is the line to be drawn ? What states 
are to secede ? Where is the flag of the republic to remain ? What is to 
become of the army ? — of the navy ? — of the public lands ? How is each of 
the states to defend itself ? To break up this great government 1 to dismeni- 



578 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

ber this great country I to astonish Europe with an act of folly, such as 
Europe for two centuries has never beheld in any government ! No, sir ! no, 
sir ! There will be no secession. Gentlemen are not serious when they talk 
of secession." 

Mr. Clay's resolutions, and also those submitted by Mr. Cell, were referred 
on the 19th of April to a select committee of thirteen. The members of the 
committee were elected by ballot : Henry Clay, chairman, Bell, Berrien, 
Downs, King, Manguui and Mason, from slave states ; Cass, Webster, Dickin- 
son, Phelps, Cooper and Bright, from free states. On the 8th of May, Mr. 
Clay, from the committee, made the following report: 

"The senate's committee of thirteen, to whom were referred various resolu- 
tions relating to California, to other portions of the territory recently acquired 
by the United States from the republic of Mexico, and to other subjects con- 
nected with the institution of slavery, have, according to order, had these reso- 
lutions and subjects under consideration, and beg leave to submit the following 
report : The committee entered on the discharge of their duties with a deep 
sense of their great importance, and with earnest and anxious solicitude to ar- 
rive at such conclusions as might be satisfactory to the senate and to the coun- 
try. Most of the matters referred have not only been subjected to extensive 
and serious public discussions throughout the country, but to a debate in the 
senate itself, singular for its elaborateness and its duration ; so that a full ex- 
position of all those motives and views which, on several subjects confided to 
the committee, have determined the conclusions at which they have arrived, 
seems quite unnecessary. They will, therefore, restrict themselves to a few 
general observations, and to some reflections which grow out of those subjects. 

" Out of our receut territorial acquisitions, and in connection with the insti- 
tution of slavery, questions most grave sprung, which, greatly dividing and 
agitating the people of the United States, have threatened to disturb the har- 
mony, if not to endanger the safety of the Union. The committee believe it 
to be highly desirable and necessary speedily to adjust all those questions, in a 
spirit of concord, and in a manner to produce, if practicable, general satisfac- 
tion. They think it would be unwise to leave any of them open and unsettled, 
to fester in the public mind, and to prolong, if not aggravate, the existing agi- 
tation. It has been their object, therefore, in this report, to make such propo- 
sals and recommendations as would accomplish a general adjustment of all 
these questions. 

"Among the subjects referred to the committee which command their first at- 
tention, are the resolutions offered to the senate by the senator from Tennessee, 
Mr. Bell. By a provision in the resolution of congress anuexing Texas to the 
United States, it is declared that 'new states of convenient size, not exceeding 
four in number, by the consent of said state, be formed out of the territory 
thereof, which shall be entitled to admissioyi, under the provisions of the fede- 
ral constitution ; and such states as may be formed out of that portion of said 
territory lying south of 36° 30' north latitude, commonly known as the Mis- 



EEPORT OF COMMITTEE. 57*3 

souri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without sla- 
very, as the people of each state asking admission may desire.' 

" The committee were unanimously of opinion, that whenever one or more 
states, formed out of the territory of Texas, not exceeding four, having suffi- 
cient population, with the consent of Texas, may apply to be admitted into the 
Union, they are entitled to such admission, beyond all doubt, upon the clear, 
unambiguous, and absolute terms of the solemn compact contained in the reso- 
lution of annexation adopted by congress, and assented to by Texas. But, 
whilst the committee conceive that the right of admission into the Union of any 
new state, carved out of the territory of Texas, not exceeding the number 
specified, and under the conditions stated, cannot be justly controverted, ihe 
committee do not think that the formation of any new states should now origi- 
nate with congress. The initiative, in conformity with the usage which has 
hitherto prevailed, should be taken by a portion of the people of Texas them- 
selves, desirous of constituting a new state, with the consent of Texas. Aud 
in the formation of such new states, it will be for the people composing it to 
decide for themslves whether they will admit, or whether they will exclude sla- 
very. And however they may decide that purely municipal question, congress 
is bound to acquiesce, and to fulfill in good faith the stipulations of the com- 
pact with Texas. The committee are aware that it has been contended that 
the resolution of congress annexing Texas was unconstitutional. At a former 
epoch of our country's history, there were those (and Mr. Jefferson, under 
whose auspices the treaty of Louisiana was concluded, was among them,) who 
believed that the states formed out of Louisiana could not be received into the 
Union without an amendment of the constitution. But the state of Louisiana, 
Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa have been all, nevertheless, admitteed. And 
who would now think of opposing Minnesota, Oregon, or new states formed 
out of the ancient province of Louisiana, upon the ground of an alleged original 
defect of constitutional power ? In grave national transactions, while yet in 
their earlier or incipent stages, differences may well exist ; but when once they 
have been decided by a constitutional majority, and are consummated, or in a 
process of consummation, there can be no other safe and prudent alternative 
than to respect the decision already rendered, and to acquiesce in it. Enter- 
taining these views, a majority of the committee do not think it necessary or 
proper to recommend, at this time, or prospectively, any new state or states to 
be formed out of the territory of Texas. Should any such state be hereafter 
formed, and present itself for admission into the Union, whether with or with- 
out the establishment of slavery, it cannot be doubted that congress will admit 
it, under the influence of similar considerations, in regard to new states formed 
of or out of New Mexico and Utah, with or without the institution of slavery, 
according to the constitutions and judgment of the people who compose them, 
as to what may be best to promote their happiness. 

" In considering the question of the admission of California as a state into 
the Union, a majority of the committee conceive that any irregularity, by which 
that state was organized without the previous authority of any act of congress, 



580 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

ought to be overlooked, in consideration of the omission by congress to estab- 
lish any territorial government for the people of California, and the consequent 
necessity which they were under to create a government for themselves, best 
adapted to their own wants. There are various instances, prior to the case of 
California, of the admission of new states into the Union without any previous 
authorization by congress. The sole condition required by the constitution of 
the United States, in respect to the admission of a new state, is, that its con- 
stitution shall be republican in form. California presents such a constitution ; 
and there is no doubt of her having a greater population than that which, ac- 
cording to the practice of the government, has been heretofore deemed suffi- 
cient to receive a new state into the Union. 

" In regard to the proposed boundaries of California, the committee would 
have been glad if there existed more full and accurate geographical knowledge 
of the territory which these boundaries include. There is reason to believe 
that, large as they are, they embrace no very disproportionate quantity of land 
adapted to cultivation. And it is known that they contain extensive ranges 
of mountains, deserts of sand, and much unproductive soil. It might have 
been, perhaps, better to have assigned to California a more limited front on the 
Pacific ; but even if there had been reserved, on the shore of that ocean, a por- 
tion of the boundary which it presents, for any other state or states, it is not 
very certain that an accessible interior of sufficient extent could have been giv- 
en to them to render an approach to the ocean, through their own limits, of 
very great importance. 

" A majority of the committee think that there are many and urgent concur- 
ring considerations in favor of admitting California, with the proposed boun- 
daries, and of securing to her at this time the benefits of a state government. 
If, hereafter, upon an increase of her population, a more thorough exploration 
of her territory, and an ascertainment of the relations which may arise between 
the people occupying its various parts, it should be found conducive to their 
convenience and happiness to form a new state out of California, we have every 
reason to believe, from past experience, that the question of its admission will 
be fairly considered and justly decided. 

"A majority of the committee, therefore, recommend to the senate the pass- 
age of the bill reported by the committee on territories, for the admission of 
California as a state into the Union. To prevent misconception, the commit- 
tee also recommend that the amendment reported by the same committee to the 
bill be adopted, so as to leave incontestable the right of the United States 
to the public domain and other public property of California. 

"Whilst a majority of the committee believe it to be necessary and proper, 
under actual circumstances, to admit California, they think it quite as necessary 
and proper to establish governments for the residue of the territory derived 
from Mexico, and to bring it within tho pale of the federal authority. The 
remoteness of that territory from the seat of the general government ; the dis- 
persed state of its population ; the variety of races — pure and mixed — of which 
it consists ; the ignorance of some of the races of our laws, language, and 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 581 

habits ; their exposure to inroads and wars of savage tribes ; and the solemn 
stipulations of the treaty by which we acquired dominion over them— impose 
upon the United States the imperative obligation of extending to them pro- 
tection, and of providing for them government and laws suited to their condi- 
tion. Congress will fail in the performance of a high duty, if it do not give, 
or attempt to give to them, the benefit of such protection, government, and 
laws. They are not now, and for a long time to come may not be, prepared 
for state government. The territorial form, for the present, is best suited to 
their condition. A bill has been reported by the committee on territories, di- 
viding all the territory acquired from Mexico, not comprehended within the 
limits of California, into two territories, under the names of New Mexico and 
Utah, and proposing for each a territorial government. 

" The committee recommend to the senate the establishment of those terri- 
torial governments ; and, in order more certainly to secure that desirable ob- 
ject, they also recommend that the bill for their establishment be incorporated 
in the bill for the admission of California, and that, united together, they both 
be passed. 

" The combination of the two measures in the same bill is objected to on vari- 
ous grounds. It is said that they are incongruous, and have no necessary con- 
nection with each other. A majority of the committee think otherwise. The 
object of both measures is the establishment of a government suited to the con- 
ditions, respectively, of the proposed new state and of the new territories. 
Prior to their transfer to the United States, they both formed a part of Mex- 
ico, where they stood in equal relations to the government of that republic. 
They were both ceded to the United States by the same treaty. And, in the 
same article of that treaty, the United States engaged to protect and govern 
both. Common in their origin, common in their alienation from one foreign 
government to another, common in their wants of good government, and con- 
terminous in some of their boundaries, and alike in many particulars of physi- 
cal condition, they have nearly every thing in common in the relation in which 
they stand to the rest of the Union. There is, then, a general fitness aud pro- 
priety in extending the parental care of government to both in common. If 
California, by a sudden and extraordinary augmentation of population, has ad- 
vanced so rapidly as to mature for herself a state government, that furnishes 
no reason why the less fortunate territories of New Mexico and Utah should 
be abandoned and left ungoverned by the United States, or should be discon- 
nected with California, which, although she has organized for herself a state 
government, must, legally and constitutionally, be regarded as a territory until 
she is actually admitted as a state into the Union. 

" It is further objected that, by combining the two measures in the same bill, 
members who may be willing to vote for one, and unwilling to vote for the 
other, would be placed in an embarrassing condition. They would be con- 
strained, it is urged, to take or reject both. On the other hand, there are other 
members who would be willing to vote for both united, but would feel them- 
selves constrained to vote against the California bill if it stood alone. Each 



582 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

party finds in the bill which it favors something which commends it to accept- 
ance, and in the other something which it disapproves. The true ground, 
therefore, of the objection to the union of the measures is not any want of af- 
finity between them, but because of the favor or disfavor, with which they are 
respectively regarded. In this conflict of opinion, it seems to a majority of 
the committee that a spirit of mutual concession enjoins that the two meas- 
ures should be connected together — the effect o/ which will be, that neither 
opinion will exclusively triumph, and that both may find, in such an amicable 
arrangement, enough of good to reconcile them to the acceptance of the com- 
bined measure. And such a course of legislation is not at all unusual. Few 
laws have ever passed in which there were not parts to which exception was 
taken. It is inexpedient, if not impracticable, to separate these parts, and em- 
body them in distinct bills, so as to accommodate the diversity of opinion which 
may exist. The constitution of the United States contained in it a great va- 
riety of provisions, to some of which serious objection was made in the con- 
vention which formed it, by different members of that body ; and, when it was 
submitted to the ratification of the states, some of them objected to some 
parts, and others to other parts, of the same instrument. Had these various 
parts and provisions been separately acted on in the convention, or separately 
submitted to the people of the Uuited States, it is by no means certain that 
the constitution itself would ever have been adopted or ratified. Those who 
did not like particular provisions found compensation in other parts of it, And 
in all cases of constitution and laws, when either is presented as a whole, the 
question to be decided is, whether the good which it contains is not of greater 
amount, and capable of neutralizing anything objectionable in it. And, as 
nothing human is perfect, for the sake of that harmony so desirable in such a 
confederacy as this, we must be reconciled to secure as much as we can of what 
we wish, and be consoled by the reflection that what we do not exactly like is 
a friendly concession, and agreeable to those who, being united with us in a 
common destiny, it is desirable should always live with us in peace and con- 
cord. 

" A majority of the committee have, therefore, been led to the recommenda- 
tion to the senate that the two measures be united. The bill for establishing 
the two territories, it will be observed, omits the Wilmot proviso on the one 
hand, and, on the other, makes no provision for the introduction of slavery into 
any part of the new territories. 

" That proviso has been the fruitful source of distraction and agitation. If 
it were adopted and applied to any territory, it would cease to have any obli- 
gatory force as soon as such territory were admitted as a state into the Union. 
There was never any occasion for it to accomplish the professed object with 
which it was originally offered. This has been clearly demonstrated by the 
current of events. California, of all the recent territorial acquisitions from 
Mexico, was that in which, if anywhere within them, the introduction of slavery 
was most likely to take place ; and the constitution of California, by the unan- 
imous vote of her convention, has expressly interdicted it. There is the high- 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 583 

est degree of probability that Utah and New Mexico will, when they come to 
be admitted as states, follow the example. The proviso is, as to all those re- 
gions in common, a mere abstraction. Why should it be any longer insisted 
on ? Totally destitute as it is of any practical import, it has, nevertheless, 
had the pernicious effect to excite serious, if not alarming consequences. It 
is high time that the wounds which it has inflicted should be healed up and 
closed. And, to avoid, in all future time, the agitations which must be pro- 
duced by the conflict of opinion on the slavery question, existing as this insti- 
tution does in some of the states, and prohibited as it is in others, the true 
principle which ought to regulate the action of congress in forming territorial 
governments for each newly-acquired domain, is to refrain from all legislation 
on the subject in the territory acquired, so long as it retains the territorial 
form of government — leaving it to the people of such territory, when they have 
attained to the condition .which entitles them to admission as a state, to decide 
for themselves the question of the allowance or prohibition of domestic slav- 
ery. The committee believe that they express the anxious desire of an im- 
mense majority of the people of the United States, when they declare that it 
is high time that good feeling, harmony, and fraternal sentiment should be 
again revived, and that the government should be able once more to proceed 
in its great operations to promote the happiness and prosperity of the country, 
undisturbed by this distracting cause. 

" As for California — far from seeing her sensibility affected by her being as- 
sociated with other kindred measures — she ought to rejoice and be highly grat- 
ified that, in entering into the Union, she may have contributed to the tran- 
quility and happiness of the great family of states, of which, it is to be hoped, 
she may one day be a distinguished member. 

" The committee beg leave next to report on the subject of the northern and 
western boundary of Texas. On that question a great diversity of opinion 
has prevailed. According to one view of it, the western limit of Texas was 
the Nueces ; according to another, it extended to the Rio Grande, and stretch- 
ed from its mouth to its source. A majority of the committee having come to 
the conclusion of recommending an amicable adjustment of the boundary with 
Texas, abstain from expressing any opinion as to the true and legitimate west- 
ern and northern boundary of that state. The terms proposed for such an ad- 
justment are contained in the bill herewith reported, and they are, with incon- 
siderable variation, the same as that reported by the committee on territories. 

" According to these terms, it is proposed to Texas that her boundary be 
recognized to the Rio Grande, and up that river to the point commonly called 
El Paso, and thence running up that river twenty miles, measured thereon by 
a straight line, and thence eastwardly to a point where the hundredth degree 
of west longitude crosses Red River; being the southwest angle in the line 
designated between the United States and Mexico, and the same angle in the 
line of the territory set apart for the Indians by the United States. 

" If this boundary be assented to by Texas, she will be quieted to that ex- 
tent in her title. And some may suppose that, in consideration of this conces- 



584 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

sion by the United States, she might, without any other equivalent, relinquish 
any claim she has beyond the proposed boundary ; that is, any claim to any 
part of New Mexico. But, under the influence of sentiments of justice and 
great liberality, the bill proposes to Texas, for her relinquishment of any such 
claim, a large pecuniary equivalent. As a consideration for it, and consider- 
ing that a portion of the debt of Texas was created on a pledge to her credi- 
tors of the duties on foreign imports, transferred by the resolution of annexa- 
tion to the United States, and now received and receivable in her treasury, a 

majority of the committee recommend the payment of the sum of ■ millons 

of dollars to Texas, to be applied in the first instance to the extinction of that 
portion of her debt for the reimbursement of which the duties on foreign im- 
ports were pledged as aforesaid, and the residue in such manner as she may di- 
rect. The sum is to be paid by the United States, in a stock, to be created, 
bearing five per cent, interest annually, payable half-yearly, at the treasury of 
the United States, and the principal reimbursable at the end of fourteen years. 

"According to an estimate which has been made, there are included in the 
territory to which it is proposed that Texas shall relinquish her claim, embrac- 
ing that part of New Mexico lying east of the Rio Grande, a little less than 
124,933 square miles, and about 79,957,120 acres of land. From the pro- 
ceeds of the sale of this land, the United States may ultimately be reimbursed 
a portion, if not the whole, of the amount of what is thus proposed to be ad- 
vanced to Texas. 

" It cannot be anticipated that Texas will decline to accede to these liberal 
propositions ; but if she should, it is to be distinctly understood that the title 
of the United States to any territory acquired from Mexico, east of the Rio 
Grande, will remain unimpared, and in the same condition as if the proposals of 
adjustment now offered had never been made. 

" A majority of the committee recommend to the senate that the section con- 
taining these proposals to Texas shall be incorporated into the bill embracing 
the admission of California as a state, and the establishment of territorial gov- 
ernments for Utah and New Mexico. The definition and establishment of the 
boundary between New Mexico and Texas have an intimate and necessary con- 
nection with the establishment of a territorial government for New Mexico. 
To form a territorial government for New Mexico, without prescribing the lim- 
its of the territory, would leave the work imperfect and incomplete, and might 
expose New Mexico to serious controversy, if not dangerous collisions, with 
the state of Texas. And most, if not all, of the considerations which unite in 
favor of combining the bill for the admission of California as a state and the 
territorial bills, apply to the boundary question of Texas. By the union of 
the three measures, every question of difficulty and division which has arisen 
out of the territorial acquisition from Mexico, will, it is hoped, be adjusted, or 
placed in a train of satisfactory adjustment. The committee, availing them- 
selves of the arduous and valuable labors of the committee on territories, report 
a bill, herewith annexed, (marked A,) embracing those three measures, the 
passage of which, uniting them together, they recommend to the senate. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 585 

"The committee will now proceed to the consideration of, and to report upon 
the subject of persons owing service or labor in one state escaping into anoth- 
er. The text of the constitution is quite clear : " No person held to labor or 
service in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in 
consequence of any law or regulation threin, be discharged from such service 
or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such 
service or labor is due." Nothing can be more explicit than this language; 
nothing more manifest than the right to demand, and the obligation to deliver 
up to the claimant, any such fugitive. And the constitution addresses itself 
alike to the states composing the Union and to the general government. If, 
indeed, there were any difference in the duty to enforce this portion of the con- 
stitution between the states and the federal government, it is more clear that 
it is that of the former than of the latter. But it is the duty of both. It i3 
well known and incontestable that citizens of slaveholding states encounter the 
greatest difficulty in obtaining the benefit of this provision of the constitution. 

" The attempt to recapture a fugitive is almost always the subject of great 
irritation and excitement, and often leads to most unpleasant, if not perilous 
collisions. An owner of a slave, it is quite notorious, cannot pursue his prop- 
erty, for the purpose of its recovery, in some of the states, without iminent 
personal hazard. This is a deplorable state of things, which ought to be re- 
medied. The law of 1193 has been found wholly ineffectual, and requires 
more striugent enactments. There is especially a deficiency in the number of 
public functionaries authorized to afford aid in the seizure and arrest of fugi- 
tives. Various states have declined to afford aid and cooperation in the sur- 
render of fugitives from labor, as the committee believe, from a misconception 
of their duty, arising under the constitution of the United States. It is true 
that a decision of the supreme court of the United States has given counten- 
ance to them in witholding their assistance. But the committee cannot but 
believe that the intention of the supreme court has been misunderstood. They 
cannot but think that that court merely meant that laws of the several states, 
which created obstacles in the way of the recovery of fugitives, were not au- 
thorized by the constitution, and not that the state laws affording facilities in 
the recovery of fugitives were forbidden by that instrument. The non-slave- 
holding states, whatever sympathies any of their citizens may feel for persons 
who escape from other states, cannot discharge themselves from an obligation 
to enforce the constitution of the United States. All parts of the instrument 
being dependent upon, and connected with each other, ought to be fairly and 
justly enforced. If some states may seek to exonerate themselves from one 
portion of the constitution, other states may endeavor to evade the perform- 
ance of the other portions of it ; and thus the instrument, in some of the most 
importaut provisions, might become inoperative and invalid. 

"But, whatever may be the conduct of individual states, the duty of the 

general government is perfectly clear. That duty is, to amend the existing law, 

and provide an effectual remedy for the recovery of fugitives from service or 

labor. In devising such a remedy, congress ought, whilst, on the one hand, se- 

38 



586 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

curing to the owner the fair restoration of his property, effectually to guard, 
on the other, against any abuses in the application of that remedy. 

" In all cases of arrest, within a state, of persons charged with offenses ; in 
all cases of the pursuit of fugitives from justice from one state to another state; 
in all cases of extradition, provided for by treaties between foreign powers, 
the proceeding uniformly is summary. It has never been thought necessary to 
apply, in cases of that kind, the form and ceremonies of a final trial. And, 
when that trial does take place, it is in the state or country from which the 
party has fled, and not in that in which he has found refuge. By the express 
language of the constitution, whether the fugitive is held to service or labor, 
or not, is to be determined by the laws of the state from which he fled ; and, 
consequently, it is most proper that the tribunals of that state should expound 
and administer its own laws. If there have been any instances of abuse in the 
erroneous arrest of fugitives from service or labor, the committee have not ob- 
tained knowledge of them. They believe that none have occurred, and that 
such are not likely to occur. But, in order to guard against the possibility of 
their occurrence, the committee have prepared, and herewith report a section, 
(marked B,) to be offered to the fugitive bill now before the senate. Accord- 
ing to this section, the owner of a fugitive from service or labor is, when 
practicable, to carry with him to the state in which the person is found a record 
from a competent tribunal, adjudicating the fact of elopement and slavery, with 
a general description of the fugitive. This record, properly attested and cer- 
tified under the official seal of the court, being taken to the state where the 
person owing service or labor is found, is to be held competent and sufficient 
evidence of the facts which had been adjudicated, and will leave nothing more 
to be done than to identify the fugitive. 

" Numerous petitions have been presented praying for a trial by jury, in the 
oase of arrest of fugitives from service or labor in the non-slaveholding states. 
It has been already shown that this would be entirely contrary to practice and 
uniform usage in all similar cases. Under the name of a popular and cherish- 
ed institution — an institution, however, never applied in cases of preliminary 
proceeding, and only in cases of final trial — there would be a complete mockery 
of justice, so far as the owner of the fugitive is concerned. If the trial by jury 
be admitted, it would draw after it its usual consequences ; of continuance 
from time to time, to bring evidence from distant places ; of second or new 
trials, in cases where the jury is hung, or the verdict set aside ; and of revi- 
sals of the verdict and conduct of the juries by competent tribunals. During 
the progress of all these dilatory and expensive proceedings, what security is 
there as to the custody and forthcoming of the fugitive upon their termination? 
And if, finally, the claimant should be successful, contrary to what happens in 
ordinary litigation between free persons, he would have to bear all the burdens 
and expenses of the litigation, without indemnity, and would learn, by sad ex- 
perience, that he had by far better abandoned his right in the first instance, 
than to establish it at such unremunerated cost and heavy sacrifice. 

" But, whilst the committee conceive that a trial by jury in a state where a 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 587 

fugitive from service or labor is recaptured, would be a virtual denial of justice 
to the claimant of such fugitive, and would be tantamount to a positive refusal 
to execute the provision of the constitution, the same objections do net apply 
to such a trial in the state from which he fled. In the slaveholding states, full 
justice is administered, with entire fairness and impartiality, in cases of all ac- 
tions for freedom. The person claiming his freedom is allowed to sue in for- 
ma pauperis ; counsel is assigned him ; time is allowed him to collect his wit- 
nesses and to attend the sessions of the court ; and his claimant is placed un- 
der bond and security, or is divested of the possession during the progress of 
the trial, to insure the enjoyment of these privileges ; and, if there be any 
leaning on the part of courts and juries, it is always to the side of the claim- 
ant for freedom. 

"In deference to the feelings and prejudices which prevail in non-slavehokling 
states, the committee propose such a trial in the state from which the fugitive 
fled, in all cases where he declares to the officer giving the certificate for his re- 
turn that he has a right to his freedom. Accordingly, the committee have 
prepared, and report herewith, (marked C,) two sections which they recom- 
mend should be incorporated in the fugitive bill, pending in the senate. Ac- 
cording to these sections, the claimant is placed under bond, and required to 
return the fugitive to that county in the state from which he fled, and there to 
take him before a competent tribunal, and allow him to assert and establish his 
freedom, if he can, affording to him for that purpose all needful facilities. 

"The committee indulge the hope that if the fugitive bill, with the proposed 
amendments, shall be passed by congress, it will be effectual to secure the re- 
covery of all fugitives from service or labor, and it will remove all causes of 
complaint which have hitherto been experienced on that irritating subject. 
But if, in its practical operation, it shall be found insufficient, and if no ade- 
quate remedy can be devised for the restoration to their owners of fugitive 
slaves, those owners shall have a just title to indemnity out of the treasury of 
the United States. 

"It remains to report upon the resolutions in relation to slavery and the 
slave-trade in the District of Columbia. Without discussing the power of 
congress to abolish slavery within the district, in regard to which a diversity 
of opinion exists, the committee are of opinion that it ought not to be abolish- 
ed. It could not be done without indispensable conditions which are not likely 
to be agreed to. It could not be done without exciting great apprehension 
and alarm in the slave states. If the power were exercised within this district, 
they would apprehend that, under some pretext or another, it might hereafter 
be attempted to be exercised within the slaveholding states. It is true that, at 
present, all such power within those states is almost unauimouslydisavowed and 
disclaimed in the free states. But experience in public affairs has too often 
shown that where there is a desire to do a particular thing, the power to ac- 
complish it, sooner or later, will be found or assumed. 

" Nor does the number of slaves within the district make the abolition of 
slavery an object of any such consequence as appears to be attached to it in 



588 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

some parts of the Union. Since the retrocession of Alexandria county to 
Virginia, on the south side of the Potomac, the district now consists only of 
Washington county, on the north side of that river; and the returns of the 
decenary enumeration of the people of the United States show a rapidly pro- 
gressing decrease in the number of slaves in Washington county. According 
to the census of 1830, the number was 4,505 ; and in 1840 it was reduced 
to 3,320 ; showing a reduction in ten years of nearly one-third. If it should 
continue in the same ratio, the number, according to the census now about to 
be taken, will be only a little upward of two thousand. 

"But a majority of the committee think differently in regard to the slave 
trade within the district. By that trade is meant the introduction of slaves 
from adjacent states into the district, for sale, or to be placed in depot for the 
purpose of subsequent sale or transportation to other and distant markets. 
That trade, a majority of the committee are of opinion, ought to be abolished. 
Complaints have always existed against it, no less on the part of members of 
congress from the south than on the part of members from the north. It is a 
trade sometimes exhibiting revolting spectacles, and one in which the people 
of the district have no interest, but, on the contrary, are believed to be desi- 
rous that it should be discontinued. Most, if not all, of the slaveholding 
states have, either in their constitutions or by penal enactments, prohibited a 
trade in slaves as merchandise within their respective jurisdictions. Congress, 
standing in regard to this district, on this subject, in a relation similar to that 
of the state legislatures to the people of the states, may safely follow the ex- 
ample of the states. The committee have prepared, and herewith report, a 
bill for the abolition of that trade (marked D), the passage of which they 
recommend to the senate. This bill has been framed after the model of what 
the law of Maryland was when the general government was removed to Wash- 
ington. 

"The views and recommendations contained in this report may be recapitu- 
lated in a few words : 

" 1. The admission of any new state or states formed out of Texas to be 
postponed until they shall hereafter present themselves to be received into the 
Union, when it will be the duty of congress fairly and faithfully to execute the 
compact with Texas, by admitting such new state or states. 

" 2. The admission forthwith of California into the Union, with the bound- 
aries which she has proposed. 

" 3. The establishment of territorial governments, without the Wilmot 
proviso, for New Mexico and Utah, embracing all the territory recently 
acquired by the United States from Mexico, not contained in the boundaries 
of California. 

"4. The combination of these two last mentioned measures in the same bill. 

"5. The establishment of the western and northern boundaries of Texas, and 
the exclusion from her jurisdiction of all New Mexico, with the grant to Texas 
of a pecuniary equivalent ; and the section for that purpose to be incorporated 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 589 

in the bill admitting California and establishing territorial governments for 
Utah and New Mexico. 

" 6. More effectual enactmeuts of law to secure the prompt delivery of per- 
sons bound to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, who es- 
cape into another state ; and, 

"1. Abstaining from abolishing slavery ; but, under a heavy penalty, prohibit- 
ing the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. 

" If such of these several measures as require legislation should be carried 
out by suitable acts of congress, all controversies to which our late territorial 
acquisitions have given rise, and all existing questions connected with the in- 
stitution of slavery, whether resulting from those acquisitions, or from its exis- 
tence in the states and the District of Columbia, will be amicably settled and 
adjusted, in a manner, it is confidently believed, to give general satisfaction to 
an overwhelming majority of the people of the United States. Congress will 
have fulfilled its whole duty in regard to the vast country which, having been 
ceded by Mexico to the United Stales, has fallen under their dominion. It 
■will have extended to it protection, provided for its several parts the inestima- 
ble blessing of free aLd regular government, adapted to their various wants, 
and placed the whole under the banner and the flag of the United States. 
Meeting courageously its clear and entire duty, congress will escape the un- 
merited reproach of having, from considerations of doubtful policy, abandoned 
to an undeserved fate territories of boundless exteut, with a sparse, incongru- 
ous, and alien, if not unfriendly population, speaking different languages, and 
accustomed to different laws, whilst that population is making irresistible ap- 
peals to the new sovereignty to which they have been transferred for protec- 
tion, for government, for law, and for order. 

" The committee have endeavored to present to the senate a comprehensive 
plan of addjustment, which, removing all causes of existing excitement and 
agitation, leaves none open to divide the country and disturb the general har- 
mony. The nation has been greatly convulsed, not by measures of general 
policy, but by questions of a sectional character, and, therefore, more danger- 
ous, and more to be deprecated. It wants repose. It loves and cherishes the 
Union. And it is most cheering and gratifying to witness the outbursts of 
deep and abiding attachment to it, which have been exhibited in all parts of 
it, amidst all the trials through which we have passed, and are passing. A 
people so patriotic as those of the United States, will rejoice in an accommo- 
dation of all troubles and difficulties by which the safety of the Union might 
have been brought into the least danger. And, under the blessing of that 
Providence who, amidst all vicissitudes, has never ceased to extend to them 
His protecting care, His smiles, His blessings, they will continue to advance 
in population, power, and prosperity, and work out triumphantly the glorious 
problem of man's capacity for self-government. " 

The debate on the principal bill reported, continued in the senate until July. 
The grouping of so many subjects in one bill gave it the name of " the omni- 
bus." In its passage through the senate it had been trimmed down by amend- 



590 CALIFORNIA AND TEXAS. 

ments, so that but a small portion of the original remained, and it passed only 
as "a bill to provide for the territorial government of Utah." It was sent to 
the house, where it was received with merriment. Its dismemberment was call- 
ed "upsetting the omnibus." Subsequently, all the bills originally included 
in Mr. Clay's omnibus were passed. California was admitted as a free state ; 
the territory of New Mexico organized ; the boundary of Texas established ; 
the territory of Utah organized. The bill also to abolish the slave-trade in 
the District of Columbia, and the fugitive slave law were passed. These acts 
are substantially as follows : 

ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA. 

Whereas, the people of California have presented a constitution and asked 
admission into the Union, which constitution was submitted to congress by the 
President of the United States, by message, dated February 13th, 1850, which, 
on due examination, is found to be republican in its form of government — 

Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United 
States of America in congress assembled, That the state of California shall 
be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and 
admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all re- 
spects whatever. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That until the representatives in con- 
gress shall be apportioned according to an actual enumeration of the inhabi- 
tants of the United States, the state of California shall be entitled to two rep- 
resentatives in congress. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said state of California is ad- 
mitted into the Union upon the express condition that the people of said state, 
through their legislature or otherwise, shall never interfere with the primary 
disposal of the public lands within its limits, and shall pass no law, and do no 
act, whereby the title of the United States to, and right to dispose of, the 
same, shall be impaired or questioned ; and they shall never lay any tax or as- 
sessment of any description whatsoever on the public domain of the United 
States ; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors, who are citizens of the 
United States, be taxed higher than residents ; and that all the navigable 
waters within the said state shall be common highways, and for ever free, as 
well to the inhabitants of said state as to the citizens of the United States, 
without any tax, duty, or impost therefor ; provided, that nothing herein con- 
tained shall be construed as recognizing or rejecting the propositions tendered 
by the people of California as articles of compact in the ordinance adopted by 
the convention which formed the constitution of that state. 

Approved, September 9, 1850. 

THE TEXAS BOUNDARY. 

Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United 
States of America in congress assembled, That the following propositions 
shall be, and the same hereby are, offered to the state of Texas ; which, when 
agreed to by the said state, in an act passed by the general assembly, shall be 



NEW MEXICO. 591 

binding and obligatory upon the United States, and upon the said state of 
Texas ; provided, that said agreement by the said general assembly shall be 
given on or before the first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty. 

First. — The state of Texas will agree that her boundary on the north shall 
commence at the point at which the meridian of one hundred degrees west 
from Greenwich is intersected by the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty 
minutes north latitude, and shall run from said point due west to the meridian 
of one hundred and three degrees west from Greenwich ; hence her boundary 
shall run due south to the thirty-second degree of north latitude ; thence on 
the said parallel of thirty-two degrees of north latitude to the Rio Bravo del 
Norte ; and thence with the channel of said river to the gulf of Mexico. 

Second. — The state of Texas cedes to the United States all her claims to 
territories exterior to the limits and boundaries which she agrees to establish 
by the first article of this agreement. 

Third. — The state of Texas relinquishes all claim upon the United States 
for liability for the debts of Texas, and for compensation or indemnity for the 
surrender to the United States of her ships, forts, arsenals, custom-houses, cus- 
tom-house revenue, arms and munitions of war, and public buildings, with their 
sites, which became the property of the United States at the time of the an- 
nexation. 

Fourth. — The United States, in consideration of said establishment of 
boundaries, cession of claims to territory, and relinquishment of claims, will pay 
to the state of Texas the sum of ten millions of dollars, in a stock bearing five 
per cent, interest, and redeemable at the end of fourteen years, the interest 
payable half-yearly at the treasury of the United States. 

Fifth. — Immediately after the president of the United States shall have 
been furnished with an authentic copy of the act of the general assembly of 
Texas, accepting these propositions, he shall cause the stock to be issued in favor 
of the state of Texas, as provided for in the fourth article of this agreement. 

Provided also, That no more than five millions of said stock shall be issued 
until the creditors of the state, holding bonds and other certificates of stock of 
Texas, for which duties on imports were specially pledged, shall first file, at 
the treasury of the United States, releases of all claims against the United 
States for or on account of said bonds or certificates, in such form as shall be 
prescribed by the secretary of the treasury, and approved by the president of 
the United States. 

ORGANIZATION OP NEW MEXICO. 

The second section of the " act for the organization of New Mexico," enacts 
that all that portion of the territory of the United States bounded as follows, 
to wit : beginning at a point on the Colorado river where the boundary line of 
the republic of Mexico crosses the same; thence eastwardly with the said 
boundary line to the Bio Grande ; thence following the main channel of said 
river to the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence east- 
wardly with said degree to its intersection with the one hundred and third de- 
gree of longitude west from Greenwich ; thence north with said degree of 



592 UTAH. 

longitude to the parallel of the thirty-eight degree of north latitude ; thence 
west with said parallel to the summit of the Sierra Madre ; thence south with 
the crest of said mountains to the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude ; 
thence west with the said parallel to its intersection with the boundary line of 
the state of California ; thence with the said boundary line to the place of be- 
ginning, be, and the same is hereby, erected into a temporary government by 
the name of the territory of New Mexico; provided, that nothing in this 
act contained shall be construed to inhibit the government of the United States 
from dividing said territory into two or more territories, in such manner and 
at such times as congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching 
any portion thereof to any other territory or state ; provided further, that 
when admitted as a state, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall 
be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may 
prescribe at the time of their admission. 

The eighteenth section enacts, that the provisions of this act be suspended 
until the boundary between the United States and the state of Texas shall be 
adjusted ; and when such adjustment shall have been effected, the president of 
the United States shall issue his proclamation, declaring this act to be in full 
force and operation, and shall proceed to appoint the officers herein provided 
to be appointed for the said territory. 

UTAH TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 

The act to establish a territorial government for Utah provides : That all 
that part of the territory of the United States included within the following 
limits, to wit : bounded on the west by the state of California, on the north by 
the territory of Oregon, on the east by the summit of the Rocky mountains, 
and on the south by the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, be, and the 
same is hereby, created into a temporary government, by the name of the ter- 
ritory of Utah ; and, when admitted as a state, the said territory, or any por- 
tion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as 
their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission ; provided, 
that nothing iu this act contained shall be construed to prohibit the govern- 
ment of the United States from dividing said territory into two or more terri- 
tories, in such manner and at such time as congress shall deem convenient and 
proper, or from attaching any portion of said territory to any other state or 
territory of the United States. 

The act proceeds to provide for the appointment of a territorial governor, 
secretary, marshal, judges, &c, and for the election of a council of thirteen, 
and a house of representatives of twenty-six members ; also for a delegate in 
congress. All recognized citizens to be voters. 

The governor shall receive an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars as 
governor, and one thousand dollars as superintendent of Indian affairs. The 
chief justice and associate justices shall each receive an annual salary of 
eighteen hundred dollars. The secretary shall receive an annual salary of 
eighteen huudred dollars. The said salaries shall be paid quarter-yearly, at 
the treasury of the United States. The members of the legislative assembly 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 593 

<hall be entitled to receive each three dollars per day during their attendance 
at the sessions thereof, and three dollars £ach for every twenty miles' travel in 
going to and returning from said sessions, estimated according to the nearest 
usually traveled route. 

That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to all rightful sub- 
jects of legislation, consistent with the constitution of the United States and 
the provisions of this act ; but no law shall be passed interfering with the pri- 
mary disposal of the soil ; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of the 
United States ; nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be taxed 
nigher than the lands or other property of residents. All the laws passed by 
the legislative assembly and governor shall be submitted to the congress of 
the United States, and, if disapproved, shall be null and of no effect. 

That the constitution and laws of the United States are hereby extended 
over, and declared to be in force in, said territory of Utah, so far as the same, 
or any provision thereof, may be applicable. 

The debates upon the bills in both houses were animated and interesting. 
Mr. Seward, of New York, touched upon the principal topics embraced in the 
geueral questions of slavery, as presented at this session, as follows : 

"But it is insisted that the admission of California shall be attended by a 
compromise of questions which have arisen out of slavery! 

I am opposed to any such compromise, in any and all the forms in which it 
has been proposed ; because, while admitting the purity and the patriotism of 
all from whom it is my misfortune to differ, I think all legislative compromises, 
which are not absolutely necessary, radically wrong and essentially vicious. 
They involve the surrender of the exercise of judgment and conscience on dis- 
tinct and separate questions, at distinct and separate times, with the indispen- 
sable advantages it affords for ascertaining truth. They involve a relinquish- 
ment of the right to reconsider in future the decisions of the present, on ques- 
tions prematurely anticipated. And they are acts of usurpation as to future 
questions of the province of future legislators. 

Sir, it seems to me as if slavery had laid its paralyzing hand upon myself, 
and the blood were coursing less freely than its wont through my veins, when I 
endeavor to suppose that such a compromise has been effected, and that my 
utterance for ever is arrested upon all the great questions — social, moral, and 
political— arising out of a subject so important, and yet so incomprehensible. 

What am I to receive in this compromise ? Freedom in California. It is 
well ; it is a noble acquisition ; it is worth a sacrifice. But what am I to give 
as an equivalent ? A recognition of the claim to perpetuate slavery in the 
District of Columbia ; forbearance toward more stringent laws concerning the 
arrest of persons suspected of being slaves found in the free states ; forbear- 
ance from the proviso of freedom in the charters of new territories. None of 
the plans of compromise offered demand less than two, and most of them insist 
on all of these conditions. The equivalent, then, is some portion of liberty, 
some portion of human rights in one region for liberty in another region. But 
California brings gold and commerce as well as freedom. I am, then, to but- 



594 DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE BILL. 

render some portion of human freedom in the District of Columbia, and in 
East California and New Mexico, for the mixed consideration of liberty, gold, 
and power on the Pacific coast. But, sir, if 1 could overcome my repugnance 
to compromises in general, I should object to this one, on the ground of the 
inequality and incongruity of the interests to be compromised. Why, sir, 
according to the views I have submitted, California ought to come in, and 
and must come in, whether slavery stand or fall in the District of Columbia ; 
whether slavery stand or fall in New Mexico and Eastern California ; and even 
whether slavery stand or fall in the slave states. California ought to come in, 
being a free state ; and, under the circumstances of her conquest, her compact, 
her abandonment, her justifiable and necessary establishment of a constitution, 
and the inevitable dismemberment of the empire consequent upon her rejection, 
I should have voted for her admission even if she had come as a slave state. 
California ought to come in, and must come in at all events. It is, then, an 
independent, a paramount question. What, then, are these questions arising 
out of slavery, thus interposed, but collateral questions ? They are unneces- 
sary and incongruous, and therefore false issues, not introduced designedly, 
indeed, to defeat that great policy, yet unavoidably tending to that end. 

Mr. Poote. Will the honorable senator allow me to ask him if the senate 
is to understand him as saying that he would vote for the admission of Cali- 
fornia if she came here seeking admission as a slave state. 

Mr. Seward. I reply, as I said before, that even if California had come as 
a slave state, yet coming under the extraordinary circumstances I have described 
and in view of the consequences of a dismemberment of the empire, consequent 
upon her rejection, I should have voted for her admission, even though she had 
come as a slave state. But I should not have voted for her admission other- 
wise. 

I remark, in the next place, that consent on my part would be disingenuous 
and fraudulent, because the compromise would be unavailing. It is now avowed 
by the honorable senator from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun,) that nothing 
will satisfy the slave states but a compromise that will convince them that they 
can remain in the Union consistently with their honor and their safety. And 
what are the concessions which will have that effect ? Here they are, in the 
words of that senator : 

' The north must do justice by conceding to the south an equal right in the 
acquired territory, and do her duty by causing the stipulations relative to fugi- 
tive slaves to be faithfully fulfilled— cease the agitation of the slave question — 
and provide for the insertion of a provision in the constitution by an amend- 
ment, which will restore to the south in substance the power she possessed of 
protecting herself, before the equilibrium between the sections was destroyed 
by the action of this government.' 

These terms amount to this : that the free states having already, or although 
they may hereafter have, majorities of population, and majorities in both houses 
of congress, shall concede to the slave states, being in a minority in both, the 
nnequal advantage of an equality. That is, that we shall alter the constitution 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 595 

go as to convert the government from a national democracy, operating by a 
constitutional majority of voices, into a federal alliance, in which the minority 
shall have a veto against the majority. And this would be nothing less than 
to return to the original articles of confederation. 

Nor would success attend any of the details of this compromise. And, first, 
I advert to the proposed alteration of the law concerning fugitives from service 
or labor. I shall speak on this, as on all subjects, with due respect, but yet 
frankly, and without reservation. The constitution contains ouly a compact, 
which rests for its execution on the states. Not content with this, the slave 
states induced legislation by congress ; and the supreme court of the United 
States have virtually decided that the whole subject is within the province of 
congress, and exclusive of state authority. Nay, they have decided that slaves 
are to be regarded, not merely as persons to be claimed, but as property and 
chattels, to be seized without any legal authority or claim whatever. The 
compact is thus subverted by the procurement of the slave states. With what 
reason, then, can they expect the states ex gratia to reassume the obligations 
from which they caused those states to be discharged ? 1 say, then, to the 
slave states, you are entitled to no more stringent laws ; and that such laws 
would be useless. The cause of the inefficiency of the present statute is not 
at all the leniency of its provisions. It is a law that deprives the alleged refu- 
gee from a legal obligation not assumed by him, but imposed upon him by 
laws enacted before he was born, of the writ of habeas corpus, and of any cer- 
tain judicial process of examination of the claim set up by his pursuer, and 
finally degrades him into a chattel which may be seized and carried away peace- 
ably wherever found, even although exercising the rights and responsibilities 
of a free citizen of the commonwealth in which he resides, and of the United 
States— a law which denies to the citizen all the safeguards of personal liberty, 
to render less frequent the escape of the bondman. And since complaints are 
so freely made against the one side, I shall not hesitate to declare that there 
have been even greater faults on the other side. Relying on the perversion of 
the constitution which makes slaves mere chattels, the slave states have applied 
to them the principles of the criminal law, and have held that he who aided 
the escape of his fellow-man from bondage was guilty of a larceny in stealing 
him. I speak of what I know. Two instances came within my own knowl- 
edge, in which governors of slave states, under the provision of the constitu- 
tion relating to fugitives from justice, demanded from the governor of a free 
state the surrender of persons as thieves whose alleged offenses consisted in 
constructive larceny of the rags that covered the persons of female slaves, 
whose attempt at escape they permitted or assisted. We deem the principle 
of the law for the recapture of fugitives, as thus expounded, therefore, unjust, 
unconstitutional, and immoral ; and thus, while patriotism withholds its appro- 
bation, the consciences of our people condemn it. 

Another feature in most of these plans of compromise is a bill of peace for 
slavery in the District of Columbia; and this bill of peace we cannot grant 
We of the free states are, equally with you of the slave states, responsible for 



596 DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE BILL. 

the existence of slavery in this district, the field exclusively of our common 
legislation. I regret that, as yet, I see little reason to hope that a majority 
in favor of emancipation exists here. The legislature of New York — from 
whom, with great deference, I dissent — seems willing to accept now the extinc- 
tion of the slave-trade, and waive emancipation But we shall assume the 
whole responsibility, if we stipulate not to exercise the power hereafter when 
a majority shall be obtained. Nor will the plea with which you would furnish 
us be of any avail. If I could understand so mysterious a paradox myself, I 
never should be able to explain, to the apprehension of the people whom I 
represent, how it was that an absolute and express power to legislate in all 
cases over the District of Columbia, was embarrassed aud defeated by an im- 
plied condition not to legislate for the abolition of slavery in this district. Sir, 
I shall vote for that measure, aud am willing to appropriate any means neces- 
sary to carry it into execution. And, if I shall be asked what I did to embel- 
lish the capital of my country, I will point to her freedmeu, and say, these are 
the monuments of my munificence 1 

I come now to notice the suggested compromise of the boundary between 
Texas and New Mexico. This is a judicial question in its nature, or at least 
a question of legal right and title. If it is to be compromised at all, it is due 
to the two parties, and to national dignity as well as to justice, that it be kept 
separate from compromises proceeding on the ground of expediency, and be 
settled by itself alone. 

I take this occasion to say, that while I do not intend to discuss the questions 
alluded to in this connection by the honorable and distinguished senator from 
Massachusetts, I am not able to agree with him in regard to the alleged obliga- 
tion of congress to admit four new slave states, to be formed in the state of 
Texas. There are several questions arising out of that subject, upon which I 
am not prepared to decide now, and which I desire to reserve for future con- 
sideration. One of these is, whether the article of annexation does really de- 
prive congress of the right to exercise its choice in regard to the sub-division 
of Texas into four additional states. It seems to me by no means so plain a 
question as the senator from Massachusetts assumed, and that it must be left 
to remain an open question, as it is a great question, whether congress is not 
a party whose future consent is necessary to the formation of new states out of 
Texas. 

Mr. Webster. Supposing congress to have the authority to fix the number 
and time of election, and apportionment of representatives, &c, the question 
is, whether, if new states are formed out of Texas, to come into this union, 
there is not a solemn pledge by law that they have a right to come in as slave 
states ? 

Mr. Seward. When the states are once formed, they have the right to come 
in as free or slave states, according to their own choice ; but what I insist is, 
that they cannot be formed at all without the consent of congress, to be here- 
after given, which consent congress is not obliged to give. But I pass that 
question for the present, and proceed to say that I am not prepared to admit 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 597 

that the article of the annexation of Texas is itself constitutional. I find no 
authority in the constitution of the United States for the annexation of foreign 
countries by a resolution of congress, and no power adequate to that purpose 
but the treaty-making power of the president and the senate. Entertaining 
this view, I must insist that the constitutionality of the annexation of Texas 
itself shall be cleared up before I can agree to the admission of any new states 
to be formed within Texas. 

Mr. Foote. Did I not hear the senator observe that he would admit Cali- 
fornia, whether slavery was or was not precluded from these territories ? 

Mr. Seward. I said I would have voted for the admission of California 
even as a slave state, under the extraordinary circumstances which I have be- 
fore distinctly described. I say that now ; but I say also, that before I would 
agree to admit any more states from Texas, the circumstances which render 
such an act necessary must be shown, and must be such as to determine my 
obligation to do so ; and that is precisely what I insist cannot be settled now. 
It must be left for those to whom the responsibility will belong. 

Mr. President, I understand, and I am happy in understanding, that I agree 
with the honorable senator from Massachusetts, that there is no obligation upon 
congress to admit four new slave states out of Texas, but that congress has 
reserved her right to say whether those states shall be formed aud admitted or 
not. I shall rely on that reservation. I shall vote to admit no more slave 
states, unless under circumstances absolutely compulsory — and no such case is 
now foreseen. 

Mr. Webster. What I said was, that if the states hereafter to be made out 
of Texas choose to come in as slave states, they have a right so to do. 

Mr. Seward. My position is, that they have not a right to come in at all, 
if congress rejects their institutions. The sub-division of Texas is a matter 
optional with both parties, Texas and the United States. 

Mr. Webster. Does the honorable senator mean to say that congress can 
hereafter decide whether they shall be slave or free states ? 

Mr. Seward. I mean to say that congress can hereafter decide whether any 
states, slave or free, can be framed out of Texas. If they should never be 
framed out of Texas, they never could be admitted. 

Another objection arises out of the principle on which the demand for compro- 
mise rests. That principle assumes a classification of the states as northern and 
southern states, as it is expressed by the honorable senator from South Carolina, 
(Mr. Calhoun,) but into slave states and free states, as more directly expressed 
by the honorable senator from Georgia, (Mr. Berrien.) The argument is, that 
the states are severally equal, and that these two classes were equal at the first, 
and that the constitution was founded on that equilibrium ; that the states 
being equal, and the classes of the states being equal in rights, they are to be 
regarded as constituting an association in which each state, and each of these 
classes of states, respectively, contribute in due proportions ; that the new ter- 
ritories are a common acquisition, and the people of these several states and 
classes of states have an equal right to participate in them, respectively ; that 



598 DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE BILL. 

the right of the people of the- slave states to emigrate to the territories with 
their slaves as property is necessary to afford such a participation on their part, 
inasmuch as the people of the free states emigrate into the same territories 
with their property. And the argument deduces from this right the principle 
that, if congress exclude slavery from any part of this new domain, it would 
be only just to set off a portion of the domain — some say south of 36° 30', 
others south of 34° — which should be regarded at least as free to slavery, and 
to be organized into slave states. 

Argument ingenious anfl subtle, declamation earnest and bold, and persua- 
sion gentle and winning as the voice of the turtle dove when it is heard in the 
land, all alike and altogether have failed to convince me of the soundness of 
this principle of the proposed compromise, or of any one of the propositions 
on which it is attempted to be established. 

The constitution does not expressly affirm anything on the subject ; all that 
it contains is two incidental allusions to slaves. These are, first, in the pro- 
vision establishing a ratio of representation and taxation ; and, secondly, in 
the provision relating to fugitives from labor. In both cases, the constitution 
designedly mentions slaves, not as slaves, much less as chattels, but as persons. 
That this recognition of them as persons was designed is historically known, 
and I think was never denied. 

I deem it established that the constitution does not recognize property in 
man, but leaves that question, as between the states, to the law of nature and 
of nations. That law, as expounded by Vattel, is founded on the reason of 
things. When God had created the earth, with its wonderful adaptations, He 
gave dominion over it to man, absolute human dominion. The title of that 
dominion, thus bestowed, would have been incomplete, if the Lord of all ter- 
restrial things could himself have been the property of his fellow-mau. 

But there is yet another aspect in which this principle must be examined. 
It regards the domain only as a possession, to be enjoyed either in common or 
by partition by the citizens of the old states. It is true, indeed, that the na- 
tional domain is ours. It is true it was acquired by the valor and with the 
wealth of the whole nation. But we hold no arbitrary authority over it. We 
hold no arbitrary authority over anything, whether acquired lawfully or seized 
by usurpation. The constitution regulates our stewardship ; the constitution 
devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty. 

But there is a higher law than the constitution, which regulates our author- 
ity over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The territory 
is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common heritage of mankind, bestow- 
ed upon them by the Creator of the Universe. We are his stewards, and 
must so discharge our trust as to secure in the highest degree their happiness. 

It remains only to remark that our own experience has proved the danger- 
ous influence and tendency of slavery. All our apprehensions of dangers, 
present and future, begin and end with slavery. If slavery, limited as it yet 
is, now threatens to subvert the constitution, how can we, as wise and prudent 
statesmen, enlarge its boundaries and increase its influence, and thus incre«se 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 599 

already impending dangers ? Whether, then, I regard merely the welfare of 
the future inhabitants of the new territories, or the security and welfare of the 
whole people of the United States, or the welfare of the whole family of man- 
kind, I cannot consent to introduce slavery into any part of this continent 
which is now exempt from what seems to me so great an evil. These are my 
reasons for declining to compromise the question relating to slavery as a con- 
dition of the admission of California. 

In acting upon an occasion so grave as this, a respectful consideration is due 
to the arguments, founded on extraneous considerations, of senators who com- 
mend a course different from that which I have preferred. The first of these 
arguments is, that congress has no power to legislate on the subject of slavery 
within the territories. 

Sir, congress may admit new states ; and since congress may admit, it fol- 
lows that congress may reject new states. The discretion of congress in ad- 
mitting is absolute, except that, when admitted, the state must be a republican 
state, and must be a state ; that is, it shall have the constitutional form and 
powers of a state. But the greater includes the less, and therefore congress 
may impose conditions of admission not inconsistent with -those fundamental 
powers and forms. Boundaries are such. The reservation of the public do- 
main is such. The right to divide is such. The ordinance excluding slavery 
is snch a condition. The organization of a territory is ancillary or prelimi- 
nary ; it is the inchoate, the initiative act of admission, and is performed un- 
der the clause granting the powers necessary to execute the express powers of 
the constitution. 

The next of this class of arguments is, that the inhibition of slavery in the 
new territories is unnecessary ; and when I come to this question, I encounter 
the loss of many who lead in favor of the admission of California. The argu- 
ment is, that the proviso is unnecessary. I answer, then, there can be no 
error in insisting upon it. But why is it unnecessary ? It is said, first, by 
reason of climate. I answer, if this be so, why do not the representatives of 
the slave states concede the proviso ? They deny that the climate prevents 
the introduction of slavery. Then I will leave nothing to a contingency. But, 
in truth, I think the weight of the argument is against the proposition. Is 
there any climate where slavery has not existed ? It has prevailed all over 
Europe, from sunny Italy to bleak England, and is existing now, stronger than 
in any other land, in ice-bound Russia. But it will be replied that this is not 
African slavery. I rejoin, that only makes the case the stronger. If this vig- 
orous Saxon race of ours was reduced to slavery while it retained the courage 
of semi-barbarism in its own high northern latitude, what security does climate 
afford against the transplantation of the more gentle, more docile, and already 
enslaved and debased African to the genial climate of New Mexico and east- 
ern California ? 

Sir, there is no climate uncongenial to slavery. It is true it is less product- 
ive than free labor in many northern countries. But so it is less productive 
than free white labor in even tropical climates. Labor is in quick demand in 



600 DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE BILL. 

all new countries. Slave labor is cheaper than free labor, and it would go first 
into new regions ; and wherever it goes it brings labor into dishonor, and 
therefore free white labor avoids competition with it. Sir, I might rely on cli- 
mate if I had not been born in a land where slavery existed — and this land was 
all of it north of the fortieth parallel of latitude ; and if I did not know the 
struggle it has cost, and which is yet going on, to get complete relief from the 
institution and its baleful consequences. I desire to propound this question to 
those who are now in favor of dispensing with the Wilmot proviso : Was the 
ordinance of 1181 necessary or not? Necessary, we all agree. It has re- 
ceived too many elaborate eulogiums to be now decried as an idle and super- 
fluous thing. And yet that ordinance extended the inhibition of slavery from 
the thirty-seventh to the fortieth parallel of north latitude. And now we are 
told that the inhibition named is unnecessary anywhere north of 3G° 30' ! We 
are told that we may rely upon the laws of God, which prohibit slave labor 
north of that line, aud that it is absurd to reiinact the laws of God. Sir, there 
is no human enactment which is just that is not a reenactment of the law of 
God. The constitution of the United States and the constitutions of all the 
states are full of such reenactmeuts. Wherever I find a law of God or a law 
of nature disregarded, or in danger of being disregarded, there I shall vote to 
reaffirm it, with all the sanction of the civil authority. But I find no authority 
for the position that climate prevents slavery anywhere. It is the indolence of 
mankind in any climate, and not any natural necessity, that introduces slavery 
in any climate. 

It is insisted that the diffusion of slavery will not increase its evils. The 
argument seems to me merely specious, and quite unsound. I desire to pro- 
pose one or two questions in reply to it. Is slavery stronger or weaker in these 
United States, from its diffusion into Missouri ? Is slavery weaker or stronger 
in these United States, from the exclusion of it from the northwest territory ? 
The answers to these questions will settle the whole controversy. 

And this brings me to the great and all-absorbing argument that the Union 
is in danger of being dissolved, and that it can only be saved by compromise. 
I do not know what I would not do to save the Union ; and therefore I shall 
bestow upon this subject a very deliberate consideration. I do not overlook 
the fact that the entire delegation from the slave states, although they differ in 
regard to the details of the compromise proposed, and perhaps in regard to 
the exact circumstances of the crisis, seem to concur in this momentous warn- 
ing. Nor do I doubt at all the patriotic devotion to the Union which is ex- 
pressed by those from whom this warning proceeds. And yet, sir, although 
such warnings have been uttered with impassioned solemnity in my hearing 
everyday for near three months, my confidence in the Union remains unshaken. 
I think they are to be received with no inconsiderable distrust, because they are 
uttered under the influence of a controlling interest to be secured, a paramount 
object to be gained ; and that is an equilibrium of power in the republic. 

Sir, in any condition of society there can be no revolution without a cause, 
an adequate cause. What cause exists here ? We are admitting a new state ; 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. G01 

but there is nothing new in that : we have already admitted seventeen before. 
Bat it is said that the slave states are in danger of losing political power by 
the admission of the new state. Well, sir, is there anything new in that ? The 
slave states have always been losing political power, and they always will be 
while they have any to lose. At first, twelve of the thirteen states were slave 
states ; now only fifteen out of the thirty are slave states. Moreover, the 
change is constitutionally made, and the government was constructed so as to 
permit changes of the balance of power, in obedience to changes of the forces 
of the body politic. Danton used to say, " It's all well while the people cry 
Danton and Robespierre ; but wo for me if ever the people learn to say, 
Robespierre and Danton !" That is all of it, sir. The people have been ac- 
customed to say, "the south and the north;" they are only beginning now to 
say, "the north and the south." 

Sir, when the founders of the republic of the south come to draw those fear- 
ful lines, they will indicate what portions of the continent are to be broken off 
from their connection with the Atlantic, through the St. Lawrence, the Hud- 
son, the Delaware, the Potomac, and the Mississippi ; what portion of this 
people are to be denied the use of the lakes, the railroads, aud the canals, now 
constituting common and customary avenues of travel, trade, and social inter- 
course ; what families aud kindred are to be separated, and converted into en- 
emies ; and what states are to be the scenes of perpetual border warfare, ag- 
gravated by interminable horrors of servile insurrection. When those por- 
tentous lines shall be drawn, they will disclose what portion of tills people is 
to retain the army and the navy, aud the flag of so many victories ; and on 
the other hand, what portion of- the people is to be subjected to new and oner- 
ous imposts, direct taxes, and forced loans, and conscriptions, to maintain an 
opposing army, an opposing navy, and the new and hateful banner of sedition. 
Then the projectors of the new republic of the south will meet the question — 
and they may well prepare now to answer it — What is. all this for ? What intoler- 
able wrong, what uufraternal injustico, have rendered these calamities unavoid- 
able ? What gain will this unuatural revolution bring to us ? The answer 
will be : All this is done to secure the institution of African slavery. 

But you insist on a guaranty against the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, or war. Well, when you shall have declared war against us, 
what shall hinder us from immediately decreeing that slavery shall cease within 
the national capital ? 

Tou say that you will not submit to the exclusion of slaves from the new 
territories. What will you gaiu by resistance ? Liberty follows the sword, 
although her sway is one of peace and beneficence. Can you propagate slavery 
then by the sword ? 

You insist that you cannot submit to the freedom with which slavery is dis- 
cussed iu the free states. Will war — a war for slavery — arrest or even mod- 
erate that discussion 1 No, sir ; that discussion will not cease ; war will only 
inflame it to a greater height. It is a part of the eternal conflict between 
truth and error — between mind and physical force — the conflict of man against 
39 



602 DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE BILL. 

the obstacles which oppose his way to an ultimate and glorious destiny. It 
will go on until you shall terminate it in the only way in which any state or 
nation has ever terminated it — by yielding to it — yielding in your own time, 
and in your own manner indeed, but nevertheless yielding to the progress of 
emancipation. You will do this, sooner or later, whatever may be your opin- 
ion now; because nations which were prudent and humane, and wise as you 
are, have done so already. 

Sir, the slave states have no reason to fear that this inevitable change will 
go too far or too fast for their safety or welfare. It cannot well go too fast or 
too far, if the only alternative is a war of races. 

But it cannot go too fast. Slavery has a reliable and accommodating ally 
in a party in the free states, which, though it claims to be, and doubtless is in 
many respects, a party of progress, finds its sole security for its political powei 
in the support and aid of slavery in the slave states. Of course, I do not in- 
clude in that party those who are now cooperating in maintaining the cause of 
freedom against slavery. I am not of that party of progress which in «the 
north thus lends its support to slavery. But it is only just and candid that I 
should bear witness to its fidelity to the interests of slavery. 

Slavery has, moreover, a more natural alliance with the aristocracy of the 
north and with the aristocracy of Europe. So long as slavery shall possess 
the cotton-fields, the sugar-fields, and the rice-fields of the world, so long will 
commerce and capital yield it toleration and sympathy. Emancipation is a 
democratic revolution. It is capital that arrests all democratic revolutions. It 
was capital that, so recently, in a single year, rolled back the tide of revolution 
from the base of the Carpathian mountains, across the Danube ami the Rhine, into 
the streets of Paris. It is capital that is rapidly rolling back the throne of 
Napoleon into the chambers of the Tuilleries. 

Slavery has a guaranty still stronger than these in the prejudices of caste 
and color, which induce even large majorities in all the free states to regard 
sympathy with the slave as an act of unmanly humiliation and self-abasement, 
although philosophy meekly expresses her distrust of the asserted natural su- 
periority of the white race, and confidently denies that such a superiority, if 
justly claimed, could give a title to oppression. 

There remains one more guaranty — one that has seldom failed you, and will 
seldom fail you hereafter. New states cling in closer alliance than older ones 
to the federal power. The concentration of the slave power enables you for 
long periods to control the federal government with the aid of the new states. 
I do not know the sentiments of the representatives of California; but, my 
word for it, if they should be admitted on, this floor to-day, against your most 
obstinate opposition, they would, on all questions really affecting your inter- 
ests, be found at your side. 

There are many well-disposed persons who are alarmed at the occurrence of 
any such disturbance. The failure of a legislative body to organize is to their 
apprehension a fearful omen, and an extra-constitutional assemblage to consult 
upon public affairs is with them cause for desperation. Even senators speak 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. G03 

of the Uiiiou as if it existed ouly by consent, and, as it seems to be implied, 
by the assent of the legislatures of the states. On the contrary, the Union 
was not founded in voluntary choice, nor does it exist by voluntary consent. 

A union was proposed to the colonies by Franklin and others, in 1754; but 
such was their aversion to an abridgment of their own importance, respectively, 
that it was rejected even under the pressure of a disastrous invasion by France. 

A uniou of choice was proposed to the colonies in IV? 5 ; but so strong was 
their opposition, that they went through the war of independence without hav- 
ing established more than a mere council of consultation. 

But with independence came enlarged interests of agriculture — absolutely 
new interests of manufactures — interests of commerce, of fisheries, of naviga- 
tion, of common domain, of common debts, of common revenues and taxation, 
of the administration of justice, of public defense, of public honor ; in short, 
interests of common nationality and sovereignty — -interests which at last com- 
pelled the adoption of a more perfect union — a national government. 

The genius, talents, and learning of Hamilton, Jay, and of Madison, sur- 
passing, perhaps, the intellectual power ever exerted before for the establish- 
ment of a government, combined with the serene but mighty influence of Wash- 
ington, were only sufficient to secure the reluctant adoption of the constitution 
that is now the object of all our affections and of the hopes of mankind. No 
wonder that the conflicts in which that constitution was born, and the almost 
desponding solemnity of Washington, in his farewell address, impressed his 
countrymen and mankind with a profound distrust of its perpetuity ! No 
wonder that while the murmurs of that day are yet ringing in our ears, we 
cherish that distrust, with pious reverence, as a national and patriotic sentiment. 

I have heard somewhat here, and almost for the first time in my life, of di- 
vided allegiance — of allegiance to the south and to the Union. Sir, if sympa- 
thies with state emulation and pride of achievement could be allowed to raise 
up another sovereign to divide the allegiance of a citizen of the United States, 
I might recognize the claims of the state to which, by birth and gratitude, I 
belong— to the state of Hamilton and Jay, of Schuyler, of the Clintons, and 
of Fulton— the state which, with less than two hundred miles of natural navi- 
gation connected with the ocean, has, by her own enterprise, secured to herself 
the commerce of the continent, and is steadily advancing to the command of 
the commerce of the world. But for all this I know only one country and one 
sovereign— the United States of America and the American people. And 
such as my allegiance is, is the loyality of every other citizen of the United 
States. As I speak, he will speak when his time arrives. He knows no other 
country and no other sovereign, ^e has life, liberty, property, and precious 
ns, and hopes for himself and for his posterity, treasured up in the ark 
of the Union. He knows as well and feels as strongly as I do, that this gov- 
ernment is his own government ; that he is a part of it ; that it was established 
fur him, and that it is maintained by him ; that it is the only truly wise, just, 
free, and equal government that has ever existed ; that no other government 
could be so wise, just, free and equal ; and that it is safer and more beueScent 
than any which time or change could bring into its place. 



604 DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE BILL. 

You may tell mo, sir, that although all this may be true, yet the trial of fac- 
tion has not yet been made. Sir, if the trial of faction has not been made, it 
has not been because faction has not always existed, and has not always me- 
naced a trial, but because faction could find no fulcrum on which to place the 
lever to subvert the Union, as it can find no fulcrum now ; and in this is my 
confidence. I would not rashly provoke the trial ; but I will not suffer a fear, 
which I nave not, to make me compromise one sentiment, one principle of truth 
or justice, to avert a danger that all experience teaches me is purely chimerical. 
Let, then, those who distrust the Union make compromises to save it. I sl&ll 
not impeach their wisdom, as I certainly cannot their patriotism; but, indulg- 
ing no such apprehensions myself, I shall vote for the admission of California 
into the Union directly, without conditions, without qualifications, and without 
compromise." 

Mr. Cass, oh the 13th of March, expressed his views at some length. A 
part of his speech was in reply to certain remarks of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. 
Seward. He agreed with what had been said by Mr. Clay ; and he would 
vote for the proposed reference of the resolutions, indeed for almost auy pro- 
position likely to bring this country into harmony upon this perplexing question. 
He thought the country was under lasting obligations to Mr. Foote for his 
efforts to terminate the existing difficulties. For Mr. Calhoun, he expressed 
deep sympathy, but dissented from parts of his speech, which, he thought, 
contained a strange collection and collocation of facts, followed by strange con- 
clusions. The sombre hue which pervaded his speech, he imagined, was owing 
to its having been prepared in the recesses of a sick chamber. [Mr. Calhoun, 
too feeble to address the senate, had written his speech, which had been read 
by Mr. Mason, of Virginia]. 

Mr. Cass took exception to an expression of Mr. Calhoun, calling Wash- 
ington "the illustrious southerner." "Our Washington — the Washington of 
our whole country — receives in this senate, the epithet of 'southerner,' as if 
that great man, whose distinguished characteristic was his attachment to his 
country, and his whole country, who was so well known, and who, more than 
any one, deprecated all sectional feeling and all sectional action — loved Geor- 
gia better than he loved New Hampshire, because he happened to be born on 
the southern bank of the Potomac. I repeat, sir, that I heard with great pain, 
that expression from the distinguished senator form South Carolina. 

We have been three months here, and what have we done ? Nothiug. We 
have not passed a single law of the least national importance. We have occu- 
pied the whole time by the discussion of this question, and no practical result 
has been attained ; and present appearances do not indicate that such a result 
is near. But, though we have done nothing, we have ascertained that some 
things can not be done. We have ascertained (I think I may say with certain- 
ty) that no Wilmot proviso can be passed through this congress. That mea- 
sure is dead. It is the latest, and I hope it is the last attempt that will be 
made to interfere with the right of self-government within the limits of this 
republic. I think we may also say, that no Missouri compromise line can pass, 






REMARKS OF GEN. CASS. G05 

and that no one expects or desires that it should pass. Mr. President, what 
was the compromise line ? Allow me to read the law which established it : 

"Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That in all that territory ceded by France to the 
United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 30° and 30' north lati- 
tude, not included within the limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery and 
involuntary .servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties 
shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited." 

Now, sir, what is that provision ? It is intervention north of the line of 
36° 30', and non-intervention south of that line. Why, sir, there is not one 
southern senator on this floor, and not one southern member of the other house, nor 
indeed a southern man who understands the subject, who would accept that line 
as a proper settlement of this question. Why, sir, the whole doctrine of equal 
rights and of non-intervention is taken away by it at once. Why, sir, putting 
out of view the constitutional objections to such an arrangement, it gives the 
south nothing, while it prohibits the people north of 36° 30' from exercising 
their own will upon the subject. The true doctrine of non-intervention leaves 
the whole question to the people, and does not divide their right of decision 
by a parallel of latitude. If they choose to have slavery north of that line, 
they can have it. Is there a senator on this floor who would accept of a pro- 
position to apply the principle of non-intervention to a part of the territory, 
leaving to the people of the other portion to do as they please ? No, sir ; 
there is not a southern senator here who would vote for it. I will tell you 
what would be voted for, has already been announced — a law declaratory, man- 
datory, or permissory, for the establishment of slavery south of the line of 36° 
30'. The distinguished senator from South Carolina might be willing to accept 
a declaration that slavery does now exist, or that it shall exist, or may exist, 
south of a certain line ; but I take it for granted that no senator from the 
south would be willing to abandon the ground of non-intervention, without 
some provision like that. Well, then, Mr. President, if these things are im- 
possible — if they cannot be done — it remains to inquire what it is in our power 
to do. My own opinion is, sir, that we should take up the bill for the recap- 
ture of fugitive slaves, reported by the judiciary committee. I am disposed to 
suspend all our discussions, and to lay aside all other business, with a view to 
act upon that bill, without unnecessary delay, and to pass it in such a form as 
would be acceptable to a majority of this body. ' That is a point upon which 
the south feels most acutely, and in regard to which it has the most serious 
cause of complaint. I have heard but one man in this body deny the existence 
of this evil, or the justice and necessity of providing an adequate remedy. If 
I understand the senator from New York, (Mr. Seward,) he intimated his 
belief that it was immoral to carry into effect the provision of the constitution 
for the recapture of fugitive slaves. That, sir, is a very strange view of the 
duties of a senator in this body. No man should come here who believes that 
ours is an immoral constitution ; no man should come here, and, by the solemn 
sanction of an oath, promise to support an immoral constitution. No man is 
compelled to take an oath to support it. He may live in this country, and 



600 DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE BILL. 

believe what he chooses with regard to the constitution ; but he has no right, 
as an honest man, to seek office, and obtain it, and then talk about its being so 
immoral that he can not fulfill its obligations. It is the duty of every man, 
who has sworn to support the constitution, fairly to carry ils provisions into 
effect; and no man can stand up before his fellow-citizens and maintain any 
other doctrine, whatever reasons he may urge in his vindication. In one of 
the most disingenuous portions of the speech of the honorable senator from 
New York (Mr. Seward) — which itself was one of the most disingenuous I 
have ever heard — he speaks of " slavery having a reliable and accommodating 
ally in a party in the free states," and he says he "bears witness to its fidelity 
to the interests of slavery." 

Now, I ask the senator from New York, if he believes there is a man in 
this senate from the north, whose course is influenced by his fidelity to slavery ; 
and if he does, what right he has to cast odium upon gentlemen who are asso- 
ciated with him in the high duties which belong to his position ? 

Mr. Seward. The senator addresses a question to me, and I rise for no 
other purpose than to answer it. I think it was Mr. Jefferson who said that 
the natural ally of slavery in the south was the democracy of the north. 

A senator. It was Mr. Buchanan. 

Mr. Seward. I have heard it attributed to Mr. Jefferson. However this 
may be, I believe it. I assail the motives of no senator. I am not to be 
drawn into personal altercations by any interrogatories addressed to me. I 
acknowledge the patriotism, the wisdom, the purity of every member of this 
body. I never have assailed the motives of honorable senators in any instance, 
I never shall. When my own are assailed, I stand upon my owu position. 
My life and acts must speak for me. I shall not be my owu defender or advo- 
cate. 

Mr. Cass concluded his speech the next day. He said : I was remarking 
yesterday, when I resigned the floor, that there were certain things we could 
not accomplish, and others that, with equal certainty, we might take for grant- 
ed we could do. Among the latter, was the bill providing for the recapture of 
fugitive slaves ; and another object, which I trust will be accomplished, is the 
providing of a government for the new territories. I think it essential to calm 
this agitation, and so long as these territories are left without a government, so 
long will the present state of things continue, and this agitation be kept up, 
which is so harassing to the tranquility, and dangerous to the peace of the 
Union. That a law may be passed authorizing the people of the territories 
to govern themselves, without any Wilmot proviso being attached to it, is my 
wish and my hope. Sir, we cannot stand before the country, and before the 
world, and object to the admission of California on the ground that has been 
urged. The objection is not to her boundaries, though that topic has been 
much debated. I myself was at first startled at the boundary claimed, stretch- 
ing as it does along the coast of the Pacific one thousand miles — a much greater 
extent than any one state in the Union ought to possess. But the country be- 
tween the ocean and the sea is a narrow one, and east of the mountains is a 



REMARKS OF GEN. CASS 007 

desert, and in proportion to its extent, the quantity of arable land is smalL 
Be the boundaries as they may, it is not probable that its population will ever 
be as great as that of some of the other states of this Union. And if its 
southern boundary were to stop at the mountains, there would be left between 
them and the Mexican possessions a small district of country, which would have 
to remain for an indefinite period, perhaps forever, in a colonial condition. The 
senator from South Carolinia, (Mr. Calhoun,) who I regret to see is not in his 
seat to-day, does not assume this ground as an objection to the admission of 
California. That objection rests upon her present position and mode of appli- 
cation ; because she has established a government of her own without passing 
through territorial process, and comes here of her own accord, and asks admis- 
sion into this Union. This ground of objection cannot be maintained in this 
age of the world, before the people of this country, and, I may add, the people 
of Christendom. There are two positions I have always maintained with 
reference to this subject — first, that congress, under the constitution, has no 
right to establish governments for the territories ; secondly, that under uo cir- 
cumstances have they the right to pass any law to regulate the internal affairs 
of the people inhabiting them. The first may be a matter of necessity ; and 
when the necessity exists, if a senator votes for it, he votes upon his own re- 
sponsibility to his constituents. If they believe the necessity and support him, 
he is safe, but if not, he must fall. If I had voted under such circumstances, 
I must have looked to my constituents for my justification ; but under no cir- 
cumstances could I have voted for any law interfering with the internal concerns 
of the people of a territory. No necessity requires it ; there is no necessity 
which would justify it 

Mr. Chase. Did I understand the senator as saying, that in voting for a 
bill to establish a government in the territories he would assume the exercise 
of any authority not given in the constitution ? 

Mr. Cass. The honorable senator will undoubtedly recollect, that in a his- 
torical document called the Nicholson letter, which subsequent circumstances 
have made somewhat important, I distinctly stated my views upon this subject, 
and those views have remained unchanged to the present hour. I maintained 
that no power is given by the constitution to establish territorial governments, 
but that where an imperious necessity exists for such a measure, the legislator 
who yields to it must look to his constituents for his justification. 

Mr. Chase. I understood the senator to say that there was no such authority 
given by the constitution ? 

Mr. Cass. I said, that if we do an act not authorized by the constitution, 
under a pressure of necessity, that act must be done upon our own responsi- 
bility ; and I refer the gentleman to the authority of Mr. Madison, who justi- 
fied the action of the congress of the confederation, on the subject of territories, 
upon this ground — and upon this alone. If the gentleman will take the trouble 
to look at my speech on the Wilmot proviso, he will find my views on this 
point distinctly laid down. What is the objection in principle to the admission 
of California ? Allow me to say, that great political rights and movements, 



608 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

in this age of the world, are not to be determined by mere abstract or specula- 
tive opinions. There is no want of heavy books in the world, which treat of 
political science ; but you need not go to them to ascertain the rights of men — 
either individuals or in communities ; if you do, you will lose yourself groping 
in a labyrinth, and where no man can follow you. If there are rights of sov- 
ereignty, there may be wrongs of sovereignty ; and this truth should be held 
in everlasting remembrance. And this is the case with regard to California. 
We have rights, and we have duties ; and if the former are saGred, the latter 
should be sacred also. One of these duties we have neglected to perform ; 
and we are told by gentlemen who have spoken here, that when a state wishes 
admission into the Union, she should come to the door of congress aud knock 
for admission. California has thus come and knocked ; but no door is open to 
her, and she is to be told, "go back and wait till we are ready." There is 
but one door through which you can enter, and that door we keep shut. You 
must pass through a territorial government ; but that government we have 
neglected to give you, and we are probably as far from establishing it as ever. 
And such is the paternal regard we manifest toward one hundred thousand 
American citizens, who are upholding the flag of our country on the distant 
shores of the Pacific. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Repeal of Missouri Compromise. — Kansas and Nebraska Organized. 

The platforms, slavery agitation repudiated by both parties. — Mr. Pierce's Inaugural aud 
Message denounce agitation. — Session of 1853-4: — the storm bursts forth. — Proposi- 
tion to repeal the Missouri Compromise. — Kansas-Nebraska bill. — Mr. Douglas' de- 
fense of the bill — Mr. Chase's reply — Remarks of Houston, Cass, Seward, and others. 
— Passage of the bill in the house. — Passed by senate, and approved. — The territories 
organized. 



T 



HE democratic convention to nominate candidates for the presidency and 
vice-presideney was held in Baltimore, June 1, 1852. Franklin Pierce, of New 
Hampshire, received the nomination on the 49th ballot. The whig convention 
met iu the same city on the 16th of June, and nominated General Scott on the 
53d ballot. Upon the subject of slavery, the platforms- of the two conventions 
agree. The democratic convention declared : 

'• That congress has no power under the constitution to interfere with or 
control the domestic institutions of the several states, and that such states are 
the sole and proper judges of every thing appertaining to their own affairs, 
not prohibited by the constitution ; that all efforts of the abolitionists, or oth- 
ers, made to induce congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take 
incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming 



POSITION OF PARTIES. G09 

and dangerous consequences ; and that all such efforts have an inevitable ten- 
dency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability and 
permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of 
our political institutions. 

" That the foregoing proposition covers, and was intended to embrace the 
whole subject of slavery agitation in congress ; and therefore the democratic 
party of the Union, standing on this national platform, will abide by and ad- 
here to a faithful execution of the acts known as the compromise measures 
settled by the last congress — the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or 
labor included ; which act being designed to carry out an express provision of 
the constitution, can not with fidelity thereto be repealed, nor so changed as 
to destroy or impair its efficiency. 

" That the democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing, in congress 
or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or 
color the attempt may be made." 

The whig convention made the following declaration : 

" That the series of acts of the thirty-first congress — the act known as the 
fugitive slave law included — are received and acquiesced in by the whig party 
of the United States, as a settlement in principle and substance of the dan- 
gerous and exciting question which they embrace ; and so far as they are con- 
cerned, we will maintain them and insist on their strict enforcement, until time 
and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation, to guard 
against the evasion of the laws on the one hand, and the abuse of their pow- 
ers on the other, not impairing their present efficiency ; and we deprecate all 
further agitation of the question thus settled, as dangerous to our peace ; and 
will discountenance all efforts to continue or renew such agitation whenever, 
wherever, or however the attempt may be made ; and we will maintain this 
system as essential to the nationality of the whig party of the Union." 

The presidential contest resulted in the election of Mr. Pierce. The "slav- 
ery question " was now dead and buried — the democratic party planted itself 
upon the grave to "resist all attempts" at disturbing the body — the whigs 
stood by to "discountenance all efforts" at resurrection, "whenever, where 
ever or however the attempt may be made." 

Mr. Pierce was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1S53. In his inaugural 
address he said : " I believe that involuntary servitude is recognized by the 
constitution. I believe that the states where it exists are entitled to efficient 
remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions. I hold that the compromise 
measures of 1850 are strictly constitutional, and to be unhesitatingly carried 
into effect." "And now," said Mr. Pierce, " I fervently hope that the ques- 
tion is at rest, and that no sectional, or ambitious, or fanatical excitement may 
again threaten the durability" of its repose. 

Congress convened on the 5th of December, 1853. On the next day the 
President communicated his message. The dead and buried slavery question 
was again alluded to ; and he declared his fixed purpose to leave undisturbed, 
"a subject which had been set at rest by the deliberate judgment of the peo- 



G10 EEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

pie." That " this repose is to suffer no shock during my official term, if I 
have power to avert it, those who placed me here may be assured." 

Notwithstanding the legislation of 1850, the platforms of the political par- 
ties, and the asseverations of the president, the " shock " came. As Mr. Chase 
described it, " the rattling thunder broke from a cloudless firmament, and the 
storm burst forth in fury." But this time the agitation was not to be confined 
to the floor of congress. — the "people" were invited to take a part in it. 

On the 15th of December, 1853, Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, submitted to the sen- 
ate a bill to organize the territory of Nebraska, which was referred to the com- 
mittee on territories, and subsequently reported by Mr. Douglas of said com- 
mittee with amendments. The following is the accompanying reporl : 

" The principal amendments which your committee deem it their duty to 
commend to the favorable action of the senate, in a special report, arc those in 
which the principles established by the compromise measures of 1850, so far 
as they are applicable to territorial organizations, are proposed to be affirmed 
and carried into practical operation within the limits of the new territory. 

"The wisdom of those measures is attested, not less by their salutary and 
beneficial effects, in allaying sectional agitation and restoring peace and har- 
mony to an irritated and distracted people, than by the cordial and almost 
universal approbation with which they have been received and sanctioned by 
the whole country. In the judgment of your committee, those measures were 
intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring effect than the mere 
adjustment of difficulties arising out of the recent acquisition of Mexican ter- 
ritory. They were designed to establish certain great principles, which would 
not only furnish adequate remedies for existing evils, but, in all time to come, 
avoid the perils of similar agitation, by withdrawing the question of slavery 
from the halls of congress and the political arena, and committing it to the ar- 
bitration of those who were immediately interested in, and alone responsible 
for its consequences. With a view of conforming their action to what they 
regard as the settled policy of the government, sanctioned by the approving 
voice of the American people, your committee have deemed it their duty to 
incorporate and perpetuate, in their territorial bill, the principles and spirit of 
those measures. If any other considerations were necessary to render the pro- 
priety of this course imperative upon the committee, they may be found in the 
fact that the Nebraska country occupies the same relative position to the slav- 
ery question, as did New Mexico and Utah, when those territories were or- 
ganized. 

"It was a disputed point, whether slavery was prohibited by law in the 
country acquired from Mexico. On the one hand, it was contended, as a legal 
proposition, that slavery, having been prohibited by the enactments of Mexico, 
according to the laws of nations, we received the country with all its local 
laws and domestic institutions attached to the soil, so far as they did not con- 
flict with the constitution of the United States ; and that a law either protect- 
ing or prohibiting slavery, was not repugnant to that instrument, as was evi- 
denced by the fact that one half of the states of the Union tolerated, while 






REPORT OF COMMITTEE. Gil 

the other half prohibited, the institution of slavery. ' On the other hand, it 
was insisted that, by virtue of the constitution of the United States, every citi- 
zen had a right to remove to any territory of the Union, and carry his prop- 
erty with him under the protection of law, whether that property consisted of 
persons or things. The difficulties arising from this diversity of opinion, were 
greatly aggravated by the fact that there were many persons on both sides of 
the legal controversy, who were unwilling to abide the decision of the courts 
on the legal matters in dispute ; thus, among those who claimed that the Mex- 
ican laws were still in force, and, consequently, that slavery was already pro- 
hibited in those territories by valid enactment, there were many who insisted 
upon congress making the matter certain, by enacting another prohibition. In 
like manner, some of those who argued that Mexican law had ceased to have 
any binding force, and that the constitution tolerated and protected slave 
property in those territories, were unwilling to trust the decision of the courts 
upon the point, and insisted that congress should, by direct enactment, remove 
all legal obstacles to the introduction of slaves into those territories. 

" Such being the character of the controversy in respect to the territory ac- 
quired from Mexico, a similar question has arisen in regard to the right to 
hold slaves in the territory of Nebraska, when the Indian laws shall be with- 
drawn, and the country thrown open to emigration and settlement. By the 
8th section of ' an act to authorize the people of Missouri territory to form a 
constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the 
Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to prohibit slavery in 
certain territories,' approved March Cth, 1820, it was provided, 'that in all that 
territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, 
which lies north of 36° 30' north latitude, not included within the limits of the 
state contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise 
than in the punishment of crimes whereof the parties shall have been duly con- 
victed, shall be, and are hereby, prohibited ; provided always, that any person 
escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any 
state or territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, 
and conveyed to the persons claiming his or her labor or services as aforesaid.' 

" Under this section, as in the case of the Mexican law in New Mexico and 
Utah, it is a disputed point whether slavery is prohibited in Nebraska country 
by valid enactment. The decision of this question involves the constitutional 
power of congress to pass laws prescribing and regulating the domestic insti- 
tutions of the various territories of the Union. In the opinion of those emi- 
nent statesmen who hold that congress is invested with no rightful authority 
to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the territories, the 8th sectiou of the 
act preparatory to the admission of Missouri is null and void ; w^hile the pre- 
vailing sentiment in large portions of the Union sustains the doctrine that the 
constitution of the United States secures to every citizen an inalienable right 
to move into any of the territories with his property, of whatever kind and 
description, and to hold and enjoy the same under the sanction of law. Tour 
committee do not feel themselves called upon to enter upon the discussion of 



612 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

these controverted questions. They involve the same grave issues which pro • 
duced the agitation, the sectional strife, and the fearful struggle of 1850. As 
congress deemed it wise and prudent to refrain from deciding the matters in 
controversy then, either by affirmiug or repealing the Mexican laws, or by an 
act declaratory of the true intent of the constitution, and the extent of the 
protection afforded by it to slave property in the territories, so your committee 
are not prepared to recommend a departure from the course pursued on that 
memorable occasion, either by affirmiug or repealing the 8th section of the 
Missouri act, or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the constitution in 
respect to the legal points in dispute. 

"Your committee deem it fortunate for the peace of the country, and the 
security of the Union, that the controversy then resulted in the adoption of 
the compromise measures, which the two great political parlies, with singular 
unanimity, have affirmed as a cardinal article of their faith, and proclaimed to 
the world as a final settlement of the controversy and an end of the agitation. 
A due respect, therefore, for the avowed opinions of senators, as well as a 
proper sense of patriotic duty, enjoins upon your committee the propriety and 
necessity of a strict adherence to the principles, and even a literal adoption of 
the enactments of that adjustment, in all their territorial bills, so far as the 
same are not locally inapplicable. Those enactments embrace, among other 
things less material to the matters under consideration, the following pro- 
visions : 

" When admitted as a state, the said territory, or any portion of the same, 
shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution 
may prescribe at the time of their admission. 

" That the legislative power and authority of said territory shall be vested 
in the governor and legislative assembly. 

" That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to all rightful 
subjects of legislation, consistent with the constitution of the United States, 
and the provisions of this act ; but no law shall be passed interfering with the 
primary disposal of the soil ; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of 
the United States ; nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be 
taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents. 

"Writs of error and appeals from the final decisions of said supreme court 
shall be allowed, and may be taken to the supreme court of the United States 
in the same manner and under the same regulations as from the circuit courts 
of the United States, where the value of the property or amount in contro- 
versy, to be ascertained by the oath or affirmation of either party, or other 
competent witness, shall exceed one thousand dollars ; except only that, in all 
cases involving title to slaves, the said writs of error or appeals shall be al- 
lowed and decided by the said supreme court, without regard to the value of 
the matter, property, or title in controversy ; and except also, that a writ of 
error or appeal shall also be allowed to the supreme court of the United 
States from the decisions of the said supreme court by this act, or any judge 
thereof, or of the district courts created by this act, or of any judge thereof, 



REMARKS OF MR. DOUGLAS. 613 

upon any writ of habeas corpus involving the question of personal freedom ; 
and each of the said district courts shall have and exercise the same jurisdic- 
tion, in all cases arising under the constitution and laws of the United States, 
as is vested in the circuit and district courts of the United States ; and the 
said supreme and district courts of the said territory, and the respective judges 
thereof, shall and may grant writs of habeas corpus, in all cases in which the 
same are granted by the judges of the United States in the District of Co- 
lumbia. 

" To which may be added the following proposition affirmed by the act of 
1850, known as the fugitive slave law : 

" That the provisions of the ' act respecting fugitives from justice, and per- 
sons escaping from the service of their masters,' approved February 12, 1T93, 
and the provisions of the act to amend and supplementary to the aforesaid act, 
approved September 18, 1850, shall extend to, and be in force in, all the or- 
ganized territories, as well as in the various states of the Union. 

" From these provisions, it is apparent that the compromise measures of 
1850 affirm, and rest upon, the following propositions: 

" First. — That all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and the 
new states to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people 
residing therein, by their appropriate representatives, to be chosen by them for 
that purpose. 

" Second. — That 'all cases involving title to slaves,' and ' questions of per- 
sonal freedom,' are to be referred to the adjudication of the local tribunals, 
with the right of appeal to the supreme court of the United States. 

" Third. — That the provision of the constitution of the United States, in 
respect to fugitives from service, is to be carried into faithful execution in all 
' the original territories,' the same as in the states. 

" The substitute for the bill which your committee have prepared, and which 
is commended to the favorable action of the senate, proposes to carry these 
propositions and principles into practical operation, in the precise language of 
the compromise measures of 1850." 

Some doubts having been expressed whether the amendments repealed the 
Missouri compromise, a special report was made, January 4th, 1854, so 
amending the bill as to leave no doubt upon that subject. The report which 
proposed to open to slavery all the vast territory secured to freedom by the 
Missouri compromise, startled the nation from its "repose," and produced an 
agitation that had never been equaled. 

On the 16th January, Mr. Dixon, of Kentucky, gave notice of an amend- 
ment directly and plainly repealing the Missouri compromise. 

The debate on the bill was opened by Mr. Douglas, on the 30th of .January. 
In justification of his proposition to leave the whole territory open to slavery, 
he insisted that the Missouri compromise had been repealed. One of the 
grounds upon which this declaration was founded, was the action of ccngress 
in 1848, after the acquisition of territory from Mexico, when the senate voted 
into a bill a provision to extend the Missouri compromise line westward to the 



614 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

Tacific ocean ; which provision was defeated in the house. This defeat of that 
proposition Mr. D. construed into an abandonment of the compromise. It 
was this defeat of that compromise that created the struggle of 1850, and the 
necessity for making the new compromise of that year ; the leading feature 
of which was non-intervention by congress as to slavery in the territories — 
leaving the question to be settled by the people therein. It was uf universal 
application — to the country both north and south of 3G° 30'. 

Mr. Douglas said "the legal effect of this bill, if passed, waa neither to leg- 
islate slavery into nor out of these territories, but to leave the people to do as 
they pleased. And why should any man, north or south, object to this princi- 
ple ? It was by the operation of this principle, and not by any dictation from 
the federal government, that slavery had been abolished in half of the twelve 
states in which it existed at the time of the adoption of the constitution." 

In regard to Utah and New Mexico, Mr. D. said: "In 1S50, we who re- 
sisted any attempt to force institutions upon the people of thuse territories in- 
consistent with their wishes and the right to decide for themselves, were 
denounced as slavery propagandists. Every one of us who waa in favor of 
the compromise measures of 1850 was arraigned for having advocated a prin- 
ciple purposing to introduce slavery into those territories, and the people were 
told, and made to believe, that, unless we prohibited it by act of congress, sla- 
very would necessarily and inevitably lie introduced into these territories. 

"Well, sir, we did establish the territorial governments of Utah and New 
Mexico without any prohibition. We gave to these abolitionists a fall oppor- 
tunity of proving whether their predictions would prove true or false. Years 
have rolled round, and the result is before us. The people there have not 
passed any law recognizing, or establishing, or introducing, or protecting sla- 
very in the territories. 

" I do not like, I never did like, the system of legislation on our part, by 
which a geographical line, in violation of the laws of nature, and climate, and 
soil, and of the laws of God, should be run to establish institutions for a peo- 
ple contrary to their wishes ; yet, out of a regard for the peace and quiet of 
the country, out of respect for past pledges, and out of a desire to adhere 
faithfully to all compromises, I sustained the Missouri compromise so long as 
it was in force, and advocated its extension to the Pacific ocean. Now, when 
that has been abandoned, wheu it has been superseded, when a great principle 
of self-government has been substituted for it, I choose to cling to that princi- 
ple, and abide in good faith, not only by the letter, but by the spirit of the last 
compromise. 

" Sir, I do not recognize the right of the abolitionists of this country to ar- 
raign me for being false to sacred pledges, as they have done in their procla- 
mations. Let them show when and where I have ever proposed to violate a 
compact. I have proved that I stood by the compact of 1820 and 1845, and 
proposed its continuance and observance in 1848. I have proved that the free- 
soilers and abolitionists were the guilty parties who violated that compromise 
then. I should like to compare notes with these abolition confederates about 



REMARKS OF MR. CHASE. 615 

adherence to compromises. When did they stand by or approve of any one 
that was ever made ? 

" Did not every abolitionist and free-soiler in America denounce the Mis- 
souri compromise in 1820 ? Did they not for years hunt dows ravenously, for 
his blood, every man who assisted in making that compromise ? Did they not 
in 1S45, when Texas was annexed, denounce all of us who went for the annex- 
ation of Texas and for the continuation of the Missouri compromise, line 
through it ? Did they not, in 1848, denounce me as a slavery propagandist 
for standing by the principles of the Missouri compromise, and proposing to 
continue it to the Pacific ocean ? Did they not themselves violate and repu- 
diate it then ? Is not the charge of bad faith true as to every abolitionist in 
America, instead of being true as to me and the committee, and those who 
advocate this bill ? 

" They talk about the bill being a violation of the compromise measures of 
1850. Who can show me a man in either house of congress who was in favor 
of those compromise measures in 1850, and who is not now in favor of leaving 
the people of Nebraska and Kansas to do as they please upon the subject of 
slavery, according to the principle of my bill ? Is there one ? If so, I have 
not heard of him. This tornado has been raised by abolitionists, and aboli- 
tionists alone. They have made an impression upon the public mind, in the 
way in which I have mentioned, by a falsification of the law and the facts ; 
and this whole organization against the compromise measures of 1850 is an 
abolition movement. I presume they had some hope of getting a few tender- 
footed democrats into their plot ; and, acting on what they supposed they 
might do, they sent forth publicly to the world the falsehood that their address 
was signed by the senators and a majority of the representatives from the state 
of Ohio ; but when we come to examine signatures, we find no one whig there, 
no one democrat there ; none but pure, unmitigated, unadulterated aboli- 
tionists." 

On the 3d of February, Mr. Chase, senator from Ohio, moved to strike out 
from the bill the words, " was superseded by the principles of the legislation 
of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, and," so that the clause 
would read : " That the constitution, and all laws of the United States which 
are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the 
said territory of Nebraska as elsewhere within the United States, except the 
eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the 
Union, approved March 6, 1820, which is hereby declared inoperative." 

Mr. Chase then proceeded to reply to Mr. Douglas : " Mr. President, I had 
occasion, a few days ago, to expose the utter groundlessness of the personal 
charges made by the senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) against myself and 
the other signers of the independent democratic appeal. I now move to strike 
from this bill a statement which I will to-day demonstrate to be without any 
foundation in fact or in history. I intend afterwards to move to strike out the 
whole clause annulling the Missouri prohibition. 

" A few days only have elapsed since the congress of the United States as- 



616 EEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

sembled in this capitol. Then no agitation seemed to disturb the political 
elements. Two of the great political parties of the country, in their national 
conventions, had announced that slavery agitation was at an end, and that 
henceforth that subject was not to be discussed in congress or out of congress. 
The president, in his annual mess >,ge, had referred to this state of opinion, and 
had declared his fixed purpose to maintain, as far as any responsibility attached 
to him, the quiet of the country. 

" The agreement of the two old political parties, thus referred to by the 
chief magistrate of the country, was complete, and a large majority of the 
American people seemed to acquiesce in the legislation of which he spoke. A 
few of ns, indeed, doubted the accuracy of these statements, and the perman- 
ency of this repose. We never believed that the acts of 1850 would prove to 
be a permanent adjustment of the slavery question. But, sir, we only repre- 
sented a small, though vigorous and growing party iu the country. Our num- 
ber was small in congress. By some we were regarded as visionaries — by 
some as factionists ; while almost all agreed in pronouncing us mistaken. And 
so, sir, the country was at peace. As the eye swept the entire circumference 
of the horizon and upward to mid-heaven, not a cloud appeared ; to common 
observation there was no mist or stain upon the clearness of the sky. But 
suddenly all is changed; rattling thunder breaks from the cloudless firmament. 
The storm bursts forth in fury. And now we find ourselves in the midst of an 
agitation, the end and issue of which no man can foresee. 

" Now, sir, who is responsible for this renewal of strife and controversy ? 
Not we, for we have introduced no question of territorial slavery into con- 
gress — not we, who are denounced as agitators and factionists. No, sir : the 
quietists and the finalists have become agitators ; they who told us that all 
agitation was quieted, and that the resolutions of the political conventions put 
a final period to the discussion of slavery. This will not escape the observa- 
tion of the country. It is slavery that renews the strife. It is slavery that 
again wants room. It is slavery with its insatiate demand for more slave ter- 
ritory and more slave states. And what does slavery ask for now ? Why, sir, 
it demands that a time-honored and sacred compact shall be rescinded — a com- 
pact which has endured through a whole generation— a compact which has 
been universally regarded as inviolable, north and south — a compact, the con- 
stitutionality of which few have doubted, and by which all have consented to 
abide. 

" It will not answer to violate such a compact without a pretext. Some 
plausible ground must be discovered or invented for such an act , and such a 
ground is supposed to be found in the doctrine which was advanced the other 
day by the senator from Illinois, that the compromise acts of 1850 'super- 
seded' the prohibition of slavery north of 36° 30', in the act preparatory for 
the admission of Missouri. Ay, sir, ' superseded ' is the phrase — ' superseded 
by the principles of the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise 
measures.' 

" It is agaiust this statement, untrue in fact, and without foundation in his- 



REMARKS OF MR. CHASE. 617 

tory, that the amendment which I have proposed is directed During the 
long discussion of the compromise measures in 1850, it was never suggested 
that they were to supersede the Missouri prohibition. At the last session, a 
Nebraska bill passed the house, came to the senate, and was reported on by 
Mr. Douglas, who also made a speech in its favor ; and in all there was uot a 
word about repeal by supersedure. The senator from Missouri, (Mr. Atch- 
ison,) had also spoken upon the bill, and had distinctly declared that the Mis- 
souri prohibition was not and could not be repealed." An extract was here 
read from the speech of this senator, of which this is a part : 

' I have always been of opinion that the first great error committed in the 
political history of this country was the ordinance of 118*7, rendering the 
northwest territory free territory. The nest great error was the Missouri 
compromise. But they are both irremediable. There is no remedy for them. 
We must submit to them. I am prepared to do it. It is evident that the 
Missouri compromise cannot be repealed. So far as that question is con- 
cerned, we might as well agree to the admission of this territory now as next 
year, or, five or ten years hence.' 

"Now, sir, when was this said? It was on the morning of the 4th of 
March, just before the close of the last session, when that Nebraska bill, 
reported by the senator from Illinois, which proposed no repeal, and suggested 
no supersedure, was under discussion. I think, sir, that all this shows pretty 
clearly that up to the very close of the last session of congress, nobody had 
ever thought of a repeal by supersedure. Then what took place at the com- 
mencement of the present session? The senator from Iowa, early in Decem- 
ber, introduced a bill for the organization of Nebraska. I believe it was the 
same bill that was under discussion here at the last session, line for line, and 
word for word. If I am wrong, the senator will correct me. Did the senator 
from Iowa then entertain the idea that the Missouri prohibition had been 
superseded ? No, sir ; neither he or any other man here, so far as could be 
judged from any discussion, or statement, or remark, had received this notion." 
Mr. C. then referred to Mr. Douglas' own report of the 4th of January 
last, made oulj thirty days ago. " Nor did this report express the opinion 
that the compromise acts of 1S50 had superseded the Missouri prohibition. 
The committee said that some affirmed and others denied that the Mexican 
laws prohibiting slavery in the territory acquired from Mexico, were still in 
force there ; and they said that the territorial compromise acts stood clear of 
these questions. They simply provided ' that the states organized out of these 
territories might come in with or without slavery as they should elect, but did 
not affect the question whether slaves could or could not be introduced before 
the organization of state governments. That question was left to judicial 
decision.' 

" So in respect to the Nebraska territory. There were southern men who 
contended they would, by virtue of the constitution, take their slaves thither, 
and hold them there, notwithstanding the Missouri prohibition, while a major- 
ity of the American people, north and south, believed that prohibition consti- 
40 



618 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

tutional and effectual. But did the committee propose to repeal it, or suggest 
that it bad been superseded ? No. They said they did ' not feel themselves 
called upon to enter into the discussiou of these controverted questions. Con- 
gress deemed it wise and prudent to refrain from deciding the matters in con- 
troversy then, either by affirming or repealing the Mexican laws, or by an act 
declaratory of the true intent of the constitution and the extent of the protec- 
tion afforded by it to slave property in the territories ; so your committee are 
not prepared now to recommend a departure from the course pursued on that 
memorable occasion, either by affirming or repealing the eighth section of the 
Missouri act, or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the constitution in 
respect to the legal points in dispute.' 

" Mr. President, here are very remarkable facts. The committee on territo- 
ries declared that it was not wise, that it was not prudent, that it was not right 
to renew the old controversy, and to rouse agitation. They declared that they 
would abstain from any recommendation of a repeal of the prohibition, or of 
any provision declaratory of the construction of the constitution in respect to 
the legal points in dispute." 

Mr. Chase traced the progress of the committee's bill. " As published Jan- 
uary Uh, it contained twenty sections. On the 10th, it was published again : 
it then had twenty-one sections. The omission of the last section was alleged 
to be a clerical error. It was, he said, a singular fact that this twenty-first 
section was not in harmony with the committee's report. It in effect repealed 
the Missouri prohibition, which the committee, in their report, declared ought 
not to be done. Was it possible that this was a mere clerical error ? 

" But the addition of this section did not help the bill. It declared, among 
other things, that the question of slavery in the territories and in the states to 
be formed therefrom, was to be left to the decision of the people through their 
representatives. But this did not meet the approbation of the southern gen- 
tlemen, who claimed the right to take their slaves into the territories, notwith- 
standing any prohibition either by congress or by a territorial legislature. It 
was not enough that the committee had abandoned their report, and added this 
twenty-first section in direct contravention of its reasonings and principles ; 
the section must itself be abandoned and the repeal of the Missouri prohibition 
placed in a shape which would not deny the slaveholding claim. He next alluded 
to the amendment of the senator from Kentucky, which came square up to 
repeal and to the claim. The amendment probably produced some fluttering 
and some consultation. It met the views of southern senators, and probably 
determined the shape which the bill had assumed. For it was just seven 
days after the amendment had been offered by senator Dixon, that a fresh 
amendment was reported from the committee on territories, in the shape of a 
new bill, enlarged to forty sections. This new bill cuts off from the proposed 
territory half a degree of latitude on the south, and divides the residue into 
two territories." This new bill thus provided for the repeal of the Missouri 
prohibition : 

" The constitution and all laws of the United States which are not locally inap- 



REMARKS OF MR. CHASE- 619 

plicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said territory of Ne- 
braska as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the 
act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 
6, 1820, which was superseded by the principles of the legislation of 1850, 
commonly called the compromise measures, and is therefore declared inopera- 
tive. ' 

" Doubtless, Mr. President, this provision operates as a repeal of the prohi- 
bition. The senator from Kentucky was right when he said it was in effect the 
equivalent of his amendment. Those who are willing to break up and destroy 
the old compact of 1820, can vote for this bill with full assurance that such 
will be its effect. But I appeal to them not to vote for this superseding clause. 
I ask them not to incorporate into the legislation of the country a declaration 
which every one knows to be wholly untrue. I have said that this doctrine of 
supersedure is new. I have now proved that it is a plant of but ten day's 
growth. It was never seen or heard of until the 23d day of January, 1854. 
It was upon that day that this tree of Upas was planted : we already see its 
poisonous fruits. 

" The provision I have quoted abrogates the Missouri prohibition. It as- 
serts no right in the territorial legislature to prohibit slavery. The senator 
from Illinois, in his speech, was very careful to assert no right of legislation 
in a territorial legislature, except subject to the restrictions and limitations of 
the constitution. We know well enough what the understanding or claim of 
southern gentlemen is in respect to these limitations and restrictions. They 
insist that by them every territorial legislature is absolutely precluded from all 
power of legislation for the prohibition of slavery. I warn gentlemen who 
propose to support this bill, that their votes for this provision will be regarded 
as admitting this claim." 

Having thus endeavored to prove that the doctrine that the Missouri com- 
promise had been superseded by the acts of 1850, was new, Mr. Chase at- 
tempted to prove it unfounded. Mr. Douglas had charged as a misrepresen- 
tation, the statement in the appeal of the independent democrats, that the acts 
of 1850 were intended to apply to the territory acquired from Mexico only ; 
and that they did not touch the existing exclusion of slavery from what was 
now called Nebraska, Mr. Chase referred to the report of the committee of 
thirteen in 1850, which distinctly stated that the compromise measures applied 
to the newly acquired territory, and he appealed to Gen. Cass, who sat near 
him, whether any thing had been said in the committee of thirteen, or else- 
where, which indicated a purpose to apply them to any other territory. (Mr. 
Cass remained silent.) Mr. C. therefore assumed that he was correct ; and 
he proceeded at length in attempting to disprove the assertion of Mr. Doug- 
las, that the Missouri compromise had been superseded. He said : 

" But the senator from Illinois says that the territorial compromise acts did 
in fact apply to other territory than that acquired from Mexico. How does 
he prove that ? He says that a part of the territory was acquired from Texas. 
But this very territory which he says was acquired from Texas, was first ac- 



G20 REPEAL OF TIIE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

quired first from Mexico. After Mexico ceded it to the United States, Texas 
claimed that that cession inured to ber benefit. That claim only was relin- 
quished to the United States. The case, then, stands thus : we acquired the 
territory from Mexico ; Texas claimed it, but gave up her claim. This cer- 
tainly does not disprove the assertion that the territory was acquired from 
Mexico, and as certainly it does not sustain the senator's assertion that it was 
acquired from Texas. 

" The senator next tells the senate and the country, that by the Utah act, 
here was included in the territory of Utah a portion of the old Louisiana ac- 
quisition, covered by the Missouri prohibition, which prohibition was annulled 
as to that portion by the provisions of that act. Every one at all acquainted 
with our public history knows that the dividing line between Spain and the 
United States extended due north from the source of the Arkansas to the 42d 
parallel of north latitude. That arbitrary line left within the Louisiana ac- 
quisition a little valley in the midst of rocky mountains, where several branches 
of the Grand river, one of the affluents of the Colorado, take their rise. Here 
is the map. Here spreads out the vast territory of Utah, more than one hun- 
dred and eighty-seveu thousand square miles. Here is the little spot, hardly 
a pin's point upon the map, which I cover with the tip of my little finger, 
which, according to the boundary fixed by the territorial bill, was cut off from 
the Louisiana acquisition and included in Utah. The account given of it in 
the senator's speech would lead one to suppose that it was an important part 
of the Louisiana acquisition. It is, in fact, not of the smallest consequence. 
There are no inhabitants there. It was known that the Rocky Mountain range 
was very near the arbitrary line fixed by the treaty, and nobody ever dreamed 
that the adoption of that range as the eastern boundary of Utah would abro- 
gate the Missouri prohibition. The senator reported that boundary line. Did 
he tell the senate or the country that its establishment would have that effect ? 
No, sir ; never. The assertion of the senator that a ' close examination of the 
Utah act clearly establishes the fact that it was the intent, as well as the legal 
effect of the compromise measures of 1850 to supersede the Missouri compro- 
mise, and all geographical and territorial lines,' is little short of preposterous. 
There was no intent at all, except to make a convenient eastern boundary to 
Utah, and no legal effect at all upon the Louisiana acquisition, except to cut 
off from it the little valley of the Middle Park." 

Mr Douglas had charged the signers of the appeal with misrepresentation 
in assuming that it was the policy of the fathers of the republic to prohibit 
slavery in all the territories ceded by the old states to the Union. Mr. Chase 
commenced with a reference to the sentiments of Jefferson, and traced the his- 
tory of the action of the government on the subject, through a long period of 
years, in vindication of the statement controverted by Mr. Douglas. 

Mr. Chase's amendment was negatived, 13 to 30. 

Mr. Houston advocated the rights of the Indians included within the terri- 
tories, who were to be disturbed by this bill. He adverted to the pledges made 
to them from time to time, and especially the assurance given them in the treaty 



REMARKS OF GEN. CASS. 621 

of 1835, that their lands beyond the Mississippi should never, without their 
consent, be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any state or 
territory. He objected to the bill oh other grounds. There was no necessity 
for joining three such important subjects. The organization of Nebraska with- 
out a sufficient population to warrant it, nearly all being Indian territory; the 
organization of Kansas, entirely held and occupied by Indians ; and the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise, an important consideration for the American peo- 
ple, were all placed in this omnibus shape, and presented for action. He had 
on former occasions supported the Missouri compromi isted by the south, 

because they regarded it as a solemn compact. Texas, he said, had been ad- 
mitted upon that principle. It was an express condition of her admission, that 
in all new states formed out of her territory north of 36° 30', slavery should 
be prohibited. 

Mr. H. said he had voted for the compromise of 1850; but he did not sup- 
pose that he was voting to repeal the Missouri compromise. He regarded it 
as a 'final settlement of this mooted question, this source of agitation. Great 
trials and emergencies, he feared, would arise between the north and the south. 
The south was in a minority ; she could not be otherwise. If she should ac- 
cede to the violation of a compact so sacred as this, she would set an example 
that would be followed when she did not desire it. He averred that he would 
resist every attempt to infringe or repeal the Missouri compromise. 

On the 15th of February, the question was taken on the substitute of the 
committee reported by Mr. Douglas, to strike out the words which declared 
the Missouri compromise to be superseded by that of 1850, and to insert the 
provision declaring the Missouri compromise inconsistent with the principles 
of non-intervention of congress with slavery in the states and territories as re- 
cognized by the legislation of 1850, and inoperative and void ; and declaring the 
people free to regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only 
to the constitution of the United States. The substitute was adopted, 35 to 10. 

Mr. Cass expressed his regret that this question of the repeal of tl re Mis- 
souri compromise, which opened all the disputed points connected with the 
subject of congressional action upon slavery in the territories, had again been 
brought before the senate. The advantages to result from the measure would 
not outweigh the injury which the ill-feeling accompanying the discussion would 
produce. Nor would the south derive any benefit from it, as no human power 
could establish slavery in the regions defined by these bills. He was, however, 
in favor of the amendment of the committee which declared that the people, 
whether in the territories, or in the states to be formed from them, were free to 
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the con- 
stitution of the United States. 

Mr. Cass, in the course of his speech, replied to the complaints that the 
south was excluded from, and robbed of the territories, and that they were ap- 
propriated to the north. While he repeated the opinion that congress was not 
authorized to restrain a person, by legal enactment, from taking slaves into any 
territory of the United States, he maintained that the prohibition of shivery 



022 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

by local legislation was not an exclusion of the south more thau the north, as 
a slaveholder and a non-slaveholder could go into such territory on equal 
terms ; and he denied the charge of the south, that congress, by admitting a 
state whose constitution interdicts slavery, is responsible for that act. 

In relation to the power of congress over the territories, he contended that 
irer granted by the constitution to regulate and *' dispose of the terri- 
tory and other property of the United States," meant simply the power to dis- 
pose of the public lands, as property, and did not include the power of life and 
death over the inhabitants. 

The bill was further discussed until March 2d, wheu the vote was taken on 
Mr. Chase's amendment, to allow the people of the territory, through their 
representatives, to prohibit slavery, which was rejected by a vote of 36 to 
10. Mr. Badger's amendment, " that nothing herein contained shall be con- 
strued to revive or put hi force any law or regulation which may have existed 
prior to the act of March Gth, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting 
or abolishing slavery," was carried, yeas, 35 ; nays, 6. 

On the 3d of March, the bill was put upon its final passage, when a long 
and earnest debate ensued. Mr. Seward addressed the senate at a late hour, 
as follows : 

Mr. President : — I rise with no purpose of further resisting or even delay- 
ing the passage of this bill. Let its advocates have only a little patience, and 
they will soon reach the object for which they have struggled so earnestly and 
so long. The sun has set for the last time upon the guaranteed and certain 
liberties of all the unsettled and unorganized portions of the American conti- 
nent that lie within the jurisdiction of the United States. To-morrow's sun 
will rise in dim eclipse over them. How long that obscuration shall last, is 
known only to the Power that directs and controls all human events. For 
myself, I know only this — that now no human power will prevent its coming 
on, and that its passing off will be hastened and secured by others than those 
now here, and perhaps by only those belonging to future generations. 

Sir, it would be almost factious to offer further resistance to this measure 
here. Indeed, successful resistance was never expected to be made in this 
hall. The senate floor is an old battle ground, on which have been fought 
many contests, and always, at least since 1820, with fortune adverse to the 
cause of equal and universal freedom. We were only a few here who engaged 
in that cause in the beginning of this contest. All that we could hope to 
do — all that we did hope to do — was to organize and to prepare the issue for 
the house of representatives, to which the country would look for its decision 
as authoritative, and to awaken the country that it might be ready for the ap- 
peal which would be made, whatever the decision of congress might be. We 
are no stronger now. Only fourteen at the first, it will be fortunate if, among 
the ills and accidents which surround us, we shall maintain that number to 
the end. 

We are now on the eve of the consummation of a great national transac- 
tion — a transaction which will close a cycle in the history of our country — and 



REMAKES OF MR. SEWARD. 623 

it is impossible not to desire to pause a moment and survey the scene around 
us, and the prospect before us. However obscure we may individually be, our 
connection with this great transaction will perpetuate our names for the praise 
or for the censure of future ages, and perhaps in regions far remote. If, then, 
we had no other motive for our actions but that of an honest desire for a just 
fame, we could not be indifferent to that scene and that prospect. But indi- 
vidual interests and ambition sink into insignificance in view of the interests 
of our country and of mankind. These interests awaken, at least in me, an 
intense solicitude. 

It was said by some in the beginning, and it has been said by others later in 
this debate, that it was doubtful whether it would be the cause of slavery or 
the cause of freedom that would gain advantages from the passage of this bill. 
I do not find it necessary to be censorious, nor even unjust to others, in order 
that my own course may be approved. I am sure that the honorable senator 
from Illinois, [Mr. Douglas,] did not mean that the slave states should gain an 
advantage over the free states ; for he disclaimed it when he introduced the 
bill. I believe in all candor, that the honorable senator from Georgia, [Mr. 
Toombs,] who comes out at the close of the battle as one of the chiefest lead- 
ers of the victorious party, is sincere in declaring his own opinion that the 
slave states will gain no uujust advantage over the free states, because he dis- 
claims it as a triumph in their behalf. Notwithstanding all this, however, 
what has occurred here and in the country, during this contest, has compelled 
a conviction that slavery will gain something, and freedom will endure a severe, 
though I hope not an irretrievable, loss. The slaveholding states are passive, 
quiet, content, and satisfied with the prospective boon, and the free states are 
excited and alarmed with fearful forebodings and apprehensions. The im- 
patience for the speedy passage of the bill, manifested by its friends, betrays a 
knowledge that this is the condition of public sentiment in the free states. 
They thought in the begining that it was necessary to guard the measure by 
inserting the Clayton amendment, which would exclude unnaturalized foreign 
inhabitants of the territories from the right of suffrage. And now they seem 
willing with almost perfect unanimity, to relinquish that safe-guard, rather 
than to delay the adoption of the principal measure for at most a year, per- 
haps for only a week or a day. Suppose that the senate should adhere to that 
condition, which so lately was thought so wise and so important — what then ? 
The bill could only go back to the house of representatives, which must either 
yield or insist 1 In the one case or in the other, a decision in favor of the bill 
would be secured ; for even if the house should disagree, the senate would 
have time to recede. But the majority will hazard nothing, even on a pros- 
pect so certain as this. They will recede at once, without a moment's further 
struggle, from the condition, and thus secure the passage of this bill now, to- 
night. "Why such haste ? Even if the question were to go to the country be- 
fore a final decision here, what would there be wrong in that ? There is uo 
man living who will say that the country anticipated, or that he anticipated, 



624 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

the agitation of this measure in congress, when this congress was elected, or 
even when it assembled in December last. 

Under such circumstances, and in the midst of agitation, and excitement, 
and debates, it is only fair to say, that certainly the country has not decide.d in 
favor of the bill. The refusal, then, to let the question go to the country is a 
conclusive proof that the slave states, as represented here, expect from the 
passage of this bill what the free states insist that they will lose by it — an ad- 
vantage, a material advantage, and not a mere abstraction. There are, men in 
es slates, as in the free states, who insist always too pertinaciously upon 
mere abstractions. But that is not the policy of the slave states to-day. They 
are in earnest in seeking for, and securing, an object, and an important one. I 
believe they are going to have it. I do not know how long the advantage 
gained will last, nor how great or comprehensive it will be. Every senator 
who agrees with me in opinion must feel as I do — that under such circumstances 
he can forego nothing that can be done decently, with due respect to difference 
of opinion, and consistently with the constitutional and settled rules of legis- 
lation, to place the true merits of the question before the country. Questions 
sometimes occur which seem to have two right sides. Such were the questions 
that divided the English nation between Pitt and Fox- — such the contest be- 
tween the assailant and the defender of Quebec. The judgment of the world 
was suspended by its sympathies, and seemed ready to descend in favor of him 
who should be most gallant in conduct. And so, when both fell with equal 
chivalry on the same field, the survivors united in raising a common monument 
to the glorious but rival memories of Wolfe and Montcalm. But this contest 
involves a moral question. The slave states so present it. They maintain 
that African slavery is not erroneous, not unjust, not inconsistent with the ad- 
vancing cause of human nature. Since they so regard it, I do not expect to 
see statesmen representing those states indifferent about a vindication of this 
system by the congress of the United States. On the other hand, we of the 
free states regard slavery as erroneous, unjust, oppressive, and therefore abso- 
lutely inconsistent with the principles of the American constitution and govern- 
ment. "Who will expect us to be indifferent to the decisions of the American 
people and of mankind on such an issue ? 

Again : there is suspended on the issue of this contest the political equilib- 
rium between the free and the slave states. It is no ephemeral question, no 
idle question, whether slavery shall go on increasing its influence over the cen- 
tral power here, or whether freedom shall gain the ascendency. I do not ex- 
pect to see statesmen of the slave states indifferent on so momentous a ques- 
tion, and as little can it be expected that those of the free states will betray 
their own great cause. And now it remains for me to declare, in view of the 
decision of this controversy so near at hand, that I have seen nothing and 
heard nothing during its progress to change the opinions which at the earliest 
proper period I deliberately expressed. Certainly, I have not seen the evi- 
dence then promised, that the free states would acquiesce in the measure. As 
certainly, too, I may say that I have not seen the fulfillment of the promise 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 625 

that the history of the last thirty years would be revised, corrected, and 
amended, and that it would then appear that the country, during all that pe- 
riod, had been resting in prosperity, and contentment, and peace, not upon a 
valid, constitutional, and irrevocable compromise between -the slave states and 
the free states, but upon an unconstitutional and false, and even infamous, act 
of congressional usurpation. 

On the contrary, I am now, if possible, more than ever satisfied that, after 
all tins debate, the history of the country will go down to posterity just as it 
stood before, carrying to them the everlasting facts, that until 1820 the con- 
gress of the United States legislated to prevent the introduction of slavery 
into new territories whenever that object was practicable ; and that in that 
year they so far modified that policy, under alarming apprehensions of civil 
convulsion, by a constitutional enactment in the character of a compact, as to 
admit Missouri a new slave state, but upon the express condition, stipulated in 
favor of the free states, that slavery should forever be prohibited in all the 
residue of the existing and unorganized territories of the United States lying 
north of the parallel 36° 30' north latitude. Certainly, I find nothing to win 
my favor toward the bill in the proposition of the senator from Maryland, 
[Mr. Pearce,] to restore the Clayton amendment, which was struck out in the 
house of representatives. So far from voting for that proposition, I shall vote 
against it now, as I did when it was under consideration here before, in accor- 
dance with the opinion adopted as early as any political opinions I ever had, 
and cherished as long, that the right of suffrage is not a mere conventional 
right, but an inherent natural right, of which no government can rightly de- 
prive any adult man who is subject to its authority, and obligated to its sup- 
port. 

I hold, moreover, sir that inasmuch as every man is, by force of circum- 
stances beyond his own control, a subject of government somewhere, he is, by 
the very constitution of human society, entitled to share equally in the confer- 
ring of political power on those who wield it, if he is not disqualified by crime; 
that in a despotic government he ought to be allowed arms, in a free govern- 
ment the ballot or the open vote, as a means of self-protection against unen- 
durable oppression. I am not likely, therefore, to restore to this bill an 
amendment which would deprive it of an important feature imposed upon it 
by the house of representatives, and that one, perhaps, the only feature that 
harmonizes with my own convictions of justice. It is true that the house stip- 
ulates such suffrage for white men as a condition for opening the territory 
to the possible proscription and slavery of the African. I shall separate 
them. I shall vote for the former and against the latter, glad to get universal 
suffrage for white men, if only that can be gained now, and working right on, 
full of hope and confidence, for the prevention or the abrogation of slavery in 
the territories hereafter. 

Sir, I am surprised at the pertinacity with which the honorable senator from 
Delaware, mine ancient and honorable friend, [Mr. Clayton,] perseveres in op- 
posing the granting of the right of suffrage to the unnaturalized foreigner in 



626 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

the territories. Congress cannot deny him that right. Here is the third a. 
tide of that convention by which Louisiana, including Kansas and Nebraska, 
was ceded to the United States : 

"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union 
of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the prin- 
ciples of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of the rights, privileges, 
and immunities of citizens of the United States ; and in the mean time they 
shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, prop- 
erty, and the religion they profess." 

The inhabitants of Kansas and Nebraska are citizens already, aud by force 
of this treaty must continue to be, and as such to enjoy the right of suffrage, 
whatever laws you may make to the contrary. My opinions are well known, 
to wit : that slavery is not only an evil, but a local one, injurious and ulti- 
mately pernicious to society, wherever it exists, and in conflict with the consti- 
tutional principles of society in this country. I am not willing to extend nor 
to permit the extension of that local evil into regions now free within our 
empire. I know that there are some who differ from me, and who regard the 
constitution of the United States as an instrument which sanctions slavery as 
well as freedom. But if I could admit a proposition so incongruous with the 
letter and spirit of the federal constitution, and the known sentiments of its 
illustrious founders, and so should conclude that slavery was national, I must 
still cherish the opinion that it is an evil ; and because it is a national one, I 
am the more firmly held and bound to prevent an increase of it, tending, as I 
think it manifestly does, to the weakening and ultimate overthrow of the con- 
stitution itself, and therefore to the injury of all mankind. I know there have 
been states which have endured long, and achieved much, which tolerated 
slavery ; but that was not the slavery of caste, like African slavery. Such 
slavery tends to demoralize equally the subjected race and the superior one. 
It has been the absence of such slavery from Europe that has given her nations 
their superiority over other countries in that hemisphere. Slavery, wherever 
it exists, begets fear, and fear is the parent of weakness. What is the secret 
of that eternal, sleepless anxiety in the legislative halls, and even at the fire- 
sides of the slave states, always asking new stipulations, new compromises 
and abrogation of compromises, new assumptions of power and abnegations 
of power, but fear ? It is the apprehension that, even if safe now, they will 
not always or long be secure against some invasion or some aggression from 
the free states. What is the secret of the humiliating part which proud old 
Spain is acting at this day, trembling between alarms of American intrusion 
into Cuba on one side, and British dictation on the other, but the fact that 
she has cherished slavery so long, and still cherishes it, in the last of her 
American colonial possessions ? Thus far Kansas and Nebraska are safe, 
under the laws of 1820, against the introduction of this element of national 
debility and decline. The bill before us, as we are assured, contains a great 
principle, a glorious principle ; and yet that principle, when fully ascertained, 
proves to be nothing less than the subversion of that security, not only within 



REMAKES OF MR. SEWARD. G27 

the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, but within all the other present and 
future territories of the United States. Thus it it is quite clear that it is not 
a principle alone that is involved, but that those who crowd this measure with 
so much zeal and earnestness must expect that either freedom or slavery shall 
gain something by it in those regions. The case, then, stands thus in Kansas 
and Nebraska : freedom may lose, but certainly can gaiu nothing ; while 
slavery may gain, but as certainly can lose nothing. 

So far as I am concerned, the time for looking on the dark side has passed. 
I feel quite sure that slavery at most can get nothing more than Kausas; 
while Nebraska — the wider northern region — will, under existing circum- 
stances, escape, for the reason that its soil and climate are uncongenial with 
the staples of slave culture — rice, sugar, cotton, and tobacco. Moreover, since 
the public attention has been so well and so effectually directed toward the 
subject, I cherish a hope that slavery may be prevented even from gaining a 
foothold in Kansas. Congress only gives consent, but it does not and cannot 
introduce slavery there. Slavery will be embarrassed by its own overgrasping 
spirit. No one, I am sure, anticipates the possible reestablishutent of the 
African slave-trade. The tide of emigration to Kausas is therefore to be sup- 
plied there solely by the domestic fountain of slave production. But slavery 
has also other regions besides Kansas to be filled from that fountain. There 
are all of New Mexico and all of Utah already within the United States ; and 
then there is Cuba that consumes slave labor and life as fast as any one of the 
slaveholding states can supply it ; and besides these regions, there remains all 
of Mexico down to the Isthmus. The stream of slave labor flowing from so 
small a fouutain, and broken into several divergent channels, will not cover so 
great a field ; and it is reasonably to be hoped that the part of it nearest to 
the North Pole will be the last to be inundated. But African slave emigra- 
tion is to compete with free emigration of white men, and the source of this 
latter tide is as ample as the civilization of the two entire continents. The 
honorable senator from Delaware mentioned, as if it were a startling fact, that 
twenty thousand European immigrants arrived in New York in one month. 
Sir, he has stated the fact with too much moderation. On my return to the 
capital a day or two ago, I met twelve thousand of these emigrants who had 
arrived in New York on one morning, and who had thronged the churches on 
the following Sabbath, to return thanks for deliverence from the perils of the 
sea, and for their arrival in the land, not of slavery, but of liberty. I also 
thank God for their escape, and for their coming. They are now on their way 
westward, and the news of the passage of this bill preceding them, will speed 
many of them towards Kansas and Nebraska. Such arrivals are not extraor- 
dinary — they occur almost every week ; and the immigration from Germany, 
from Great Britian, and from Norway, and from Sweden, during the European 
war, will rise to six or seven hundred thousand souls in a year. And with 
this tide is to be mingled one rapidly swelling from Asia and from the islands 
of the south seas. All the immigrants under this bill, as the house of repre- 
sentatives overruling you have ordered, will be good, loyal, liberty-loving, 



628 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

slavery-fearing citizens. Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states. 
Since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it in behalf of the cause of 
freedom. "We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kan 
God give the victory to the side which is stronger in numbers as it is in right. 

There are, however, earnest advocates of this bill, who do , eot, and 

who, I suppose, do not desire that slavery shall gain possession of Nebraska. 
What do they expect to gain ? The honorable senator from Indiana (Mr. 
Pettit) says that by thus obliterating the Missouri compromise restriction, 
they vi ill gain a tabula rasa, on which the inhabitants of Kansas and Nebraska 
may write whatever they will. This is the great principle of the bill, as he 
understands it. Well, what gain is there in that? You obliterate a consti- 
tution of freedom. If they write a new constitution of freedom, can the new 
be better than the old ? If they write a constitution of slavery, will it not be 
a worse one ? I ask the honorable senator that. But the houoruble senator 
says that the people of Nebraska will have the privilege of establishing insti- 
tutions for themselves. They have now the privilege • ling free 
institutions. Is it a privilege, then, to establish slavery ? It' so, what a 
mockery are all our constitutions, which prevent the inhabitants from capri- 
ciously subverting free institutions and establishing institutions of slavery ! 
Sir, it is a sophism, a subtlety, to talk of conferring upon a country, already 
secure in the blessings of freedom, the power of self-destruction. 

What mankind everywhere want, is not the removal of the constitutions of 
freedom which they have, that they may make at their pleasure constitutions 
of slavery or freedom, but the privilege of retaining constitutions of freedom 
when they already have them, and the removal of constitutions of slavery 
when they have them, that they may establish constitutions of freedom in their 
place. We hold on tenaciously to all existing constitutions of freedom. Who 
denounces any man for diligently adhering to such constitutions ? Who would 
dare to denounce any one for disloyalty to our existing constitutions, if they 
were constitutions of despotism and slavery ? But it is sup] >me that 

this principle is less important in regard to Kansas and Nebraska than as a 
general one — a general principle applicable to all other present and future 
territories of the United States. Do honorable senators then indeed suppose 
they are establishing a principle at all ? If so, I think they egregiously err, 
whether the principle is either good or bad, right or wrong. They are not 
establishing it, and cannot establish it in this way. You subvert one law 
capriciously by making another law in its place. That is all. Will your law 
have any more weight, authority, solemnity, or binding force on future con- 
gresses than the first had ? You abrogate the law of your predecessors — . 
others will have equal power and equal liberty to abrogate yours. You allow 
no barriers around the old law, to protect it from abrogation. You erect none 
around your new law, to stay the hand of future innovators. 

On what ground do you expect the new law to stand ? If you are candid, 
you will confess that you rest your assumptions on the ground that the free 
states will never agitate repeal, but always acquiesce. It may be that you 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 629 

are right. I am not going to predict the course of the free States. I claim 
no authority to speak for them, and still less to say what they will do. But I 
may venture to say, that if they shall not repeal this law it will not be because 
they are not strong enough to do it. They have power in the house of repre- 
sentatives greater than that of the slave states, and, when they choose to 
exercise it, a power greater even here in the senate. The free States are not 
dull scholars, even in practical political strategy. "When you shall have taught 
them that a compromise law establishing freedom can be abrogated, and the 
Uniou nevertheless stand, you will have let them into another secret, namely : 
that a law permitting or establishing slavery can be repealed, and the Union 
nevertheless remain firm. If you inquire why they do not stand by their rights 
and their interests more firmly, I will tell you to the best of my ability. It is 
because they are conscious of their strength, and, therefore, unsuspecting and 
slow to apprehend danger. The reason why you prevail in so many contests, 
is because you are in perpetual fear. 

There cannot be a convocation of abolitionists, however impracticable, in 
Faneuil Hall or the Tabernacle, though it consists of men and women who 
have separated themselves from all effective political parties, and who have 
renounced all political agencies, even though they resolve that they will vote 
for nobody, not even for themselves, to carry out their purposes, and though 
they practice on that resolution, but you take alarm, and your agitation ren- 
ders necessary such compromises as those of 1820 and of 1850. We are 
young in the arts of politics ; you are old. We are strong ; you are weak. 
We are, therefore, over-confident, careless, and indifferent; you are vigilant 
and active. These are traits that redound to your praise. They are men- 
tioned not in your disparagement. I say only that there may be an extent of 
intervention, of aggression on your side, which may induce the north, at some 
time, either in this or some future generation, to adopt your tactics and follow 
your example. Remember now, that by unanimous consent, this new law will 
be a repealable statute, exposed to all the chances of the Missouri compromise. 
It stands an infinitely worse chance of endurance than that compromise did. 

The Missouri compromise was a transaction which wise, learned, patriotic 
statesmen agreed to surround and fortify with the principles of a compact for 
mutual considerations, passed and executed, and therefore, although not irre- 
pealable in fact, yet irrepealable in honor and conscience, and down at least 
until this very session of the congress of the United States, it has had the 
force and authority not merely of an act of congress, but of a covenant 
between the free states and slave states, scarcely less sacred than the consti- 
tution itself. Now, then, who are your contracting parties iu the law estab- 
lishing governments in Kansas and Nebraska, and abrogating the Missouri 
compromise ? What are the equivalents in this law ? What has the north 
given, and what has the south got back, that makes this a contract ? Who 
pretends that it is anything more than an ordinary act of ordinary legislation ? 
If, then, a law which has all the forms and solemnities recognized by common 
conBent as a compact, and is covered with traditions, cannot stand amid this 



630 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

shuffling of the balance between the free states and the slave states, tell me 
what chances this new law that you are passing will have ? 

You are, moreover, setting a precedent which abrogates all compromises. 
Four years ago you obtained the consent of a portion of the free tates — 
enough to render the effort at immediate repeal or resistance alike impossi- 
ble — to what we regard as an unconstitutional act for the surrender of fugitive 
slaves. That was declared by the common consent of the persons acting in 
the name of the two parties, the slave states and the free states in congress, 
an irrepealable law — not even to be questioned, although it violated the con- 
stitution. In establishing this new principle, you expose that law also to the 
chances of repeal. You not only so expose the fugitive slave law, but there 
is no solemnity about the articles for the annexation of Texas to the United 
states, which does not hang about the Missouri compromise , aud when you 
have shown that the Missouri compromise can be repealed, then the articles for 
the annexation of Texas are subject to the will and pleasure and the caprice 
of a temporary majority in congress. Do you, then, expect that the free 
states are to observe compacts, and you to be at liberty to break them ; that 
they are to submit to laws and leave them on the statute-book, however uncon- 
stitutional and however grievous, and that you are to rest under no such obli- 
gation ? I think it is not a reasonable expectation. Say, then, who from the 
north will be bound to admit Kansas, when Kansas shall come in here, if she 
shall come as a slave state ? 

The honorable senator from Georgia ( Mr. Toombs ) — and I know he is as 
sincere as he is ardent — says if he shall be here when Kansas comes as a free 
state, he will vote for her admission. I doubt not that he would ; but he will 
not be here, for the very reason, if there be no other, that he would vote that 
way. When Oregon or Minnesota shall come here for admission — within one 
year, or two years, or three years from this time — we shall then see what your 
new principle is worth in its obligation upon the slaveholding states. No ; 
you establish no principle, yon only abrogate a principle which was established 
for your own security as well as ours ; and while you think you are abnegating 
and resigning all power and all authority on this subject into the hands of the 
people of the territories, you are only getting over a difficulty in settling this 
question in the organization of two new territories, by postponing it till they 
come here to be admitted as states, slave or free. 

Sir, in saying that your new principle will not be established by this bill, I 
reason from obvious, clear, well-settled principles of human nature. Slavery 
and freedom are antagonistical elements of this country. The founders of the 
constitution framed it with a knowledge of that antagonism, and suffered it to 
continue, that it might work out its own ends. There is a commercial anta- 
gonism, an irreconcilable one, between the systems of free labor and slave 
labor. They have been at war with each other ever since the government was 
established, and that war is to continue forever. The contest, when it ripens 
between these two antagonistic elements, is to be settled somewhere ; it is to 
be settled in the seat of central power, in the federal legislature. The consti- 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 631 

tution makes it the duty of the central government to determine questions, as 
often as they shall arise, in favor of one or the other party, and refers the de- 
cision of them to the majority of the votes in the two houses of congress. It 
will come back here, then, in spite of all the efforts to escape from it. 

This antagonism must end either in a separation of the antagonistic parties 

the slaveholding states and the free states — or, secondly, in the complete estab- 
lishment of the influence of the slave power over the free — or else, on the other 
hand, in the establishment of the superior influence of freedom over the inter- 
ests of slavery. It will not be terminated by a voluntary secession of either 
party. Commercial interests bind the slave states and the free states together 
in links of gold that are riveted with iron, and they cannot be broken by pas- 
sion or by ambition. Either party will submit to the ascendency of the other, 
rather than yield the commercial advantages of this Union. Political ties bind 
the Union together — a common necessity, and not merely a common necessity, 
but the common interests of empire — of such empire as the world has never 
before seen. The control of the national power is the control of the great 
western continent ; and the control of this continent is to be, in a very few 
years, the controlling influence in the world. Who is there north, that hates 
slavery so much, or who south, that hates emancipation so intensely, that he 
can attempt, with any hope of success, to break a Union thus forged and welded 
together ? I have always heard, with equal pity and disgust, threats of dis- 
union in the free states, and similar threats in the slaveholding states. I know 
that men may rave in the heat of passion, and under great political excitement; 
but I know that when it comes to a question whether this Union shall stand, 
either with freedom or with slavery, the masses will uphold it, and it will stand 
until some inherent vice in its constitution, not yet disclosed, shall cause its 
dissolution. Now, entertaining these opinions, there are for me only two alter- 
natives, viz : either to let slavery gain unlimited sway, or so to exert what lit- 
tle power and influence I may have, as to secure, if I can, the ultimate pre- 
dominance of freedom. 

In doing this, I do no more than those who believe the slave power is rightest, 
wisest, and best, are doing, and will continue to do, with my free consent, to 
establish its complete supremacy. If they shall succeed, I still shall be, as I 
have been, a loyal citizen. If we succeed, I know they will be loyal also, be- 
cause it will be safest, wisest, and best for them to be so. The question is one, 
not of a day, or of a year, but of many years, and, for aught I know, many 
generations. Like all other great political questions, it will be attended some- 
times by excitement, sometimes by passion, and sometimes, perhaps, even by 
faction ; but it is sure to be settled in a constitutional way, without any violent 
shock to society, or to any of its great interests. It is, moreover, sure to be 
settled rightly ; because it will be settled under the benign influences of repub- 
licanism and Christianity, according to the principles of truth and justice, as 
ascertained by human reason. In pursuing such a course, it seems to me obvi- 
ously as wise as it is necessary to save all existing laws and constitutions which 
are conservative of freedom, and to permit, as far as possible, the establishment 



632 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

of no new ones in favor of slavery ; and thus to turn away the thoughts of the 
states which tolerate slavery, from political efforts to perpetuate what in its 
nature cannot be perpetual, to the more wise and benign policy of emanci- 
pation. 

This, in my humble judgment, is the simple, easy path of duty for the Ameri- 
can statesman. I will not contemplate that other alternative — the greater 
ascendency of the slave power. I believe that if it shall ever come, the voice 
of freedom will cease to be heard in these halls, whatever may be the evils and 
dangers which slavery shall produce. I say this without disrespect for repre- 
sentatives of slave states, and I say it because the rights of petition and of 
debate on that are effectually suppressed — necessarily suppressed — in all the 
slave states, and because they are not always held in reverence, even now, in 
the two houses of congress. When freedom of speech on a subject of such 
vital interest shall have ceased to exist in congress, then I shall expect to see 
slavery not only luxuriating in all new territories, but stealthily creeping even 
into the free states themselves- Believing this, and believing, also, that com- 
plete responsibility of the government to the people is essential to public and 
private safety, and that decline and ruin are sure to follow always in the train 
of slavery, I am sure that this will be no longer a land of freedom and consti- 
tutional liberty when slavery shall have thus become paramount. 

Sir, I have always said that I should not despond, even if this fearful mea- 
sure should be effected ; nor do I now despond. Although, reasoning from 
my present convictions, I should not have voted for the compromise of 1820, 
I have labored, in the very spirit of those who established it, to save the land- 
mark of freedom which it assigned. I have not spoken irreverently even of 
the compromise of 1850, which, as all men know, I opposed earnestly and with 
diligence. Nevertheless, I have always preferred the compromises of the con- 
titution, and have wanted no others. I feared all others. This was a leading 
principle of the great statesman of the south, (Mr. Calhoun). Said he : 

" I see my way in the constitution ; I cannot in a compromise. A compro- 
mise is but an act of congress. It may be overruled at any time. It gives 
us no security. But the constitution is stable. It is a rock on which we can 
stand, and on which we can meet our friends from the non-slaveholding states. 
Tt is a firm and stable ground, on which we can better stand in opposition to 
fanaticism than on the shifting sands of compromise. Let us be done with 
compromises. Let us go back and stand upon the constitution." 

I stood upon this ground in 1850, defending freedom upon it as Mr. Cal- 
houn did in defending slavery. I was overruled then, and I have waited since 
without proposing to abrogate any compromises. 

It has been no proposition of mine to abrogate them now ; but the proposi- 
tion has come from another quarter — from an adverse one. It is about to pre- 
vail. The shifting sands of compromise are passing from under my feet, aud 
they are now, without agency of my own, taking hold again on the rock of the 
constitution. It shall be no fault of mine if they do not remain firm. This 
seems to me auspicious of better days and wiser legislation. Through all the 



PASSAGE OF THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 633 

darkness and gloom of the present hour, bright stars are breaking, that inspire 
me with hope, and excite me to perseverance. They show that the day of 
compromises has past forever, and that henceforward all great questions be- 
tween freedom and slavery legitimately coming here — and none other can 
come shall be decided, as they ought to be, upon their merits, by a fair exer- 
cise of legislative power, and not by bargains of equivocal prudence, if not of 
doubtful morality. 

The house of representatives has, and it always will have, an increasing ma- 
jority of members from the free states. On this occasion, that house has not 
been altogether faithless to the interests of the free states ; for, although it has 
taken away the charter of freedom from Kansas and Nebraska, it has, at the 
same time, told this proud body, in language which compels acquiescence, that 
in submitting the question of its restoration, it would submit it not merely to 
interested citizens, but to the alien inhabitants of the territories also. So the 
great interests of humanity are, after all, thanks to the house of representatives, 
and thanks to God, submitted to the voice of human nature. 

Sir, I see one more sign of hope. The great support of slavery in the south 
has been its alliance with the democratic party of the north. By means of 
that alliance, it obtained paramount influence in this government about the 
year 1800, which from that time to this, with but few and slight interruptions, 
it has maintained. While democracy in the north has thus been supporting 
slavery in the south, the people of the north have been learning more pro- 
foundly the principles of republicanism and of free government. It is an ex- 
traordinary circumstance, which you, sir, the present occupant of the chair, 
(Mr. Stuart,) I am sure will not gainsay, that at this moment, when there 
seems to be a more complete divergence of the federal government in favor 
of slavery than ever before, the sentiment of universal liberty is stronger in all 
free states than it ever was before. With that principle, the present democratic 
party must now come into a closer contest. Their prestige of democracy is 
fast waning, by reason of the hard service which their alliance with their slave- 
holding brethren has imposed upon them. That party perseveres, as indeed it 
must, by reason of its very constitution, in that service, and thus comes into 
closer conflict with elements of true democracy, and for that reason is destined 
to lose, and is fast losing, the power which it has held so firmly and long. That 
power will not be restored until the principle established here now shall be 
reversed, and a constitution shall be given, not only to Kansas and Nebraska, 
but also to every other national territory, which will be not a tabula rasa, but 
a constitution securing equal, universal, and perpetual freedom. 

Mr. Douglas closed the debate ; the vote was taken, and the bill passed ; 
yeas 31, nays 14. 

In the house, a bill had been reported on the 31st of January, by Richard- 
ion, of Illinois, for which, on the 8th of May, he offered as a substitute the 
senate bill, leaving out Clayton's amendment. On the 22d the substitute was 
idopted, and finally passed by a vote of 113 yeas to 100 nays, as follows : 
41 



6 3 4 REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

Representatives from free states in favor of the bill 44 

Representatives from slave states in favor of the bill G9 

— 113 

Representatives from free states against the bill 91 

Representatives from slave states against the bill 9 

— 100 

The bill was sent to the senate, passed, and being approved by the presi- 
dent, became a law, under the title of " An act to organize the territories of 
Kansas and Nebraska." 

COPY OF THE ACT. 

Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United 
States of America in congress assembled, That all that part of the territory 
of the United States included within the following limits, except such portions 
thereof as are hereinafter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, 
to wit : beginning at a point in the Missouri river where the fortieth parallel 
of north latitude crosses the same ; thence west on said parallel to the east 
boundary of the territory of Utah on the summit of the Rocky Mountains ; 
thence on said summit northward to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude ; 
thenoe east on said parallel to the western boundary of the territory of Minne- 
sota ; thence southward on said boundary to the Missouri river ; thence down 
the main channel of said river to the place of beginning, be, and the same is 
hereby created into a temporary government by the name of the territory of 
Nebraska ; and when admitted as a state or states, the said territory, or any 
portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, 
as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission ; provided, 
that nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the government 
of the United States from dividing said territory into two or more territories, 
in such manner and at such times as congress shall deem convenient and proper, 
or from attaching any portion of said territory to any other state or territory 
of the United States : provided further, that nothing in this act contained shall 
be construed to impair the rights of person or property now pertaining to the 
Indians in said territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by 
treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any territory 
which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, 
to be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any state or terri- 
tory ; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the boundaries, and con- 
stitute no part of the territory of Nebraska, until said tribe shall signify their 
assent to the president of the United States to be included within the said ter- 
ritory of Nebraska, or to affect the authority of the government of the United 
States to make any regulations respecting such Indians, their lands, property, 
or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have been compe- 
tent to the government to make if this act had never passed. 

Sec. 2. That the executive power and authority in and over said territory 
of Nebraska shall be vested in a governor, who shall hold his office for four 
years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner 
removed by the president of the United States. The governor shall reside 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 635 

irithin said territory, and shall be commander-in-chief of the militia thereof 
He may grant pardons and respites for offenses against the laws of said terri- 
tory, and reprieves for offenses against the laws of the United States, until the 
decision of the president can be made known thereon ; he shall commission all 
officers who shall be appointed to office under the laws of the said territory, 
and shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. 

Sec. 3. That there shall be a secretary of said territory, who shall reside ' 
therein, and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed by the presi- 
dent of the United States ; he shall record and preserve all the laws and pro- 
ceedings of the legislative assembly hereinafter constituted, and all the acts 
and proceedings of the governor in his executive dapartment ; he shall trans- 
mit one copy of the laws and journals of the legislative assembly, within thirty 
days after the end of each session, and one copy of the executive proceedings 
and official correspondence semi-annually on the first days of January and July 
in each year, to the president of the United States, and two copies of the laws 
to the president of the senate and to the speaker of the house of representa- 
tives, to be deposited in the libraries of congress ; and, in case of the death, 
removal, resignation, or absence of the governor from the territory, the secre- 
tary shall be, and he is hereby authorized and required to execute and perform 
all the powers and duties of the governor during such vacancy or absence, or 
until another governor shall be duly appointed and qualified to fill such va- 
cancy. 

Sec. 4. That the legislative power and authority of said territory shall be 
vested in the governor and a legislative assembly. The legislative assembly 
shall consist of a council and house of representatives. The council shall con- 
sist of thirteen members, having the qualifications of voters as hereinafter pre- 
scribed, whose term of service shall continue two years. The house of repre- 
sentatives shall, at its first session, consist of twenty-six members, possessing 
the same qualifications as prescribed for members of the council, and whose 
term of service shall continue one year. The number of representatives may 
be increased by the legislative assembly, from time to time, in proportion to 
the increase of qualified voters ; provided, that the whole number shall never 
exceed thirty-nine ; an apportionment shall be made as nearly equal as prac- 
ticable, among the several counties or districts, for the election of the council 
and representatives, giving to each section of the territory representation in 
the ratio of its qualified voters as nearly as may be. And the members of the 
council and of the house of representatives shall reside in, and be inhabitants 
of, the district or county, or counties, for which they may be elected, respect- 
ively. Previous to the first election, the governor shall cause a census, or enu- 
meration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several counties and 
districts of the territory, to be taken by such persons and in such mode as the 
governor shall designate and appoint ; and the persons so appointed shall re- 
ceive a reasonable compensation therefor. And the first election shall be held 
at such times, and places, and be conducted in such manner, both as to the 
persons who shall superintend such election, and the returns thereof, as the 



63 C KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 

governor shall appoint and direct ; and he shall at the same time declare the 
number of members of the council and house of representatives to which each 
of the counties or districts shall be entitled under this act. The persons hav- 
ing the highest number of legal votes in each of said council districts for mem- 
bers of the council, shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected to the 
council ; and the persons having the highest number of legal votes for the 
house of representatives, shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected 
members of said house ; provided, that in case two or more persons voted for 
shall have an equal number of votes, and in case a vacancy shall otherwise oc- 
cur in either branch of the legislative assembly, the governor shall order a new 
election ; and the persons thus elected to the legislative assembly shall meet at 
such place and on such day as the governor shall appoint ; but thereafter, the 
time, place, and manner of holding and conducting all elections by the people, 
and the apportioning the representation in the several counties or districts to 
the council and house of representatives, according to the number of qualified 
voters, shall be prescribed by law, as well as the day of the commencement of 
the regular sessions of the legislative assembly ; provided, that no session in 
any one year shall exceed the term of forty days, except the first session, which 
may continue sixty days. 

Sec. 5. That every free white male inhabitant above the age of twenty-one 
years, who shall be an actual resident of said territory, and shall possess the 
qualifications hereinafter prescribed, shall be entitled to vote at the first elec- 
tion, and shall be eligible to any office within the said territory ; but the qual- 
ifications of voters, and of holding office, at all subsequent elections, shall be 
such as shall be prescribed by the legislative assembly ; provided, that the right 
of suffrage and of holding office shall be exercised only by citizens of the 
United States and those who shall have declared on oath their intention to be- 
come such, and shall have taken an oath to support the constitution of the 
United States and the provisions of this act : and provided further, that no offi- 
cer, soldier, seaman, or marine, or other person in the army or navy of the United 
States, or attached to troops in the service of the United States, shall be allow- 
ed to vote or hold office in said territory, by reason of being on service therein. 

Sec. 6. That the legislative power of the territory shall extend to all right- 
ful subjects of legislation consistent with the constitution of the United States 
and the provisions of this act ; but no law shall be passed interfering with the 
primary disposal of the soil ; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of 
the United States ; nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be 
taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents. Every bill which 
shall have passed the council and house of representatives of the said terri- 
tory, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the governor of the terri- 
tory ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall return it, with his 
objections, to the house in which it originated, who shall enter the objections at 
large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsider- 
ation, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, to- 
gether with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be re- 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. G37 

considered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. 
But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and 
nays, to be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill 
shall not be returned by the governor within three days (Sundays excepted) 
after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like man- 
ner as if he had signed it, unless the assembly, by adjournment, prevent its re- 
turn, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Sec. 1. That all township, district, and county officers, not herein otherwise 
provided for, shall be appointed or elected, as the case may be, in such man- 
ner as shall be provided by the governor and legislative assembly of the ter- 
ritory of Nebraska. The governor shall nominate, and, by and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the legislative council, appoint all officers not herein oth- 
erwise provided for ; and in the first instance the governor alone may appoint 
all said officers, who shall hold their offices until the end of the first sesssion of 
the legislative assembly ; and shall lay off the necessary districts for members 
of the council and house of representatives, and all other officers. 

Sec. 8. That no member of the legislative assembly shall hold, or be ap- 
pointed to, any office which shall have been created, or the salary or emolu- 
ments of which shall have been increased, while he was a member, during the 
term for which he was elected, and for one year after the expiration of such 
term ; but this restriction shall not be applicable to members of the first legis- 
lative assembly ; and no person holding a commission or appointment under 
the United States, except postmasters, shall be a member of the legislative as- 
sembly, or shall hold any office under the government of said territory. 

Sec. 9. That the judicial power of said territory shall be vested in a su- 
preme court, district courts, probate courts, and in justices of the peace. The 
supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, any 
two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and who shall hold a term at the seat 
of government of said territory annually, and they shall hold their offices 
during the period of four years, and until their successors shall be appointed 
and qualified. The said territory shall be divided into three judicial districts, 
and a district court shall be held in each of said districts by one of the justices 
of the supreme court, at such times and places as may be prescribed by law ; 
and the said judges shall, after their appointments, respectively, reside in the 
district which shall be assigned them. The jurisdiction of the several courts 
herein provided for, both appellate and original, and that of the probate courts 
and of justices of the peace, shall be as limited by law; provided, that justices 
of the peace shall not have jurisdiction of any matter in controversy when the 
title or boundaries of land may be in dispute, or where the debt or sum claimed 
shall exceed one hundred dollars ; and the said supreme and district courts, 
respectively, shall possess chancery as well as common law jurisdiction. Each 
district court, or the judge thereof, shall appoint its clerk, who shall also be 
the register in chancery, and shall keep his office at the place where the court 
may be held. Writs of error, bills of exception, and appeals shall be allowed 
in all cases from the final decision of said district courts to the supreme court, 



638 KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 

under such regulations as may be prescribed by law ; but in no case removed to 
the supreme court shall trial by jury be allowed iu said court. The supreme 
court, or the justices thereof, shall appoint its own clerk, and every clerk shall 
hold his office at the pleasure of the court for which he shall have been ap- 
pointed. Writs of error, and appeals from the final decision of said supreme 
court, shall be allowed, and may be taken to the supreme court of the United 
States, in the same manner and under the same regulations as from the circuit 
courts of the United States, where the value of the property, or the amount in 
controversy, to be ascertained by the oath or affirmation of either party, or 
other competent witness, shall exceed one thousand dollars ; except only that 
in all cases involving title to slaves, the said writs of error or appeals shall be 
allowed and decided by the said supreme court, without regard to the value of 
the matter, property, or title in controversy ; and except also that a writ of 
error or appeal shall also be allowed to the supreme court of the United 
States, from the decisions of the said supreme court created by this act, or of 
any judge thereof, or of the district courts created by this act, or of any judge 
thereof, upon any writ of habeas corpus, involving the question of personal 
freedom ; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to apply 
to or affect the provisions of the " act respecting fugitives from justice, and 
persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved February 12th, 
1193, and the "act to amend and supplementary to the aforesaid act," ap- 
proved September 18th, 1850 ; and each of the said district courts shall have 
and exercise the same jurisdiction in all cases arising under the constitution 
and laws of the United States, as is vested in the circuit and district courts of 
the United States ; and the said supreme and district courts of the said terri- 
tory, and the respective judges thereof, shall and may grant writs of habeas 
corpus in all cases in which the same are granted by the judges of the United 
States in the District of Columbia ; and the first six days of every term of 
said courts, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, shall be appropriated to 
the trial or causes arising under the said constitution and laws, mid writs of 
error and appeal in all such cases sh%H be made to the supreme court of said 
territory, the same as in other cases. The said clerk shall receive in all such 
cases the same fees which the clerks of the district courts of Utah territory 
now receive for similar services. 

Sec. 10. That the provisions of an act entitled "an act respecting fugitives 
from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved 
February 12th, 1793, and the provisions of the act entitled "an act to amend, 
and supplementary to, the aforesaid act," approved September 18th, 1850, be, 
and the same are hereby, declared to extend to, and be in full force within, the 
limits of said territory of Nebraska. 

Sec. 11. That there shall be appointed an attorney for said territory, who 
shall continue in office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed 
and qualified, unless sooner removed by the president, and who shall receive 
the same fees and salary as the attorney of the United States for the present 
territory of Utah. There shall also be a marshal for the territory appointed, 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 639 

who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be ap- 
pointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the president, and who shall 
execute all processes issuing from the said courts when exercising their juris- 
diction as circuit and district courts of the United States ; he shall perform 
the duties, be subject to the same regulations and penalties, and be entitled to 
the same fees as the marshal of the district court of the United States for the 
present territory of Utah, and shall, iu addition, be paid two hundred dollars 
annually as a compensation for extra services. 

Sec. 12. That the governor, secretary, chief justice, and associate justices, 
attorney and marshal, shall be nominated, and, by and with the advice and 
consent of the senate, appointed by the President of the United States. The 
governor and secretary to be appointed as aforesaid, shall, before they act as 
such, respectively take an oath or affirmation by the laws now in force therein, 
or before the chief justice or some associate justice of the supreme court of the 
United States, to support the constitution of the United States, and faithfully 
to discharge the duties of their respective offices, which said oaths, when so 
taken, shall be certified by the person by whom the same shall have been taken ; 
and such certificates shall be received and recorded by the said secretary among 
the executive proceedings ; and the chief justice and associate justices, and all 
other civil officers in said territory, before they act as such, shall take a like 
oath or affirmation before the said governor or secretary, or some judge or 
justice of the peace of the territory who may be duly commissioned and qual- 
ified, which said oath or affirmation shall be certified and transmitted by the 
person taking the same to the secretary, to be by him recorded as aforesaid ; 
and afterwards the like oath or affirmation shall be taken, certified, and record- 
ed, in such manner and form as may be prescribed by law. The governor shall 
receive an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars. The chief justice 
and associate justices shall receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. 
The secretary shall receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The said 
salaries shall be paid quarter-yearly, from the dates of the respective appoint- 
ments, at the treasury of the United States ; but no such payment shall be 
made until said officers shall have entered upon the duties of their respective 
appointments. The members of the legislative assembly shall be entitled to 
receive three dollars each per day during their attendance at the sessions 
thereof, and three dollars each for every twenty miles' travel in going to, and 
returning from, the said sessions, estimated according to the nearest usually 
traveled route ; and an additional allowance of three dollars shall be paid to 
the presiding officer of each house for each day he shall so preside. And a 
chief clerk, one assistant clerk, a sergeant-at-arms, and door-keeper may be 
chosen for each house; and the chief clerk shall receive four dollars per day, 
and the said other officers three dollars per day, during the session of the leg- 
islative assembly ; but no other officer shall be paid by the United States ; 
provided, that there shall be but one session of the legislature annually, unless, 
on an extraordinary occasion, the governor shall think proper to call the legis- 
lature together. There shall be appropriated, annually, the usual sum, to be 



G40 KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 

expended by the governor to defray the contingent expenses of the territory 
including the salary of a clerk of the executive department ; and there shall 
also be appropriated annually, a sufficient sum, to be expended by the secretary 
of the territory, and upon an estimate to be made by the secretary of the 
treasury of the United States, to defray the expenses of the legislative assem- 
bly, the printing of the laws, and other incidental expenses ; and the governor 
and secretary of the territory shall, in the disbursement of all moneys intrusted 
to them, be governed solely by the instructions of the secretary of the treasury 
of the United States, and shall, semi-annually, account to the said secretary 
for the manner in which the aforesaid moneys shall have been expended ; and 
no expenditure shall be made by said legislative assembly for objects not 
specially authorized by the acts of congress making the appropriations, nor 
beyond the sum thus appropriated for such objects. 

Sec. 13. That the legislative assembly of the territory of Nebraska shall 
hold its first session at such time and place in said territory as the governor 
thereof shall appoint and direct ; and at said first session, or as soon thereafter 
as they shall deem expedient, the governor and legislative assembly shall pro- 
ceed to locate and establish the seat of government for said territory at such 
place as they may deem eligible ; which place, however, shall thereafter be 
subject to be changed by the said governor and legislative assembly. 

Sec. 14. That a delegate to the house of representatives of the United 
States, to serve for the term of two years, who shall be a citizen of the United 
States, may be elected by the voters qualified to elect members of the legisla- 
tive assembly, who shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as are 
exercised and enjoyed by the delegates from the several other territories of the 
United States to the said house of representatives ; but the delegate first elected 
shall hold his seat only during the term of the congress to which lie shall be 
elected. The first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conduct- 
ed in such manner, as the governor shall appoint and direct ; and at all subse- 
quent elections, the times, places, and manner of holding the elections shall be 
prescribed by law. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be 
declared by the governor to be duly elected, and a certificate thereof shall be 
given accordingly. That the constitution and all the laws of the United 
States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect 
within the said territory of Nebraska as elsewhere within the United States, 
except the eighth section of the act preparatory to tbe admission of Missouri 
into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the 
principle of non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and terri- 
tories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compro- 
mise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void ; it being the true 
intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or 
state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free 
to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only 
to the constitution of the United States ; provided, that nothing herein con- 
tained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 641 

may have existed prior to the act of 6th of March, 1820, either protecting, es- 
tablishing, prohibiting or abolishing slavery. 

Sec. 15. That there shall hereafter be appropriated, as has been customary 
for the territorial governments, a sufficient amount, to be expended under the 
direction of the said governor of the territory of Nebraska, not exceeding the 
sums heretofore appropriated for similar objects, for the erection of suitable 
public buildings at the seat of government, and for the purchase of a library to 
be kept at the seat of government for the use of the governor, legislative assem- 
bly, judges of the supreme court, secretary, marshal, and attorney of said ter- 
ritory, and such other persons, and under such regulations as shall be pre- 
scribed by law. 

Sec. 1 6. That when the lands in the said territory shall be surveyed under 
the direction of the government of the United States, preparatory to bringing 
the same into market, sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six, in each town- 
ship in said territory, shall be, and the same are herby, reserved for the pur- 
pose of being applied to schools in said territory, and in the states and terri- 
tories hereafter to be erected out of the same. 

Sec. 17. That, until otherwise provided by law, the governor of said terri- 
tory may define the judicial districts of said territory, and assign the judges 
who may be appointed for said territory to the several districts ; and also ap- 
point the times and places for holding courts in the several counties or subdi- 
visions in each of said judicial districts by proclamation, to be issued by him ; 
but the legislative assembly, at their first, or any subsequent session, may or- 
ganize, alter, or modify such judicial districts, and assign the judges, and alter 
the times and places of holding the courts, as to them shall seem proper and 
convenient. 

Sec. 18. That all officers to be appointed by the president, by and with 
the advice and consent of the senate, for the territory of Nebraska, who, by 
virtue of the provisions of any law now existing, or which may be enacted du- 
ring the present congress, are required to give security for moneys that may 
be intrusted with them for disbursements, shall give such security, at such time 
and place, and in such manner as the secretary of the treasury may prescribe. 

Sec. 19. That all that part of the territory of the United States included 
within the following limits, except such portions thereof as are hereinafter ex- 
pressly exempted from the operations of this act, to wit : beginning at a point 
on the western boundary of the state of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh 
parallel of north latitude crosses the same ; thence west on said parallel to the 
eastern boundary of New Mexico ; thence north on said boundary to latitude 
thirty-eight ; thence following said boundary westward to the east boundary 
of the territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky mountains ; thence 
northward on said summit to the fortieth parallel of latitude ; thence east on 
said parallel to the western boundary of the state of Missouri ; thence south 
with the western boundary of said state to the place of beginning, be, and the 
same is hereby, created into a temporary government by the name of the terri- 
tory of Kansas ; and when admitted as a state or states, the said territory, or 



642 KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 

any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without sla- 
very, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission ; pro- 
vided, that nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the gov- 
ernment of the United States from dividing said territory into two or more 
territories, in such manner and at such times as congress shall deem convenient 
and proper, or from attaching any portion of said territory to any other state 
or territory of the United States ; provided further, that nothing in this act 
contained shall be so construed as to impair the rights of persons or property 
now pertaining to the Indians in said territory, so long as such rights shall re- 
main unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or 
to include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without 
the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial limits or juris- 
diction of any state or territory ; but all such territory shall be excepted out 
of the boundaries, and constitute no part of the territory of Kansas, until said 
tribe shall signify their assent to the president of the United States to be in- 
cluded within the said territory of Kansas, or to affect the authority of the 
government of the United States to make any regulation respecting such In- 
dians, their lauds, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which 
it would have been competent to the government to make if this act had never 
passed. 

[The next seventeen section* substantially repeat the foregoing, save that 
their provisions apply to Kansas instead of Nebraska. The final section re- 
fers to both territories, as follows :] 

Seo. 31. And be it further enacted, that all treaties, laws, and other en- 
gagements made by the government of the United States with the Indian 
tribes inhabiting the territories embraced within this act, shall be faithfully and 
rigidly observed, notwithstanding anything contained in this act ; and that 
the existing agencies and superintendencies of said Indians be continued with 
the same powers and duties which are now prescribed by law, except that the 
President of the United States may, at his discretion, change the location of 
the office of superintendent. 



KANSAS AFFAIRS. 643 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Affairs op Kansas. — Congressional Proceedings. 

Session of 1855-6. — The President's special message referred.— Report of committee by 
Mr. Douglas. — Emigrant Aid Societies. — Minority report by Mr. Collamer. — Special 
Committee of the House sent to Kansas to investigate affairs. — Report of the Com- 
mittee. — Armed Missourians enter the territory and control the elections. — Second 
foray of armed Missourians. — Purposes of Aid Societies defended. — Mob violence. — 
Legislature assembles at Pawnee. — Its acts. — Topeka Constitutional Convention. — Free 
State Constitution framed. — Adopted by the people. — Election for State officers. — To- 
peka legislature. — The Wakerusa war. — Outrages upon the citizens. — Robberies and 
murders. — Lawrence attacked. — Free state constitution submitted to Congress. — BUI 
to admit Kansas under free state constitution passes the house. — Douglas' bill before 
the senate. — Trumbull's propositions rejected. — Amendments proposed by Foster, Col- 
lamer, Wilson and Seward rejected. — Bill passed by senate. — Dunn's bill passed by 
house. — Appropriation bills. — Proviso to army bill. — Session terminates. — Extra ses- 
sion. — President stands firm, house firmer, senate firmest. — The army bill passed with- 
out the proviso. 



T 



HE thirty-fourth session of congress convened at the capitol on the 3d of 
December, 1855. Nine weeks were spent in unsuccessful attempts to organize 
by the choice of a speaker. The plurality rule was finally adopted, and on 
the one hundred and thirty -third ballot, Nathaniel P. Banks, republican, was 
chosen by a vote of 103 to 100. 

A history of the events which followed the organization of Kansas under 
the provisions of the act, may be gathered from the following extracts from 
official documents. On the 24th of January, 1856, President Pierce trans- 
mitted the following special message to congress on the affairs of Kansas: 
message op the president. 
Circumstances have occurred to disturb the course of governmental or- 
ganization in the territory of Kansas, and produce there a condition of things 
which renders it incumbent on me to call your attention to the subject, and 
urgently recommend the adoption by you of such measures of legislation aa 
the grave exigencies of the case appear to require. 

A brief exposition of the circumstances referred to, and of their causes, will 
be necessary to the full understanding of the recommendations which it is pro- 
posed to submit. 

The act to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas was a manifesta- 
tion of the legislative opinion of congress on two great points of constitutional 
construction : One, that the designation of the boundaries of a new territory, 
and provision for its political organization and administration as a territory, 
are measures which of right fall within the powers of the general government; 
and the other, that the inhabitants of any such territory, considered as an in- 
choate state, are entitled, in the exercise of self-government, to determine for 
themselves what shall be their own domestic institutions, subject only to the 
constitution and the laws duly enacted by congress under it, and to the power 
of the existing states to decide, according to the provisions and principles of 



644 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

the constitution, at what time the territory shall be received as a 1 1 J.c into the 
Union. Such are the great political rights which are solemnly declared and 
affirmed by that act. 

Based upon this theory, the act of congress defined for each territory the 
outlines of republican government, distributing public authority among the 
lawfully created agents — executive, judicial and legislative — to be appointed 
either by the general government or by the territory. The legislative functions 
were eutrusted to a council and a house of representatives, duly elected and 
empowered to enact all the local laws which they might deem essential to their 
prosperity, happiness and good government. Acting in the same spirit, con- 
gress also defined the persons who were in the first instance to be considered 
as the people of each territory ; enacting that every free white male inhabitant 
of the same above the age of twenty-one years, being an actual resident there- 
of, and possessing the qualifications hereafter described, should be entitled to 
vote at the first election, and be eligible to any office within the territory ; but 
that the qualifications of voters and holding office at all subsequent elections 
should be such as might be prescribed by the legislative assembly ; provided, 
however, that the right of suffrage and of holding office should be exercised 
only by citizens of the United States, and those who should have declared on 
oath their intention to become such, and have taken an oath to support the 
constitution of the United States and the provisions of the act ; and pro- 
vided further, that no officer, soldier, seaman or marine, or other person in 
the army or navy of the United States, or attached to troops in their service, 
should be allowed to vote or hold office in either territory by reason of being 
on service therein. 

Such of the public officers of the territories as, by the provisions of the act, 
were to be appointed by the general government, including the governors, were 
appointed and commissioned in due season — the law having been enacted on 
the 30th of May, 1854, and the commission of the governor of the territory of 
Nebraska being dated on the 2d day of August, 1854, and of the territory of 
Kansas on the 29th day of June, 1854. 

Among the duties imposed by the act upon the governors, was that of di- 
recting and superintending the political organization of the respective territo- 
ries. The governor of Kansas was required to cause a census or enumeration 
of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several counties and districts of 
the territory to be taken, by such persons and in such mode as he might desig- 
nate and appoint ; to appoint and direct the time and places of holding the 
first elections, and the manner of conducting them, both as to the persons to 
superintend such elections, and the returns thereof ; to declare the number of 
the members of the council and house of representatives for each county or 
district ; to declare what persons might appear to be duly elected ; and to ap- 
point the time and place of the first meeting of the legislative assembly. In 
substance, the same duties were devolved on the governor of Nebraska. 

While, by this act, the principle of constitution for each of the territories 
was one and the same, and the details of organic legislation regarding both 



SPECIAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT PIERCE. 645 

were as nearly as could be identical, and while the territory of Nebraska was 
tranquilly and successfully organized in the due course of law, and its first leg- 
islative assembly met on the 16th of January, 1855, the organization of Kan- 
sas was long delayed, and has been attended with serious difficulties and em- 
barrassments, partly the consequence of local mal-administration, and partly of 
the unjustifiable interference of the inhabitants of some of the states, foreign 
by residence, interests and rights to the territory. 

The governor of the territory of Kansas did not reach the designated seat 
of his government until the Tth of the ensuing October, and even then failed 
to make the first step in its legal organization — that of ordering the census or 
enumeration of its inhabitants — until so late a day that the election of the 
members of the legislative assembly did not take place until the 30th of 
March, 1855, nor its meeting until the 2d of July, 1855 ; so that, for a year 
after the territory was constituted by the act of congress, and the officers to be 
appointed by the federal executive had been commissioned, it was without a 
complete government, without any legislative authority, without local law, and, 
of course, without the ordinary guarantees of peace and public order. 

In other respects, the governor, instead of exercising constant vigilance and 
putting forth all his energies to prevent or counteract the tendencies to illegali- 
ty which are prone to exist in all imperfectly-organized and newly-associated 
communities, allowed his attention to be diverted from official obligation by 
other objects, and himself sat an example of the violation of law in the per- 
formance of acts which rendered it my duty, in the sequel, to remove him from 
the office of chief executive magistrate of the territory. 

Before the requisite preparation was accomplished for election of a territorial 
legislature, an election for delegate to congress had been held in the territory 
on the 29th day of November, 1854, and the delegate took his seat in the 
house of representatives without challenge. If arrangements had been per- 
fected by the governor so that the election for members of the legislative 
assembly might be held in the several precincts at the same time as for delegate 
to congress, any question appertaining to the qualification of the persons voting 
as people of the territory, would have passed necessarily and at once under the 
supervision of congress, as the judge of the validity of the return of the dele- 
gate, and would have been determined before conflicting passions had become 
inflamed by time, and before opportunity could have been afforded for system- 
atic interference of the people of individual states. 

This interference, in so far as concerns its primary causes and its immediate 
commencement, was one of the incidents of that pernicious agitation on the 
subject of the condition of the colored persons held to service in some of the 
states, which has so long disturbed the repose of our country, and excited in- 
dividuals, otherwise patriotic and law-abiding, to toil with misdirected zeal in 
the attempt to propagate their social theories by the perversion and abuse of 
the powers of congress. 

The persons and parties whom the tenor of the act to organize the territo- 
ries of Nebraska and Kansas thwarted in the endeavor to impose, through the 



646 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

agency of congress, their particular views of social organization on the people 
of the future new states, now perceiving that the policy of leaving the inhabit- 
ants of each state to judge for themselves in this respect was ineradicably 
rooted in the convictions of the people of the Union, then had recourse, in the 
pursuit of their general object, to the extraordinary measure of propagandist 
colonization of the territory of Kansas, to prevent the free and natural action 
of its inhabitants in its internal organization, and thus to anticipate or to force 
the determination of that question in this inchoate state. 

With such views, associations were organized in some of the states, and their 
purpose was proclaimed through the press in language extremely irritating and 
offensive to those of whom the colonists were to become the neighbors. Those 
designs and acts had the necessary consequence to awaken emotions of intense 
indignation in states near to the territory of Kansas, and especially in the ad- 
joining state of Missouri, whose domestic peace was thus the most directly en- 
dangered ; but they are far from justifying the illegal and reprehensible coun- 
ter-movements which ensued. 

Under these inauspicious circumstances, the primary elections for members 
of the legislative assembly were held in most, if not all, of the precincts, at 
the time and the places and by the persons designated and appointed by the 
governor, according to law. 

Angry accusations that illegal votes had been polled, abounded on all sides, 
and imputations were made both of fraud and violence. But the governor, in 
the exercise of the power and the discharge of the duty conferred and imposed 
by law on him alone, officially received and considered the returns ; declared a 
large majority of the members of the council and the house of representatives 
"duly elected ;" withheld certificates from others because of alleged illegality 
of votes ; appointed a new election to supply the place of the persons not cer- 
tified ; and thus, at length, in all the forms of statute, and with his own official 
authentication, complete legality was given to the first legislative assembly of 
the territory. 

Those decisions of the returning-officers and of the governor are final, ex- 
cept that by the parliamentary usage of the country applied to the organic law, 
it may be conceded that each house of the assembly must have been competent 
to determine, in the last resort, the qualifications and the election of its mem- 
bers. The subject was, by its nature, one appertaining exclusively to the ju- 
risdiction of the local authorities of the territory. Whatever irregularities 
may have occurred in the elections, it seems too late now to raise that question 
as to which, neither now nor at any previous time, has the least possible legal 
authority been possessed by the President of the United States. For all pres- 
ent purposes, the legislative body, thus constituted and elected, was the legiti- 
mate assembly of the territory. 

Accordingly, the governor, by procalmation, convened the assembly thus 
elected to meet at a place called Pawnee City. The two houses met, and were 
duly organized in the ordinary parliamentary form ; each sent to and received 
from the governor the official communications usual on such occasions ; an elab- 



SPECIAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT PIERCE. 647 

orate message opening the session was communicated by the governor, and the 
general business of legislation was entered upon by the legislative assembly. 

But, after a few days, the assembly resolved to adjourn to another place in 
the territory. A law was accordingly passed, against the consent of the gov- 
ernor, but in due form otherwise, to remove the seat of government tempora- 
rily to the " Shawnee Manual-labor School " (or mission,) and thither the as- 
sembly proceeded. After this, receiving a bill for the establishment of a ferry 
at the town of Kickapoo, the governor refused to sign it, and, by special mes- 
sage, assigned for reason of refusal, not anything objectionable in the bill itself, 
nor any pretense of the illegality or incompetency of the assembly as such, but 
only the fact that the assembly had, by its act, transferred the seat of govern- 
ment temporarily from Pawnee City to Shawnee Mission. For the same rea- 
son he continued to refuse to sign other bills, until, in the course of a few days, 
he, by official message, communicated to the assembly the fact that he had re- 
ceived notification of the termination of his functions as governor, and that the 
duties of the office were legally devolved on the secretary of the territory ; 
thus to the last recognizing the body as a duly-elected and constituted legisla- 
tive assembly. 

It will be perceived that if any constitutional defect attached to the legisla- 
tive acts of the assembly, it is not pretended to consist in irregularity of elec- 
tion or want of qualification of the members, but only in the change of its place 
Qf session. However trivial the objection may seem to be, it requires to be 
considered, because upon it is founded all that superstructure of acts, plainly 
against law, which now threatens the peace not only of the territory of Kan- 
sas, but of the Union. 

Such an objection to the proceedings of the legislative assembly was of ex- 
ceptionable origin, for the reason that, by the express terms of the organic law, 
the seat of government of the territory was " located temporarily at Fort Leav- 
enworth;" and yet the governor himself remained there less than two months, 
and of his own discretion transferred the seat of government to the Shawnee 
Mission, where it in fact was at the time the assembly were called to meet at 
Pawnee City. If the governor had any such right to change temporarily the 
seat of government, still more had the legislative assembly. The objection is 
of exceptional origin for the further reason that the place indicated by the gov- 
ernor, without having an exclusive claim of preference in itself, was a proposed 
town-site only, which he and others were attempting to locate unlawfully upon 
land withjn a military reservation, and for participation in which illegal act the 
commander of a post, a superior officer of the army, has been dismissed by sen- 
tence of court-martial. 

Nor is it easy to see why the legislative assembly might not with propriety 
pass the territorial act transferring its sittings to the Shawnee Mission. If it 
could not, that must be on account of some prohibitory or incompatible pro- 
vision of act of congress. But no such provision exists. The organic act, as 
already quoted, says "the seat of government is hereby located temporarily at 
Fort Leavenworth ;" and it then provides that certain of the public buildings 



648 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

there "maybe occupied and used under the direction of the governor and leg- 
islative assembly." These expressions might possibly be construed to imply 
that when, in a previous section of the act, it was enacted that " the first leg- 
islative assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the governor shall 
appoint," the word " place " means place at Fort Leavenworth, not place any- 
where in the territory. If so, the governor would have been the first to err 
in this matter, not only in himself having removed the seat of government to 
the Shawnee Mission, but in again removing it to Pawnee City. If there was 
any departure from the letter of the law', therefore, it was his in both instances. 

But, however this may be, it is most unreasonable to suppose that by the 
terms of the organic act, congress intended to do impliedly what it has'not 
done expressly — that is, to forbid to the legislative assembly the power to 
choose any place it might see fit as the temporary seat of its deliberations. 
That is proved by the significant language of one of the subsequent acts of 
congress on the subject, that of March 3, 1855, which, in making appropria- 
tion for public buildings of the territory, enacts that the same shall not be 
expended "until the legislature of said territory shall have fixed by law the per- 
manent seat of government." Congress, in these expressions, does not pro- 
fess to be granting the power to fix the permanent seat of government, but re- 
cognizes the power as one already granted. But how ? Undoubtedly by the 
comprehensive provision of the organic act itself, which declares that " the leg- 
islative power of the territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation 
consistent with the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this 
act." If, in view of this act, the legislative assembly had the large power to 
fix the permanent seat of government at any place in its discretion, of course 
by the same enactment it had the less and the included power to fix it tempo- 
rarily. 

Nevertheless, the allegation that the acts of the legislative assembly were il- 
legal by reason of this removal of its place of session, was brought forward to 
justify the first great movement in disregard of law within the territory. One 
of the acts of the legislative assembly provided for the election of a delegate 
to the present congress, and a delegate was elected under that law. But, sub- 
sequently to this, a portion of the people of the territory proceeded, without 
authority of law, to elect another delegate. 

Following upon this movement was another and more important one of the 
same general character. Persons confessedly not constituting the body politic, 
or all the inhabitants, but merely a party of the inhabitants, and without law, 
have undertaken to summon a convention for the purpose of transforming the 
territory into a state, and have framed a constitution, adopted it, and under it 
elected a governor and other officers, and a representative to congress. 

In extenuation of these illegal acts, it is alleged that the state of Califor- 
nia, Michigan, and others, were self-organized, and as such were admitted into 
the Union, without a previous enabling act of congress. It is true that, while 
in a majority of cases a previous act of congress has been passed to authorize 
the territory to present itself as a state, and that this is deemed the most 'eg- 



SPECIAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT PIERCE. C49 

ular course, yet such an act has not been held to be indispensable, and in some 
cases the territory has proceeded without it, and has nevertheless been admit- 
ted into the Union as a state. It lies with congress to authorize beforehand, 
or to confirm afterward, in its discretion ; but in no instance has a state been 
admitted upon the application of persons acting against authorities duly con- 
stituted by act of congress. In every case it is the people of the territory, not 
a party among them, who have the power to form a constitution and ask for 
admission as a state. No principle of public law, no practice or precedent un 
der the constitution of the United States, no rule of reason, right, or common 
sense, confers any such power as that now claimed by a mere party in the ter- 
ritory. In fact, what has been done is of revolutionary character. It is avow- 
edly so in motive and in aim as respects the local law of the territory. It will 
become treasonable insurrection if it reach the length of organized resistance 
by force to the fundamental or any other federal law, and to the authority of 
the general government. 

In such an event, the path of duty for the executive is plain. The consti- 
tution requiring him to take care that the laws of the United States be faith- 
fully executed, if they be opposed in the territory of Kansas, he may and 
should place at the disposal of the marshal any public force of the United 
States which happens to be within the jurisdiction, to be used as a portion of 
the 2x>sse comitatus ; and, if that do not suffice to maintain order, then he may 
call forth the militia of one or more states for that object, or employ for the 
same object any part of the land or naval force of the United States. So also 
if the obstruction be to the laws of the territory, and it be duly presented to 
him as a case of insurrection, he may employ for its suppression the military 
of any state, or the land or naval force of the United States. And if the ter- 
ritory be invaded by the citizens of other states, whether for the purpose of 
deciding elections or for any other, and the local authorities find themselves 
unable to repel or withstand it, they will be entitled to, and upon the fact be- 
ing fully ascertained, they shall most certainly receive, the aid of the general 
government. 

But it is not the duty of the President of the United States to volunteer in- 
terposition by force to preserve the purity of elections either in a state or terri- 
tory. To do so would be subversive of public freedom. And whether a law 
be wise or unwise, just or unjust, is not a question for him to judge. If it be 
constitutional — that is, if it be the law of the land — it is his duty to cause it 
to be executed, or to sustain the authorities of any state or territory in execu- 
ting it in opposition to all insurrectionary movements. 

Our system affords no justification of revolutionary acts ; for the constitu- 
tional means of relieving the people of unjust administration and laws, by a 
change of public agents and by repeal, are ample, and more prompt and effect- 
ive than illegal violence. These constitutional means must be scrupulously 
guarded — this great prerogative of popular sovereignty sacredly respected. 

It is the undoubted right of the peaceable and orderly people of the terri- 
tory of Kansas to elect their own legislative body, make their own laws, and 
42 



650 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

regulate their own social institutions, without foreign or domestic molestation. 
Interference, on the one hand, to procure the abolition or prohibition of slave- 
labor in the territory, has produced mischievous interference on the other for 
its maintenance or introduction. One wrong begets another. Statements en- 
tirely unfounded or grossly exaggerated, concerning events within the terri- 
tory, are sedulously diffused through remote states to feed the flame of sec- 
tional animosity there ; and the agitators there exert themselves indefatigably 
in return to encourage and stimulate strife within the territory. 

The inflammatory agitation, of which the present is but a part, has for twenty 
years produced nothing save unmitigated evil, north and south. But for it the 
character of the domestic institutions of the future new state would have been 
a matter of too little interest to the inhabitants of the contiguous states, per- 
sonally or collectively, to produce among them any political emotion. Climate, 
soil, production, hopes of rapid advancement, and the pursuit of happiness on 
the part of settlers themselves, with good wishes but with no interference from 
without, would have quietly determined the question which is at this time of 
such disturbing character. 

But we are constrained to turn our attention to the circumstances of embar- 
rassment as they now exist. It is the duty of the people of Kansas to dis- 
countenance every act or purpose of resistance to its laws. Above all, the 
emergency appeals to the citizens of the states and especially of those contig- 
uous to the territory, neither by intervention of non-residents in elections, nor 
by unauthorized military force, to attempt to encroach upon or usurp the au- 
thority of the inhabitants of the territory. 

No citizen of our country should permit himself to forget that he is a part 
of its government, and entitled to be heard in the determination of its policy 
and its measures ; and that, therefore, the highest considerations of personal 
honor and patriotism require him to maintain, by whatever of power or influ- 
ence he may possess, the integrity of the laws of the republic. 

Entertaining these views, it will be my imperative duty to exert the whole 
power of the federal executive to support public order in the territory ; to 
vindicate its laws, whether federal or local, against all attempts of organized 
resistance ; and so to protect its people in the establishment of their own insti- 
tutions, undisturbed by encroachment from without, and in the full enjoyment 
of the rights of self-government assured to them by the constitution and the 
organic act of congress. 

Although serious ancf threatening disturbances in the territory of Kansas, 
announced to me by the governor, in December last, were speedily quieted 
without the effusion of blood, and in a satisfactory manner, there is, I regret 
to say, reason to apprehend that disorders will continue to occur there, with 
increasing tendency to violence, until some decisive measures be taken to dis- 
pose of the question itself which constitutes the inducement or occasion of 
internal agitation and of external interference. 

This, it seems to me, can best be accomplished by providing that, when the 
inhabitants of Kansas may desire it, and shall be of sufficient numbers to con- 



REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS. 051 

stitute a state, a convention of delegates, duly elected by the qualified voters, 
shall assemble to frame a constitution, and thus to prepare, through regular 
and lawful means, for its admission into the Union as a state. I respectfully 
recommend the enactment of a law to that effect. 

I recommend, also, that a special appropriation be made to defray any 
expense which may become requisite in the execution of the laws or the main- 
tenance of public order in the territory of Kansas. 

This message of the president was referred to the committee on territories 
in the senate, and on the 12th of March, Mr. Douglas, from the committee, 
made an elaborate report, from which we have room only for a few extracts. 
Mr. Douglas attributed the origin of the difficulties in Kansas to the emigrant 
aid societies : 

EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS. 

Your committee deem this an appropriate occasion to state briefly, but dis- 
tinctly, the principles upon which new states may be admitted and territories 
organized under the authority of the constitution of the United States. 

The constitution (section 3, article 4) provides that " new states may be 
admitted by the congress into this Union." 

Section 8, article 1 : " Congress shall have power to make all laws which 
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers 
and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the 
United States, or in any department or office thereof. " 

10th amendment : " The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states 
respectively, or to the people." 

A state of the federal Union is a sovereign power, limited only by the consti- 
tution of the United States. 

The limitations which that instrument has imposed are few, specific, and 
uniform — applicable alike to all the states, old and new. There is no authority 
for putting a restriction upon the sovereignty of a new state which the consti- 
tution has not placed on the original states. Indeed, if such a restriction 
could be imposed on any state, it would instantly cease to be a state within the 
meaning of the federal constitution, and, in consequence of the inequality, 
would assimilate to the condition of a province or dependency. Hence, 
equality among all the states of the Union is a fundamental principle in our 
federative system — a principle embodied in the constitution, as the basis upon 
which the American Union rests. 

African slavery existed in all the colonies, under the sanction of the British 
government, prior to the declaration of independence. When the constitution 
of the United States was adopted, it became the supreme law and bond of 
union between twelve slaveholding states and one non-slaveholding state. 
Each state reserved the right to decide the question of slavery for itself — to 
continue it as a domestic institution so long as it pleased, and to abolish it 
when it chose. 

In pursuance of this reserved right, six of the original slaveholding states 



652 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

have since abolished and prohibited slavery within their limits respectively, 
without consulting congress or their sister states ; while the other six have 
retained and sustained it as a domestic institution which, in their opinion, had 
become so firmly engrafted on their social systems that the relation between 
the master and slave could not be dissolved with safety to either. In the mean 
time eighteen new states have been admitted into the Union, in obedience to 
the federal constitution, on an equal footing with the original states, including, 
of course, the right of each to decide the question of slavery for itself. In 
deciding this question, it has so happened that nine of these new states have 
abolished and prohibited slavery, while the other nine have retained and regu- 
lated it. That these new states had at the time of their admission, and still 
retain, an equal right under the federal constitution with the original states, 
to decide all questions of domestic policy for themselves, including that of 
African slavery, ought not to be seriously questioned, and certainly cannot be 
successfully controverted. 

They are all subject to the same supreme law, which, by the consent of each, 
constitutes the only limitation upon their sovereign authority. 

Since we find the right to admit new states enumerated among the powers 
expressly delegated in the constitution, the question arises, whence does con- 
gress derive authority to organize temporary government for the territories 
preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the 
original states ? Your committee are not prepared to adopt the reasoning 
which deduces the power from that other clause of the constitution, which 
says: 

" Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and 
regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United 
States. " 

The language of this clause is much more appropriate when applied to 
property than to persons. It would seem to have been employed for the pur- 
pose of conferring upon congress the power of disposing of the public lands 
and other property belonging to the United States, and to make all needful 
rules and regulations for that purpose, rather than to govern the people who 
might purchase those lands from the United States and become residents 
thereon. The word "territory" was an appropriate expression to designate 
that large area of public lands of which the United States had become the 
owner by virtue of the revolution and the cession by the several states. The 
additional words, " or other property belonging to the United States," clearly 
shows that the term "territory" was used in its ordinary geographical sense, 
to designate the public domain, and not as descriptive. of the whole body of 
the people constituting a distinct political community, who have no represen- 
tation in congress, and consequently no voice in making the laws upon which 
all their rights and liberties would depend, if it were conceded that congress 
had the general and unlimited power to make all "needful rules and regula- 
tions concerning" their internal affairs and domestic concerns. It is under 
this clause of the constitution, and from this alone, that congress derives 



REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS. 653 

authority to provide for the survey of the public lands, for securing preemp- 
tion rights to actual settlers, for the establishment of land offices in the several 
states and territories, for exposing the lands to private and public sale, for 
issuing patents and confirming titles, and, in short, for making all needful rules 
and regulations for protecting and disposing of the public domain and other 
property belonging to the United States. 

These needful rules and regulations may be embraced, and usually are found 
in general laws applicable alike to states and territories, wherever the United 
States may be the owner of the lands or other property to be regulated or dis- 
posed of. It can make no difference, under this clause of the constitution, 
whether the " territory or other property belonging to the United States," 
shall be situated in Ohio or Kansas, in Alabama or Minnesota, in California or 
Oregon. The power of congress to make needful rules and regulations is the 
same in the states and the territories, to the extent that the title is vested in 
the United States. Inasmuch as the right of legislation in such cases rests 
exclusively upon the fact of ownership, it is obvious it can extend only to the 
tracts of land to which the United States possess the title, and must cease in 
respect to each tract the instant it becomes private property by purchase from 
the United States. It will scarcely be contended that congress possesses the 
power to legislate for the people of those states in which public lauds may be 
located, in respect to their internal affairs and domestic concerns, merely 
because the United States may be so fortunate as to own a portion of the ter- 
ritory and other property within the limits of those states. Yet it should be 
borne in mind that this clause of the constitution confers upon congress the 
same power to make needful rules and regulations in the states as it does in 
the territories, concerning the territory or other property belonging to the 
United States. 

In view of these considerations, your committee are not prepared to affirm 
that congress derives authority to institute governments for the people of the 
territories, from that clause of the constitution which confers the right to make 
needful rules and regulations concerning the territory or other property 
belonging to the United States ; much less can we deduce the power from any 
supposed necessity, arising outside of the constitution and not provided for in 
that instrument. The federal government is one of delegated and limited 
powers, clothed with no rightful authority which does not result directly and 
necessarily from the constitution. Necessity, when experience shall have clearly 
demonstrated its existence, may furnish satisfactory reasons for enlarging the 
authority of the federal government, by amendments to the constitution, in the 
mode prescribed in that instrument ; but cannot afford the slightest excuse for 
the assumption of powers not delegated, and which, by the tenth amendment, 
are expressly "reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Hence, 
before the power can be safely exercised, the right of congress to organize ter- 
ritories, by instituting temporary governments, must be traced directly to some 
provision of the constitution conferring the authority in express terms, or as a 
means necessary and proper to carry into effect some one or more of the pow- 



654 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

ers which are specifically delegated. Is not the organization of a territory 
eminently necessary and proper as a means of enabling the people thereof to 
form and mould their local and domestic institutions, and establish a state 
government under the authority of the constitution, preparatory to its admis- 
sion into the Union ? If so, the right of congress to pass the organic act for 
the temporary government is clearly included in the provision which authorizes 
the admission of new states. This power, however, being an incident to an 
express grant, and resulting from it by necessary implication, as an appro- 
priate means for carrying it into effect, must be exercised in harmony with the 
nature and objects of the grant from which it is deduced. The organic act of 
the territory, deriving its validity from the power of congress to admit new 
states, must contain no provision or restriction which would destroy or impair 
the equality of the proposed state with the original states, or impose any lim- 
itation upon its sovereignty which the constitution has not placed on all the 
states. So far as the organization of a territory may be necessary and proper 
as a means of carrying into effect the provision of the constitution for the ad- 
mission of new states, and when exercised with reference only to that end, the 
power of congress is clear and explicit ; but beyond that point the authority 
cannot extend, for the reason that all " powers not delegated to the United 
States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to 
the states respectively, or to the people." In other words, the organic act of 
the territory, conforming to the spirit of the grant from which it receives its 
validity, must leave the people entirely free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions and internal concerns in their own way, subject only to the consti- 
tution of the United States, to the end that when they attain the requisite 
population, and establish a state government in conformity to the federal con- 
stitution, they may be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the 
original states in all respects whatsoever. 

The act of congress for the organization of the territories of Kansas and 
Nebraska was designed to conform to the spirit and letter of the federal con- 
stitution, by preserving and maintaining the fundamental principles of equality 
among all the states of the Union, notwithstanding the restriction contained 
in the 8th section of the act of March 6, 1820, (preparatory to the admission 
of Missouri into the Union,) which assumed to deny to the people forever the 
right to settle the question of slavery for themselves, provided they should make 
their homes and organize states north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes 
north latitude. Conforming to the cardinal principles of state equality and 
self-government, in obedience to the constitution, the Kansas-Nebraska act de- 
clared, in the precise language of the compromise measures of 1850, that, 
" when admitted as a state, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall 
be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may 
prescribe at the time of their admission." Again, after declaring the 8th sec- 
tion of the Missouri act (sometimes called the Missouri compromise, or Mis- 
souri restriction) inoperative and void, as being repugnant to these principles, 
the purpose of congress, in passing this act, is declared in these words : "It 



REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS. 655 

being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any 
state or territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the constitution of the United States." 

Immediately after the passage of the act, combinations were entered into in 
some portions of the Union to control the political destinies, and form and reg- 
ulate the domestic institutions, of those territories and future states, through 
the machinery of emigrant aid societies. In order to give consistency and ef- 
ficiency to the movement, and surround it with the color of legal authority, an 
act of incorporation was procured from the legislature of the state of Massa- 
chusetts, in which it was provided, in the first section, that twenty persons 
therein named, and their " associates, successors, and assigns, are hereby made 
a corporation, by the name of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, for 
the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in the west." The secoud section 
limited the capital stock of the company to five millions of dollars, and au- 
thorized the whole to be invested in real.and personal estate, with the proviso 
that "the said corporation shall not hold real estate in this commonwealth, 
(Massachusetts) to an amount exceeding twenty thousand dollars." Although 
the act of incorporation does not distinctly declare that the company was form- 
ed for the purpose of controlling the domestic institutions of the territory of 
Kansas, and forcing it into the Union with a prohibition of slavery in her con- 
stitution, regardless of the rights and wishes of the people as guarantied by 
the constitution of the United States, and secured by their organic law, yet the 
whole history of the movement, the circumstances in which it had its origin, 
and the professions and avowals of all engaged in it, render it certain and un- 
deniable that such was its object. 

To remove all doubt upon this point, your committee present a few extracts 
from a pamphlet published by the company : 

"For the purpose of answering numerous communications concerning the plan of op- 
erations of the Emigrant Aid Company, and the resources of Kansas territory, which it 
is proposed now to settle, the secretary of the company has deemed it expedient to pub- 
lish the following definite information in regard to this particular : * * 

"For these purposes it is recommended, 1st. That the trustees contract immediately 
with some one of the competing lines of travel for the conveyance of 20,000 persons 
from Massachusetts to that place in the west which the trustees shall select for their first 
settlement." * * * * * 

"It is recommended that the company's agents locate and take up for the company's 
henefit, the sections of land in which the boarding-houses and mills are located, and no 
others. And further, whenever the territory shall be organized as a free state, the trus- 
tees shall dispose of all its interests there, replace by the sales the money laid out, de- 
clare a dividend to the stockholders, and that they then select a new field, and make 
similar arrangements for the settlement and organization of another free state of this 
Union." ***** 

' ' With the advantages attained by such a system of effort, the territory selected as 
the scene of operations would, it is believed, be filled up with free inhabitants." * 

"Thero is reason to suppose several thousand men of New England origin propose to 
emigrate under the auspices of some such arrangement, this very summer. Of the whole 



65G KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

emigration from Europe, amounting to some 400,000 persons, there can be no difficulty 
in inducing some thirty or forty thousand to take the same direction." * * 

"Especially will it prove an advantage to Massachusetts, if she create the new state 
by her foresight, supply the necessities of its inhabitants, and open in the outset com- 
munications between their homes and her ports and factories." 

"It determines in the right way the institutions of the unsettled territories, in less 
time than the discussion of them has required in congress." 

This movement is justified by those who originated and control the plan, up- 
on the ground that the persons whom they sent to Kansas were free men, who, 
under the constitution and laws, had a perfect right to emigrate to Kansas or 
any other territory ; that the act of emigration was entirely voluntary on their 
part ; and when they arrived in the territory as actual settlers, they had as 
good a right as any other citizens to vote at the elections, and participate in 
the control of the government of the territory. This would undoubtedly be 
true in a case of ordinary emigration, such as has filled up our new states and 
territories, where each individual has gone, on his own account, to improve his 
condition and that of his family. Btit it is a very different thing where a state 
creates a vast moneyed corporation for the purpose of controlling the domes- 
tic institutions of a distinct political community fifteen hundred miles distant, 
and sends out the emigrants only as a means, of accomplishing its paramount 
political objects. When a powerful corporation, with a capital of five millions 
of dollars invested in houses and lands, in merchandise and mills, in cannon 
and rifles, in powder and lead — in all the implements of art, agriculture, and 
war, and employing a corresponding number of men, all under the manage- 
ment and control of non-resident directors and stockholders, who are author- 
ized by their charter to vote by proxy to the extent of fifty votes each, enters 
a distant and sparsely settled territory with the fixed purpose of wielding all 
its power to control the domestic institutions and political destinies of the ter- 
ritory, it becomes a question of fearful import, how far the operations of the 
company are compatible with the rights and liberties of the people. What- 
ever may be the extent or limit of congressional authority over the territories, 
it is clear that no individual state has the right to pass any law or authorize 
any act concerning or affecting the territories, which it might not enact in ref- 
erence to any other state. 

When the emigrants sent out by the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, 
and their affiliated societies, passed through the state of Missouri in large num- 
bers on their way to Kansas, the violence of their language, and the unmis- 
takable indications of their determined hostility to the domestic institutions of 
that state, created apprehensions that the object of the company was to abo- 
litiouize Kansas as a means of prosecuting a relentless warfare upon the insti- 
tution of slavery within the limits of Missouri. These apprehensions in- 
creased and spread with the progress of events, until they became the settled 
convictions of the people of that portion of the state most exposed to the dan- 
ger by their proximity to the Kansas border. The natural consequence was, 
that immediate steps were taken by the people of the western counties of Mis- 
souri to stimulate, organize, and carry into effect a system, of emigration simi- 



REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS. 657 

lar to that of the Massachusetts Emigraut Aid Company, for the avowed pur- 
pose of counteracting the effects, and protecting themselves and their domestic 
institutions from the cousecpiences of that company's operations. 

The material difference in the character of the two rival and conflicting 
movements consists in the fact that the one had its origin in an aggressive, and 
the other in a defensive policy. The one was organized in pursuance of the 
provisions and claiming to act under the authority of a legislative enactment 
of a distant state, whose internal prosperity and domestic security did not de- 
pend upon the success of the movement ; while the other was the spontaneous 
action of the people living in the immediate vicinity of the theatre of opera- 
tions, excited by a sense of common danger to the necessity of protecting their 
own firesides from the apprehended horrors of servile insurrection and intestine 
war. Both parties, conceiving it to be essential to the success of their respec- 
tive plans that they should be upon the field of operations prior to the first 
election in the territory, selected principally young men, persons unencumbered 
by families, and whose conditions in life enabled them to leave at a moment's 
warning, and move with great celerity, to go at once, and select and occupy the 
most eligible sites and favored locations in the territory, to be held by them- 
selves and their associates who should follow them. For the successful prose- 
cution of such a scheme, the Missourians, who lived in the immediate vicinity, 
possessed peculiar advantages over their rivals from the more remote portions 
of the Union. Each family could send one of its members across the line to 
mark out his claim, erect a cabin, and put in a small crop, sufficient to give 
him as valid a right to be deemed an actual settler and qualified voter as those 
who were being imported by the emigrant aid societies. In an unoccupied ter- 
ritory, where the lands have not been surveyed, and where there were no marks 
or lines to indicate the boundaries of sections and quarter-sections, and where 
no legal title could be had until after the surveys should be made, disputes, 
quarrels, violence, and bloodshed might have been expected as the natural and 
inevitable consequences of such extraordinary systems of emigration, which 
divided and arrayed the settlers into two great hostile parties, each having an 
inducement to claim more than was his right, in order to hold it for some new 
comer of his own party, and at the same time prevent persons belonging to the 
opposite party from settling in the neighborhood. As a result of this state of 
things, the great mass of emigrants from the northwest and from other states 
who went there on their own account, with no other object and influence, by no 
other motives than to improve their condition and secure good homes for their 
families, were compelled to array themselves under the banner of one of these 
hostile parties, in order to insure protection to themselves and their claims 
against the aggressions and violence of the other. 

Tour committee have not considered it any part of their duty to examine 
and review each enactment and provision of the large volume of laws adopted 
by the legislature of Kansas upon almost every rightful subject of legislation, 
and affecting nearly every relation and interest in life, with a view either to 
their approval or disapproval by congress, for the reason that they are local 



658 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

laws, confined in their operation to the internal concerns of the territory, the 
control and management of which, by the principles of the federal constitution, 
as well as by the terms of the Kansas-Nebraska act, are confided to the peo- 
ple of the territory, to be determined by themselves through their representa- 
tives in their local legislature, and not by the congress, in which they have no 
representatives to give or withhold their assent to the laws upon which their 
rights and liberties may all depend. Under these laws marriages have taken 
place, children have been born, deaths have occurred, estates have been dis- 
tributed, contracts have been made, and rights have accrued which it is not 
competent for congress to divest. If there can be a doubt in respect to the 
validity of these laws, growing out of the alleged irregularity of the election 
of the members of the legislature, or the lawfulness of the place where its ses- 
sions were held, which it is competent for any tribunal to inquire into with a 
view to its decision at this day, and after the series of events which have en- 
sued, it must be a judicial question, over which congress can have no control, 
and which can be determined only by the courts of justice, under the protect 
tion and sanction of the constitution. 

When it was proposed in the last congress to annul the acts of the legisla- 
tive assembly of Minnesota, incorporating certain railroad companies, this com- 
mittee reported against the proposition, and, instead of annulling the local leg- 
islation of the territory, recommended the repeal of that clause of the organic 
act of Minnesota which reserves to congress the right to disapprove its laws. 
That recommendation was based on the theory that the people of the territory, 
being citizens of the United States, were entitled to the privilege of self-gov- 
ernment in obedience to the constitution ; and if, in the exercise of this right, 
they had made wise and just laws, they ought to be permitted to enjoy all the 
advantages resulting from them ; while, on the contrary, if they had made un- 
wise and unjust laws, they should abide the consequences of their own acts 
until they discovered, acknowledged, and corrected their errors. 

It has been alleged that gross misrepresentations have been made in respect 
to the character of the laws enacted by the legislature of Kansas, calculated, 
if not designed, to prejudice the public mind at a distance against those who 
enacted them, and to create the impression that it was the duty of congress to 
interfere and annul them. In view of the violent and insurrectionary measures 
which were being taken to resist the laws of the territory, a convention of del- 
egates, representing almost every portion of the territory of Kansas, was held 
at the city of Leavenworth on the 14th of November, 1855, at which men of 
all shades of political opinions, " whigs, democrats, pro-slavery men, and free 
state men, all met and harmonized together, and forgot their former differences 
in the common danger that seemed to threaten the peace, good order, and 
prosperity of this community." This convention was presided over by the 
governor of the territory, assisted by a majority of the judges of the supreme 
court ; and the address to the citizens of the United States, among other dis- 
tinguished names, bears the signatures of the United States district attorney 
and marshal for the territory. 



REPORT: KANSAS legislation. 059 

It is but reasonable to assume that the interpretation which these function- 
aries have given to the acts of the Kansas legislature in this address will be 
observed in their official exposition and execution of the same. In reference 
to the wide-spread perversions and misrepresentations of those laws, this ad- 
dress says : 

" The laws passed by the legislature have been most grossly misrepresented, with the 
view of prejudicing the publio against that body, and as an excuse for the revolutionary 
movements in this territory. The limits of this address will not permit a correction of 
all these misrepresentations ; but we will notice some of them, that have had the most 
wide-spead circulation. 

" It has been charged and widely circulated that the legislature, in order to perpetuate 
their rule, had passed a law prescribing the qualifications of voters, by which it is de- 
clared ' that any one may vote who will swear allegiance to the fugitive slave law, the 
Kansas and Nebraska bill, and pay one dollar.' Such is declared to be the evidence of 
citizenship, such the qualification of voters. In reply to this, we say that no such law 
was ever passed by the legislature. The law prescribing the qualification of voters ex- 
pressly provides that, to entitle a person to vote, he must be twenty-on« years of age, 
an actual inhabitant of this territory, and of the county or district in which he offers to 
vote, and shall have paid a territorial tax. There is no law requiring him to pay a dol- 
lar-tax as a qualification to vote. He must pay a tax it is true, [and this is by no means 
an unusual requirement in the states ;] but whether this tax is levied on his personal or 
real property, his money at interest, or is a poll-tax, makes no difference ; the payment 
of any territorial tax entitles the person to vote, provided he has the other qualifications 
provided by law. The act seems to be carefully drawn with the view of excluding all 
illegal and foreign votes. The voter must be an inhabitant of the territory, and of the 
county or district in which he offers to vote, and he must have paid a territorial tax. 
The judges and olerks are required to be sworn, and to keep duplicate poll-boxes ; and 
ample provision is made for contesting elections, and purging the polls of the illegal 
votes. It is difficult to see how a more guarded law could be framed, for the purpose of 
protecting the purity of elections and the sanctity of the ballot-box. The law does not 
require the voter to swear to support the fugitive slave law, or the Kansas and Nebraska 
bill, unless he is challenged ; in that case, he is required to take an oath to support 
each of these laws. As to the dollar law, [so called,] it is merely a poll-tax, and has 
no more connection with the right of suffrage than any other tax levied by the territorial 
authority, and is to be paid whether the party votes or not. It is a mere temporary 
measure, having no force beyond this year, and was resorted to as such to supply the 
territorial treasury with the necessary means to carry on the government. 

"It has also been charged against the legislature that they elected all of the officers 
of the territory for six years. This is without any foundation. They elected no officer 
for six years ; and the only civil officers they retain the election of, that occurs to us at 
present, are the auditor and treasurer of state, and the district attorneys, who hold their 
offices for four, and not six years. By the organic act, the commissions issued by the 
governor to the civil officers of the territory all expired on the adjournment of the legis- 
lature. To prevent a failure in the local administration, and from necessity, the legisla- 
ture made a number of temporary appointments, such as probate judge, and two county 
commissioners, and a sheriff of each county. The probate judge and county commis- 
sioners constitute the tribunal for the transaction of county business, and are invested 
with the power to appoint justices of the peace, constables, county surveyor, recorder, 
and clerk, etc. Probate judges, county commissioners, sheriffs, etc., are all temporary 
appointments, and are made elective by the people at the first annual election in 1857. 
The legislature could not have avoided making some temporary appointments. No e.00- 



660 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

tion could have been held without them. There were no judges, justices of the peace, 
or other officers to conduct an election of any kind, until appointed by the legislature. 
It was the exercise of a power which the first legislative assembly in every territory must 
of necessity exercise, in order to put the local government in motion. We see nothing 
in this to justify revolution or a resort to force. The law for the protection of slave 
property has also been much misunderstood. The right to pass such a law is expressly 
stated by Governor Reeder in his inaugural message, in which he says : ' A territorial 
legislature may undoubtedly act upon the question to a limited and partial extent, and 
may temporarily prohibit, tolerate or regulate slavery in the territory, and in an abso- 
lute or modified form, with all the force and effect of any other legislative act, binding 
until repealed by the same power that enacted it.' There is nothing in the act itself, as 
has beeu charged, to prevent a free discussion of the subject of slavery. Its bearing on 
society, its morality or expediency, or whether it would be politic or impolitic to make 
this a slave state, can be discussed here as freely as in any state in this Union, without 
infringing any of the provisions of the law. To deny the right of a person to hold 
slaves under the law in this territory is made penal ; but beyond this, there is no re- 
striction to the discussion of the slavery question, in any aspect in which it is capable 
of being considered. We do not wish to be understood as approving of all the laws 
passed by the legislature ; on the contrary, we would state that there are some that we 
do not approve of, and which are condemned by public opinion here, and which will, no 
doubt, be repealed or modified at the meeting of the next legislature. But this is noth- 
ing more than what frequently occurs, both in the legislation of congress and of the va- 
rious state legislatures. The remedy for such evils is to be found in public opinion, 
to which, sooner or later, in a government like ours, all laws must conform." 

A few days after Governor Reeder dissolved his official relation with the 
legislature, on account of the removal of the seat of government, and while 
that body was still in session, a meeting was called by "many voters," to as- 
semble at Lawrence on the 14th or 15th of August, 1855, "to take into con- 
sideration the propriety of calling a territorial convention, preliminary to the 
formation of a state government, and other subjects of public interest." At 
that meeting the following preamble and resolutions were adopted with but one 
dissenting voice : 

"Whereas, the people of Kansas territory have been sinoe its settlement, and now 
are, without any law-making power : therefore, 

"Be it resolved, that we, the people of Kansas territory, in mass meeting assembled, 
irrespective of party distinctions, influenced by a common necessity, and greatly de- 
sirous of promoting the common good, do hereby call upon and request all bona fide 
citizens of Kansas territory, of whatever political views and predilections, to consult 
together in their respective election districts, and in mass convention or otherwise, elect 
three delegates for each representative of the legislative assembly, by proclamation of 
Governor Reeder of date 10th March, 1S55 ; said delegates to assemble in convention at 
the town of Topeka, on the 19th day of September, 1855, then and there to consider and 
determine upon all subjects of public interest, and particularly upon that having refer- 
ence to the speedy formation of a state constitution, with an intention of an immediate 
application to be admitted as a state into the Union of the United States of America." 

This meeting, so far as your committee have been able to ascertain, was the 
first step in that series of proceedings which resulted in the adoption of a con- 
stitution and state government, to be put in operation on the 4th of the present 



REPORT : KANSAS LEGION. 661 

month, in subversion of the territorial government established under the au 
thority of congress. The right to set up the state government in defiance of 
the constituted authorities of the territory, is based on the assumption "that 
the people of Kansas territory have been since its settlement, and now are, 
without any law-making power ; " in the face of the well-known fact, that the 
territorial legislature were then in session, in pursuance of the proclamation of 
Governor Reedcr, and the organic law of the territory. On the 5th of Sep- 
tember, a "territorial delegate convention" assembled at the Big Springs, "to 
take into consideration the present exigencies of political affairs," at which, 
among others, the following resolutions were adopted : 

"Resolved, That this convention, in view of its recent repudiation of the acts of the 
so-called Kansas legislative assembly, respond most heartily to the call made by the 
people's convention of the 14th ultimo, for a delegate convention of the people of Kan- 
sas, to he held at Topeka, on the 19th instant, to consider the propriety of the formation 
of a state constitution, and such matters as may legitimately come before it. 

"Resolved, That we owe no allegiance or obedience to the tyranical enactments of 
this spurious legislature ; that their laws have no validity or binding force upon the 
people of Kansas ; and that every freeman among us is at full liberty, consistently with 
his obligations as a citizen and a man, to defy and resist them if he choose so to do. 

"Resolved, That we will endure and submit to these laws no longer than the best in- 
terests of the territory require, as the least of two evils, and will resist them to a bloody 
issue as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail, and forcible resistance 
shall furnish any reasonable prospect of success ; and that in the mean time we recom- 
mend to our friends through the territory, the organization and discipline of volunteer 
companies, and the procurement and preparation of arms." 

With the view to a distinct understanding of the meaning of so much of 
this resolution as relates to the " organization and discipline of volunteer com- 
panies, and the procurement and preparation of arms," it may be necessary to 
state, that there was at that time existing in the territory a secret military or- 
ganization, which had been formed for political objects prior to the alleged in- 
vasion, at the election on the 30th of March, and which held its first " grand 
encampment at Lawrence, February 8th, 1855." Tour committee have been 
put in possession of a small printed pamphlet, containing the "constitution 
and ritual of the grand encampment and regiments of Kansas legion of Kan- 
sas territory, adopted April 4th, 1855," which, during the recent disturbances 
in that territory, was taken on the person of one George F. Wurren, who at- 
tempted to conceal and destroy the same by thrusting it into his mouth, and 
biting and chewing it. Although somewhat mutilated by the " tooth prints," 
it bears internal evidence of being a genuine document, authenticated by the 
original signature of " G. W. Hutchinson, grand general," and "J. K. Good- 
win, grand quartermaster." 

The constitution consists of six articles, regulating the organization of the 
" Grand Encampment," which is "composed of representatives elected from 
each subordinate regiment existing in the territory, as hereafter provided. The 
officers of the Grand Encampment shall consist of a grand general, grand vice- 



662 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

general, grand quartermaster, grand paymaster, grand aid, two grand sentinels, 
and grand chaplain. 

"The Grand Encampment shall make all nominations for territorial officers at large, 
and immediately after such nominations shall have been made, the grand general shall 
communicate the result to every regiment in the territory." 

The " opening ceremony " of the subordinate encampment is as follows : 

"The colonel, lieutenant colonel, quartermaster, paymaster, aid, and sentinels, being 
in their respective places, the regiment shall be called and thus addressed by the colo- 
nel : Fellow-soldiers in the free-state army : The hour has arrived when we must re- 
sume the duties devolving upon us. Let us each, with a heart devoted to justice, patri- 
otism, and liberty, attend closely to all the regulations laid down for our government 
and action ; each laboring to make this review pleasant and profitable to ourselves and a 
blessing to our country. Aid, are the sentinels at their posts, with closed doors f 

"Aid. They are. 

"Colonel. Aid, you will now review the troops in the regiment's pass word. 

"Aid. CAfter examination. J I have examined them personally, and find each correct. 

" Colonel. I pronounce this regiment arrayed and ready for service." 

Then follows the process of initiating new recruits, who are properly vouch- 
ed for by members of the order, the preliminary obligations to observe secrecy, 
the catechism to which the candidate is subjected, and the explanations of the 
colonel in respect to the objects of the order, which are thus stated : " First, 
to secure to Kansas the blessing and prosperity of being a free state ; and, 
secondly, to protect the ballot-box from the leprous touch of unprincipled 
men." These and all other questions being satisfactorily answered, the final 
oath is thus administered : " With these explanations upon our part, we shall 
ask of you that you take with us an obligation, placing yourself in the same 
attitude as before. 

OBLIGATION. 

" I, , in the most solemn manner, here in the presence of Heaven and 

these witnesses, bind myself that I will never reveal, nor cause to be revealed, either 
by word, look, or sign, by writing, printing, engraving, painting or in any manner whatso- 
ever, anything pertaining to this institution, save to persons duly qualified to receive the 
same I will never reveal the nature of the organization, the place of meeting, the fact that 
any person is a member of the same, or even tne existence of the organization, except to 
persons legally qualified to receive the same. Should I at any time withdraw, or be sus- 
pended or expelled from this organization, I will keep this obligation to the end of life. 
If any books, papers or moneys belonging to this organization be entrusted to my care 
or keeping, I will faithfully and completely deliver up the same to my successor in office, 
or any one legally authorized to receive them. I will never knowingly propose a person 
for membership in this order who is not in favor of making Kansas a free state, and 
whom I feel satisfied will use his entire influence to bring about this result. I will sup- 
port, maintain, and abide by any honorable movement made by the organization to se- 
cure this great end, which will not conflict with the laws of the country and the consti- 
tution of the United States. I will unflinchingly vote for and support the candidates 
nominated by this organization in preference to any and all others. 

"To all of this obligation I do most solemnly promise and affirm, binding myself un- 
der the penalty of being expelled from this organization, of having my name published 



REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS. 663 

to the several territorial encampments as a perjurer before Heaven, and a traitor to my 
oonntry, of passing through life, scorned and reviled by man, frowned on by devils, for- 
saken by angels, and abandoned by God." 

Your committee have deemed it important to give the outline of the " con- 
stitution and ritual of the grand encampment and regiments of the Kansas 
legion," as constituting the secret organization, political and military, in obe- 
dience to which the public demonstrations have been made to subvert the au- 
thority of the territorial government established by congress, by setting up a 
state government, either with or without the assent of congress, as circumstan- 
ces should determine. The indorsement of this military organization, and the 
recommendation by the Big Springs convention for "the procurement and prep- 
aration of arms," accompanied with the distinct declaration that " we will resist 
them [the laws enacted by the Kansas legislature] to a bloody issue, as soon 
as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail, and forcible resistance shall 
furnish any reasonable prospect of success," would seem to admit of no other 
interpretation than that, in the event that the courts of justice shall sustain the 
validity of those laws, and congress shall refuse to admit Kansas as a state 
with the constitution to be formed at Topeka, they will set up an independent 
government in defiance of the federal authority. 

The same purpose is clearly indicated by the other proceedings of this con- 
vention, in which it is declared that " we with scorn repudiate the election 
law, so called," and nominate governor Reeder for congress, to be voted for on 
a different day from that authorized by law, at an election to be held by judges 
and clerks not appointed in pursuance of any legal authority, and not to be 
sworn by any person authorized by law to administer oaths ; and the returns 
to be made, and result proclaimed, and certificate granted, in a mode and by 
persons not permitted to perform these acts by any law, in or out of the ter- 
ritory. 

In accepting the nomination, governor Reeder addressed the convention as 
follows ; and, among other things, said : 

" In giving him this nomination in this manner, they had strengthened his 
arms to do their work, and, in return, he would now pledge to them a steady, 
unflinching pertinacity of purpose, never-tiring industry, dogged perseverance, 
and, in all the abilities with which God has endowed him, to the righting of 
their wrongs, and the final triumph of their cause. He believed, from the cir- 
cumstances which had for the last eight months surrounded him, and which 
had, at the same time, placed in his possession many facts, and bound him, 
heart and soul, to the oppressed voters of Kansas, that he could do much to- 
wards obtaining a redress of their grievances. 

" He said that, day by day a crisis was coming upon us ; that, in after times, 
this would be to posterity a turning-point, a marked period, as are to us the 
opening of the revolution, the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, 
and the era of the alien and sedition laws ; that we should take each carefully, 
so that each be a step of progress, and so that no violence be done to the tie 
which binds the American people together. He alluded to the unprecedented 



6G4 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

tyranny under which we are and have been ; and said that, if any one suppos- 
ed that institutions were to be imposed by force upon a free and enlightened 
people, they uever knew, or had forgotten, the history of our fathers. Ameri- 
can citizens bear in their breasts too much of the spirit of other and trying 
days, and have lived too long amid the blessings of liberty, to submit to op- 
pression from any quarter ; and the man who having once been free, could 
tamely submit to tyranny, was fit to be a slave. 

" He urged the free state men of Kansas to forget all minor issues, and pur- 
sue determinedly the one great object, never swerving, but steadily pressing on 
as did the wise men who followed the star to the manger, looking back only 
for fresh encouragement. He- counseled that peaceful resistance be made to 
the tyrannical and unjust laws of the spurious legislature ; that appeals to the 
courts, to the ballot box, and to congress, be made for relief from this oppres- 
sive load ; that violence should be deprecated as long as a single hope of 
peaceable redress remained ; but if, at last, all these should fail — if, in the 
proper tribunals, there is no hope for our dearest rights, outraged and profan- 
ed — if we are still to suffer, that corrupt men may reap harvests watered by 
our tears — then there is one more chance for justice. God has provided, in 
the eternal frame of things, redress for every wrong ; and there remains to 
us still the steady eye and the strong arm, and we must conquer, or mingle the 
bodies of the oppressors with those of the oppressed upon the soil which the 
Declaration of Independence no longer protects. But he was not at all ap- 
prehensive that such a crisis would ever arrive. He believed that justice 
might be found far short of so dreadful an extremity ; and, even should an 
appeal to arms come, it was his opinion, that if we are well prepared, that 
moment the victory is won." 

In pursuance of the recommendation of the mass meeting held at Lawrence 
on the 14th of August, and indorsed by the convention held at the Big Springs 
on the 5th and 6th of September, a convention was held at Topeka, on the 
19th and 2Qth of September, at which it was determined to hold another con- 
vention at the same place on the fourth Tuesday of October, for the purpose 
of forming a constitution and state government ; and to this end such proceed- 
ings were had as were deemed necessary for giving the notices, conducting the 
election of delegates, making the returns, and assembling the convention. 
With regard to the regularity of these proceedings, your committee see no 
necessity for further criticism than is to be found in the fact that it was the 
movement of a political party instead of the whole body of the people of 
Kansas, conducted without the sanction of law, and in defiance of the consti- 
tuted authorities, for the avowed purpose of overthrowing the territorial gov- 
ernment established by congress. 

The election for all these officers were held at the time specified ; and on 
the fourth day of the present month, the new government was to have been 
put in operation, in conflict with the territorial government established by con- 
gress, and for the avowed purpose of subverting and overthrowing the same, 



REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS. 665 

without reference to the actiou of congress upon their application for admission 
into the Union. 

Tour committee are not aware of any case in the history of our own coun- 
try, which cau be fairly cited as an example, much less a justification, for these 
extraordinary proceedings. Cases have occurred in which the inhabitants of 
particular territories have been permitted to form constitutions, aud take the 
initiatory steps for the organization of state governments, preparatory to their 
admission into the Union, without obtaining the previous assent of congress •, 
but iu every instance the proceeding has originated with, and been conducted 
in subordination to, the authority of the local governments established or re- 
cognized by the government of the United States. Michigan, Arkansas, 
Florida, and California, are sometimes cited as cases in point. 

In tracing, step by step, the origin and history of these Kansas difficulties, 
your committee have been profoundly impressed with the significant fact, that 
each one has resulted from an attempt to violate or circumvent the principles 
and provisions of the act of congress for the organization of Kansas and Ne- 
braska. The leading idea and fundamental principle of the Kansas-Nebraska 
act, as expressed in the law itself, was to leave the actual settlers and bona- 
fide itihabitants of each territory " perfectly free to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of 
the United States." While this is declared to be "the true intent and mean- 
ing of the act," those who were opposed to allowing the people of the terri- 
tory, preparatory to their admission into the Union as a state, to decide the 
slavery question for themselves, failing to accomplish their purpose in the halls 
of congress, aud under the authority of the constitution, immediately resorted, 
in their respective states, to unusual and extraordinary means to control the 
political destinies and shape the domestic institutions of Kansas, in defiance of 
the wishes, and regardless of the rights, of the people of that territory, as 
guarantied by their organic law. Combinations, in one section of the Union, 
to stimulate an unnatural and false system of emigration, with the view of con- 
trolling the elections, and forcing the domestic institutions of the territory to 
assimilate to those of the non-slaveholding states, were followed, as might have 
been foreseen, by the use of similar means in the slaveholding states, to pro- 
duce directly the opposite result. To these causes, and to these alone, in the 
opinion of your committee, may be traced the origin and progress of all the 
controversies and 'fiisturbances with which Kansas is now convulsed. 

. If these unfortunate troubles have resulted, as natural consequences, from 
unauthorized and improper schemes of foreign interference with the internal 
affairs and domestic concerns of the territory, it is apparent that the remedy 
must be sought in a strict adherence to the principles, and rigid enforcement 
of the provisions, of the organic law. In this connection, your committee feel 
sincere satisfaction in commending the messages and proclamation of the pres- 
ident of the United States, in which we have the gratifying assurance that the 
supremacy of the laws will be maintained ; that rebellion will be crushed ; that 
insurrection will be suppressed ; that aggressive intrusion for the purpose of 
43 



66G MINORITY REPOET. 

deciding elections, or any other purpose, will be repelled ; that unauthorized 
intermeddling in the local concerns of the territory, both from adjoining and 
distant states, will be prevented ; that the federal aud local laws will be vindi- 
cated against all attempts of organized resistance ; and that the people of the 
territory will be protected in the establishment of their own institutions, undis- 
turbed by encroachments from without, and in the full enjoyment of the rights 
of self-government assured to them by the constitution and the organic law. 

In view of these assurances, given under the conviction that the existing 
laws confer all authority necessary to the performance of these important du- 
ties, and that the whole available force of the United States will be exerted to 
the extent required for their performance, your committee repose in entire con- 
fidence that peace, and security, and law, will prevail in Kansas. If any fur- 
ther evidence were necessary to prove that all the collisions and difficulties in 
Kansas were produced by the schemes of foreign interference which have been 
developed in this report, in violation of the principles and in evasion of the 
provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska act, it maybe found in the fact that in Ne- 
braska, to which the emigrant-aid societies did not extend their operations, and 
into which the stream of emigration was permitted to flow in its usual and nat- 
ural channels, nothing has occurred to disturb the peace and harmony of the 
territory, while the principle of self-government, in obedience to the constitu- 
tion, has had fair play, and is quietly working out its legitimate results. 

It now only remains for your committee to respond to the two specific re- 
commendations of the president, in his special message. 

In compliance with the first recommendation, your committee ask leave to 
report a bill authorizing the legislature of the territory to provide by law for 
the election of delegates by the people, and the assembling of a convention to 
form a constitution and state government preparatory to their admission into 
the Union on an equal footing with the original states, so soon as it shall ap- 
pear, by a census to be taken under the direction of the governor, by the au- 
thority of the legislature, that the territory contains ninety-three thousand four 
hundred and twenty inhabitants — that being the number required by the pres- 
ent ratio of representation for a member of congress. 

In compliance with the other recommendation, your committee propose to 
offer to the appropriation bill an amendment appropriating such sum as shall 
be found necessary, by the estimates to be obtained, for the purpose indicated 
in the recommendation of the president. 

All of which is respectfully submitted to the senate by your committee. 

Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, the minority member of said committee, sub- 
mitted the following 

MINORITY REPORT. 

Thirteen of the present prosperous states of this Union passed through the 
period of apprenticeship or pupilage of territorial training, under the guard- 
ianship of congress, preparatory to assuming their proud rank of manhood as 
sovereign and independent states. This period of their pupilage was, in every 
case, a period of the good offices of parent and child, in the kind relationship 



mr. collamer's report. 667 

sustained between the national and the territorial government, and may be re- 
membered with feelings of gratitude and pride. We have fallen on different 
times. A territory of our government is now convulsed with violence and dis- 
cord, and the whole family of our nation is in a state of excitement and anx- 
iety. The national executive power is put in motion, the army in requisition, 
and congress is invoked for interference. 

In this case, as in all others of difficulty, it becomes necessary to inquire 
what is the true cause of existing trouble, In order to' apply effectual cure. It 
is but temporary palliatives to deal with the external and more obvious mani- 
festations and developments, while the real, procuring cause lies unattended to, 
and uncorrected, and unremoved. 

It is said that organized opposition to law exists in Kansas. That, if exist- 
ing, may probably be suppressed by the president, by the use of the army ; and 
so, too, may invasions by armed bodies from Missouri, if the executive be sin- 
cere in its efforts ; but when this is done, while the cause of trouble remains, 
the results will continue with renewed and increased developments of danger. 

Let us, then, look fairly and undisguisedly at this subject, in its true charac- 
ter and history. Wherein does this Kansas territory differ from all our other 
territories, which have been so peacefully and successfully carried through, and 
been developed into the manhood of independent states ? Can that difference 
account for existing troubles ? Can that difference, as a cause of trouble, be 
removed ? 

The first and great point of difference between the territorial government of 
Kansas and that of the thirteen territorial governments before mentioned, con- 
sists in the subject of slavery — the undoubted cause of present trouble. 

The action of congress in relation to all those thirteen territories was con- 
ducted on a uniform and prudent principle, to wit : to settle, by a clear pro- 
vision, the law in relation to the subject of slavery to be operative in the ter- 
ritory, while it remained such ; not leaving it in any one of those cases to be 
a subject of controversy within the same, while in the plastic gristle of its 
youth. This was done by congress in the exercise of the same power which 
moulded the form of their organic laws, and appointed their executive and ju- 
diciary, and sometimes their legislative officers. It was the power provided in 
the constitution, in these words : " Congress shall have power to dispose of 
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other 
property belonging to the United States." Settling the subject of slavery while 
the country remained a territory, was no higher exercise of power in congress 
than the regulation of the functions of the territorial government, and actually 
appointing its principal functionaries. This practice commenced with this na- 
tional government, and was continued, with uninterrupted uniformity, for more 
than sixty years. This practical contemporaneous construction of the consti- 
tutional power of this government is too clear to leave room for doubt, or op- 
portunity for skepticism. The peace, prosperity, and success which attended 
this course, and the results which have ensued, in the formation and admission 
of the thirteen states therefrom, are most conclusive and satisfactory evidence, 



668 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

also, of the wisdom and prudence with which this power was exercised. De- 
luded must be that people who, in the pursuit of plausible theories, become 
deaf to the lessons, and blind to the results, of their own experience. 

Let us next inquire by what rule of uniformity congress was governed, in 
the exercise of this power of determining the condition of each territory as to 
slavery, while remaining a territory, as manifested in those thirteen instances. 
An examination of our history will show that this was not done from time to 
time by agitation and local or party triumphs in congress. The rule pursued 
was uniform and clear ; and whoever may have lost by it, peace and prosperity 
have "been gained. That rule was this : 

Where slavery was actually existing in a country to any considerable or gen- 
eral extent, it was (though somewhat modified as to further importation in 
some instances, as in Mississippi and Orleans territories) suffered to remain. 
The fact that it had been taken and existed there, was taken as an indication 
of its adaptation and local utility. Where slavery did not in fact exist to any 
appreciable extent, the same was, by congress, expressly prohibited ; so that 
in either case the country settled up without difficulty or doubt as to the char- 
acter of its institutions In no instance was this difficult and disturbing sub- 
ject left to the people who had and who might settle in the territory, to be 
there an everlasting bone of contention, so long as the territorial government 
should continue. It was ever regarded, too, as a subject in which the whole 
country had an interest, and, therefore, improper for local legislation. 

And though whenever the people of a territory come to form their own or- 
ganic law, as an independent state, they would, either before or after their ad- 
mission as a state, form and mould their institutions, as a sovereign state, in 
their own way, yet it must be expected, and has always proved true, that the 
state has taken the character her pupilage has prepared her for, as well in re- 
spect to slavery as in other respects. Hence, six of the thirteen states are free 
states, because slavery was prohibited in them by congress while territories, to 
wit : Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Seven of the 
thirteen are slavcholding states, because slavery was allowed in them by con- 
gress while they were territories, to wit : Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri. 

On the 6th of March, A. D. 1820, was passed by congress the act prepara- 
tory to the admission of the state of Missouri into the Union. Much contro- 
versy and discussion arose on the question whether a prohibition of slavery 
within said state should be inserted, and it resulted in this : that said state 
should be admitted without such prohibition, but that slavery should be for- 
ever prohibited in the rest of that country ceded to us by France lying north 
36° 30' north latitude, and it was so done. This contract is known as the 
Missouri compromise. Under this arrangement Missouri was admitted as a 
slaveholding state, the same having been a slaveholding territory. Arkansas, 
south of the line, was formed into a territory, and slavery allowed therein, and 
afterwards admitted as a slaveholding state. Iowa was made a territory, north 
of the line, and, under the operation of the law, was settled up without slaves 



REPORT OF MR. COLLAMER. 6G9 

and admitted as a free state. The country now making the territories of 
Kansas and Nebraska, in 1820 was almost or entirely uninhabited, and lay 
north of said line, and whatever settlers entered the same before 1854 did so 
under that law, forever forbidding slavery therein. 

In 1854 congress passed an act establishing two new territories — Nebraska 
and Kansas — in this region of country, where slavery had been prohibited for 
more than thirty years ; and instead of leaving said law against slavery in 
operation, or prohibiting or expressly allowing or establishing slavery, congress 
left the subject in said territories to be discussed, agitated and legislated on, 
from time to time, and the elections in said territories to be conducted with 
reference to that subject, from year to year, so long as they should remain ter- 
ritories ; for whatever laws might be passed by the territorial legislatures on 
this subject, must be subject to change or repeal by those of the succeeding 
years. In most former territorial governments, it was provided by law that 
their laws were subject to the revision of congress, so that they would be made 
with caution. In these territories that was omitted. 

The provision in relation to slavery in Nebraska and Kansas is as follows : 
"The eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into 
the Union (which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by 
congress with slavery in the states and territories, as required by the legislation 
of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures) is hereby declared inop- 
erative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to leg- 
islate slavery into said territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United 
States ; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or 
put in force any law or regulatiou which may have existed prior to the act ot 
6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing 



Thus it was promulgated to the people of this whole country that here was 
a clear field for competition — an open course for the race of rivalship ; the 
goal of which was the ultimate establishment of a sovereign state ; and the 
prize, the reward of everlasting liberty and its institutions on the one hand, or 
the perpetuity of slavery and its concomitants on the other. It is the obvi- 
ous duty of this government, while this law continues, to see this manifesto 
faithfully, and honorably, and honestly performed, even though its particular 
supporters may see cause of a result unfavorable to their hopes. 

It is further to be observed, that in the performance of this novel experiment, 
it was provided that all white men who became inhabitants in Kansas were 
entitled to vote without regard to their time of residence, usually provided in 
other territories. Nor was this right of voting coufiined to American citizens, 
but included all such aliens as had declared, cr would declare, on oath, their 
intention to become citizens. Thus was the proclamation to the world to 
become inhabitants of Kansas, and enlist in this great enterprise, by the force 
of numbers, by vote, to decide for it the great question. Was it to be expected 



670 . KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

that this great proclamation for the political tournament would be listened to 
with indifference and apathy ? Was it prepared and presented in that spirit ? 
Did it relate to a subject on which the people were cool or indifferent ? A 
large part of the people of this country look on domestic slavery as " only 
evil, and that continually," alike to master and to slave, and to the community; 
to be left alone to the management or enjoyment of the people of the states 
where it exists, but not to be extended, more especially as it gives, or may 
give, political supremacy to a minority of the people of this country in the 
United States government. On the other hand, many of the people of another 
part of the United States regard slavery, if not in the abstract a blessing, at 
least as now existing a condition of society best for both white and black, while 
they exist together ; while others regard it as no evil, but as the highest state 
of social condition. These consider that they cannot, with safety to their 
interests, permit political ascendency to be largely in the hands of those 
unfriendly to this peculiar institution. From these conflicting views, long and 
violent has been the controversy, and experience seems to show it interminable. 
Many, and probably a large majority of this nation, lovers of quiet, enter- 
tained the hope that, after 1850, the so-called compromise measures, even 
though not satisfactory to the free states, would be kept by their supporters, 
and made by them what they were professed to be, a finality on the subject of 
the extent and limitations of slave territory ; more especially after the assu- 
rances contained in the inaugural address of President Pierce. This hope was 
fortified with the consideration that at that time congress had, by different pro- 
visions, settled by law the condition of freedom or slavery for all the territory 
of the United States. These hopes have been disappointed, and from this 
very provision for repose has been extracted a principle for disturbing the 
condition of things on which its foundation of finality rested — that is, the per- 
manence and continuance of the then existing condition of legal provisions. 
The establishment of the territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico, 
without a prohibition of slavery, was sustained by many on the ground that no 
such provision was required for its exclusion, as the condition of the country 
and its laws were a sufficient barrier; and therefore they sustained them, 
because it would complete the series, and finish the provisions as to slavery in 
all our territory, and make an end of controversy on that subject : yet, in 1854, 
it was insisted by the friends and supporters of the laws of 1850, and it is 
actually asserted in the law establishing the territorial government of Kansas, 
that the laws for new Mexico and Utah, being of the compromise measures, 
adopt and contain a principle utterly at war with their great and professed 
object of finality ; and that, instead of completing and ending the provisions 
of congressional action for the territories as to slavery, it really declared a 
principle which unsettled all those where slavery had been prohibited, and 
rendered it proper, and only proper, to declare such prohibitions all " inopera- 
tive and void." The spirit and feeling which thus perverted those compromise 
laws, and made them the direct instrument of renewed disturbance, could not 



REPORT OF MR. COLUMER. G71 

be expected then to leave the result to the decision of the people of Kansas 
■with entire inactivity and indifference. 

The slaveholding . states, in 1820, secured the admission of Missouri as a 
slaveholding state, and all the region south of 36° 30' to the same purpose, by- 
agreeing and enacting that all north of that line should be forever free ; and 
by this they obtained only a sufficient number of votes from the free states, as 
counted with theirs, to adopt it. In 1850 they agreed that if Utah and New 
Mexico were made territories, without a prohibition of slavery, it would, with 
the laws already made for the rest of our territory, settle forever the whole 
subject. This proposition, for such a termination, also secured votes from the 
free states enough, with their own from the slaveholding states, to adopt it. 
In 1854, in utter disregard of these repeated contracts, both these arrangements 
were broken, and both these compromises disregarded, and all their provisions 
for freedom declared inoperative and void, by the vote of the slaveholding 
states, with a very few honorable exceptions, and a minority of the votes of 
the free states. After this extraordinary and iuexcusable proceeding, it was 
not to be expected that the people of the slaveholding states would take no 
active measures to secure a favorable result by votes in the territory of Kan- 
sas. Neither could it be expected that the people of the free states, who 
regarded the act of 1854 as a double breach of faith, would sit down and make 
no effort, by legal means, to correct it. 

It has been said that the repeal of this provision of the Missouri compro- 
mise, and breach of the compromise of 1850, should not be regarded as a 
measure of the slaveholding states, because it was presented by a senator from 
a free state. 

The actions or votes of one or more individual men cannot give character 
to, or be regarded as fixing a measure on, their section or party. The only ' 
true or honest mode of determining whether any measure is that of any section 
or party, is to ascertain whether the majority of that section or party voted for 
it. Now, a large majority — indeed, the whole, with a few rare exceptions — of 
the representatives from the slaveholding states voted for that repeal. On the 
other hand, a majority of the representatives from the free states voted 
against it. 

This subject of slavery in the territories, which has voilently agitated the 
country for many years, and which has been attempted to be settled twice by 
compromise, as before stated, does not remain settled. The Missouri compro- 
mise and the supposed finality by the acts of 1850, are scattered and dissolved 
by the votes of the slaveholding states ; and it is not to be disguised that this 
uncalled for and disturbing measure has produced a spirit of resentment, from 
a feeling of its injustice, which, while the cause continues, will be difficult to 
allay. 

This subject, then, which congress has been unable to settle in*nny such way 
as the slave states will sustain, is now turned over to those who have or shall 
become inhabitants of Kansas to arrange ; and all men are invited to partici- 



672 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

pate in the experiment, regardless of their character, political or religious 
views, or place of nativity. 

Now, what is the right and the duty of the people of this country in rela- 
tion to this matter? Is it not the right of all who believe in the blessings of 
Blavehokling, and regard it as the best condition of society, either to go to 
Kansas as inhabitants, and by their votes to help settle this good condition of 
that territory ; or if they cannot so go and settle, is it not their duty, by all 
lawful means in their power, to promote this object by inducing others like- 
minded to go ? This right becomes a duty to all who follow their convictions. 
All who regard an establishment of slavery in Kansas as best for that territory, 
or as necessary to their own safety by the political weight it gives in the 
national government, should use all lawful means to secure that result ; and 
clearly, the inducing men to go there to become permanent inhabitants and 
voters, and to vote as often as the elections occur in favor of the establish- 
ment of slavery, and thus control the elections, and preserve it a slave state 
forever, is neither unlawful nor censurable. It is, and would be highly praise- 
worthy and commendable, because it is using lawful means to carry forward 
honest convictions of public good. All lawfully-associated effort to that end 
is equally commendable. Nor will the application of opprobrious epithets, 
and calling it propagandism, change its moral or legal character, from what- 
ever quarter or source, official or otherwise, such epithets may come. Neither 
should they deter any man from peaceably performing his duty by following 
his honest convictions. 

On the other hand, all those who have seen and realized the blessings of 
universal liberty, and believe that it can only be secured and promoted by the 
prohibition of domestic slavery, and that the elevation of honest industry can 
never succeed where servitude makes labor degrading, should, as in duty bound 
put forth all reasonable exertions to advance this great object, by lawful means, 
whenever permitted by the laws of their country. When, therefore, Kansas 
was presented, by law, as an open field for this experiment, and all were invi- 
ted to enter, it became the right and duty of all such as desired, to go there 
as inhabitants for the purpose, by their numbers and by their votes lawfully 
cast, from time to time, to carry or control, in a legal way, the elections there 
for this object. This could only be lawfully effected by permanent residence, 
and continued and repeated effort, during the continuance of the territorial 
government, and permanently remaining there to form and preserve a free state 
constitution. All those who entertained the same sentiments, but were not 
disposed themselves to go, had the right and duty to use all lawful means to 
encourage and promote the object. If the purpose could be best effected by 
united efforts, by voluntary associations or corporations, or by state assistance, 
as proposed in some southern states, it was all equally lawful and laudable. 
This was not the officious intermeddling with the internal affairs of another 
nation, or state, or the territory of another people. The territory is the prop- 
erty of the nation, and is, professedly, open to the settlement and the institu- 
tions of every part of the United States. If lawful means, so extensive as to 



REPORT OF MR. COLLAMER. 673 

be effectual, were used to people it with a majority of inhabitants opposed to 
slavery, is now considered as a violation of, or an opposition to the law estab- 
lishiug the territory, then the declarations and provisions of that law were but 
& premeditated delusion, which not only allowed such measures, but actually 
invited them, by enacting that the largest number of the settlers should deter- 
mine the condition of the country ; thus inviting efforts for numbers. Such 
an invitation must have been expected to produce such efforts on both sides. 

It now becomes necessary to inquire what has in fact taken place. If vio- 
lence has taken place as the natural, and perhaps unavoidable, consequences 
of the nature of the experiment, bringing into dangerous contact and collision 
inflammable elements, it was the vice of a mistaken law, and immediate meas- 
ures should be taken by congress to correct such law. If force and violence 
have been substituted for peaceful measures there, legal provisions should be 
made and executed to correct all the wrong such violence has produced, and 
to prevent their recurrence, and thus secure a fair fulfillment of the experiment 
by peaceful means, as originally professed and presented in the law. 

A succient statement of the origin and progress of the material events in 
Kansas is this : After the passage of this law, establishing the territory of 
Kansas, a large body of settlers rapidly entered into said territory with a view 
to permanent inhabitancy therein. Most of these were from the free states of 
the west and north, who probably intended by their votes and influence to estab- 
lish there a free state, agreeable to the law which invited them. Some part of 
those from the northern states had been encouraged and aided in this enter- 
prise by the Emigrant Aid Society formed in Massachusetts, which put forth 
some exertions in this laudable object, by open and public measures, in provid- 
ing facilities for transportation to all peaceable citizens who desired to become 
permanent settlers in said territory, and providing therein hotels, mills, etc., 
for the public accomodation of that new country. 

The governor of Kansas, having, in pursuance of law, divided the territory 
into districts, and procured a census thereof, issued his proclamation for the 
election of a legislative assembly therein, to take place on the 30th day of 
March, 1855, and directed how the same should be conducted, and the returns 
made to him agreeable to the law establishing said territory. On the day of 
election, large bodies of armed men from the state of Missouri appeared at 
the polls in most of the districts, and by most violent and tumultuous carriage 
and demeanor overawed the defenseless inhabitants, and by their own votes 
elected a large majority of the members of both houses of said assembly. On 
the returns of said election being made to the governor, protests and objections 
were made to him in relation to a part of said districts ; and, as to them, he 
set aside such, and such only, as by the returns appeared to be bad. In rela- 
tion to others, covering, in all, a majority of the two houses, equally vicious in 
fact, but apparently good by formal returns, the inhabitants thereof, borne 
down by said violence and intimidation, scattered and discouraged, and labor- 
ing under apprehensions of personal violence, refrained and desisted from pre- 
senting any protest to the governor in relation thereto ; and he, then uuinform- 



674 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

ed in relation thereto, issued certificates to the members who appeared by said 
formal returns to have been elected. 

In relation to those districts which the governor so set aside, orders were 
by him issued for new elections In one of these districts the same proceedings 
were repeated by men from Missouri, and in others not, and certificates were 
issued to the persons elected. 

This legislative assembly, so elected, assembled at Pawnee, on the second 
day of July, 1855, that being the time and place for holding said meeting, as 
fixed by the governor, by authority of law. On assembling, the said houses 
proceeded to set aside and reject those members so elected on said second elec- 
tion, except in the district where the men from Missouri had, at said election, 
chosen the same persons they had elected at the said first election, and they 
admitted all of the said first elected members. 

A legislative assembly, so created by military force, by a foreign invasion, 
in violation of the organic law, was but a usurpation. No act of its own, no 
act or neglect of the governor, could legalize or sanctify it. Its own decisions 
as to its own legality are like its laws, but the fruits of its own usurpation, 
which no governor could legitimate. 

They passed an act altering the place of the temporary seat of govern- 
ment to the Shawnee Mission, on the border of, and in near proximity to Mis- 
souri. This act the governor regarded as a violation of the organic law estab- 
lishing the territory, which fixed the temporary seat of government, and pro- 
hibited the legislative assembly from doing anything inconsistent with said act. 
He, therefore, and for that cause, vetoed said bill ; but said assembly repassed 
the same by a two-thirds majority, notwithstanding said veto, and removed to 
said Shawnee Mission. They then proceeded to pass laws, and the governor, 
in writing, declined further to recognize them as a legitimate assembly, sit- 
ting at that place. They continued passing laws there from the 16th day of 
July to the 31st day of August, 1855. 

On the 15th day of August, the governor of said territory was dismissed 
from office, and the duties devolved upon the secretary of the territory ; and, 
how many of the laws passed with his official approbation does not appear, the 
laws as now presented being without date or authentication. 

As by the law of congress organizing said territory it was expressly pro- 
vided that the people of the territory were to be "left perfectly free to form 
and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way," and among these 
institutions slavery is included, it was, of course, implied that that sub- 
ject was to be open and free to public and private discussion in all its bearings, 
rights, and relationships. Among these must, of course, be the question, 
what was the state of the existing linos, and the modifications that might be 
required on that subject? The law had declared that its " true intent and 
meaning was not to legislate slavery into the territory, or exclude it there- 
from." This would, of course, leave to that people the inquiry, what, then, 
are the existing rights under the constitution? Can slaves be holden in the 
absence of any law on the subject? This question, about which so much differ- 



REPORT OF MR. COLLAMER. G75 

ence of opinion exists, and which congress and the courts have never settled, 
was thus turned over to the people there, to discuss and settle for themselves. 
This territorial legislature, so created by force from Missouri, utterly re- 
fused to permit discussion on the subject ; but, assuming that slavery already 
existed there, and that neither congress nor the people in the territory, under 
the authority of congress, had or could prohibit it, passed a law which, if en- 
forced, utterly prohibits all discussion of the question. The eleventh and 
twelfth sections of that act are as follows : 

" Sec. 11. If any person print, write, introduce into, publish or circulate, or cause to 
lie brought into, printed, written, published or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or as- 
sist in bringing into, printing, publishing or circulating within this territory, any book, 
paper, pamphlet, magazine, hand-bill or circular, containing any statements, arguments, 
opinions, sentiments, doctrines, advice or inuendo, calculated to promote a disorderly, 
dangerous or rebellious disaffection among the slaves in this territory, or to induce such 
slaves to escape from the service of their masters or to resist their authority, he shall be 
guilty of a felony, and be punished by imprisonment and hard labor for a term not less 
than five years. 

"Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that per- 
sons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this terri- 
tory, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be introduced into this territory, writ- 
ten, printed, published or circulated in this territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamph- 
let or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this terri- 
tory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at 
hard labor for a term of not less than two years." 

And further providing, that no person " conscientiously opposed to holding 
slaves " shall sit as a juror in the trial of any cause founded on a breach of 
the foregoing law. They further provided, that all officers and attorneys 
should be sworn not only to support the constitution of the United States, but 
also to support and sustain the organic law of the territory, and the fugitive 
slave laws ; and that any person offering to vote shall be presumed to be enti- 
tled to vote until the contrary is shown, and if any one, when required, shall 
refuse to take oath to sustain the fugitive-slave laws, he shall not be permitted 
to vote. Although they passed a law that none but an inhabitant, who had 
paid a tax, should vote, yet they required no time of residence necessary, and 
provided for the immediate payment of a poll-tax ; so providing, in effect, that 
on the eve of an election the people of a neighboring state could come in, in 
unlimited numbers, and, by taking up a residence of a day or an hour, pay a 
poll-tax, and thus become legal voters, and then, after voting, return to their 
own state. They thus, in practical effect, provided for the people of Missouri 
to control elections at their pleasure, and permitted such only of the real in- 
habitants of the territory to vote as are friendly to the holding of slaves. 

They permitted no election of any of the officers in the territory to be 
made by the people thereof, but created the offices and filled them, or appoint- 
ed officers to fill them for long periods, and provided that the next annual elec- 
tion should be holden in October, 1856, and the assembly to meet in Jauuary, 
1857 ; so that none of these laws could be changed, until the lower house 



676 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

might be changed, in 1856 ; bnt the council, which is elected for two years, 
could not be changed so as to allow a change of the laws or officers until the 
session of 1858, however much the inhabitants of the territory might desire it. 

These laws, made by an assembly created by a foreign force, are but a 
manifestation of the spirit of oppression which was the parent of the whole 
transaction. No excuse can be found for it in the pretense that the inhabitants 
had earned with them into said territory a quantity of Sharp's rifles — first, be- 
cause that, if true, formed no excuse ; secondly, it is untrue, as their Sharp's 
rifles were only obtained afterwards, and entirely for the purpose of self-de- 
fense, the necessity for which, this invasion and other acts of violence and 
threats clearly demonstrated. These laws were obviously made to oppress and 
drive out all who were inclined to the exclusion of slavery ; and if they re- 
mained, to silence them on this subject, aud subject them to the will and control 
of the people of Missouri. These are the laws which the president says must 
be enforced by the army and the whole power of the nation. The people of 
Kansas, thus invaded, subdued, oppressed, aud insulted, seeing their territorial 
government (such only in form) perverted into an engine to crush them in the 
dast, and to defeat and destroy the professed object of their organic law, by 
depriving them of the "perfect freedom " therein provided, and finding no 
ground to hope for rights in that organization, they proceeded, under the guar- 
anty of the United States constitution, " peaceably to assemble to petition the 
government for the redress of (their) grievances." They saw no earthly 
source of relief but in the formation of a state government by the people, and 
the acceptance and ratification thereof by congress. 

In this view of the subject, in the first part of August, 1855, a call was 
published in the public papers for a meeting of the citizens of Kansas, irre- 
spective of party, to meet at Lawrence, in said territory, on the 15th of said 
August, to take into consideration the propriety of calling a convention of the 
people of the whole territory, to consider that subject. That meeting was 
held on the 15th day of August last, and it proceeded to call such convention 
of delegates to be elected and to assemble at Topeka, in said territory, on the 
L9th day of September, 1S55, not to form a constitution, but to consider the 
propriety of calling, formally, a convention for that purpose. 

The meeting was duly held, aud resulted in the call for a constitutional con- 
vention. 

Delegates were elected agreeably to a proclamation issued, and they met at 
Topeka on the fourth Tuesday in October, 1855, and formed a constitution, 
which was submitted to the people, and was ratified by them by vote in the 
districts. An election of state officers and members of the state legislature 
has been had, aud a representative to congress elected, and it is intended to 
proceed to the election of senators, with the view to present the same, with the 
constitution, to congress for admission into the Union. 

It now becomes proper to inquire what should be done by congress ; for we 
are informed by the president, in substance, that he has no power to correct a 
usurpation, and that the laws, even though made by usurped authority, must 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. G77 

be by him enforced and executed, even with military force. The measures of 
redress should be applied to the true cause of the difficulty. This obviously 
lies in the repeal of the clause for freedom in the act of 1820, and therefore 
the true remedy lies in the eutire repeal of the act of 1854, which effected it. 
Let this be done with frankness and magnanimity, and Kansas be organized 
anew, as a free territory, and all will be put right. 

Treating this grievance in Kansas with ingenious excuses, with neglect or 
rontempt, or riding over the oppressed with an army, and dragooning them 
into submission, will make no satisfactory termination. Party success may at 
times be temporarily secured by adroit devices, plausible pretenses, and parti- 
pan ;iil(lrcss ; but the permanent preservation of this Union can be maintained 
only by frankness and integrity. Justice maybe denied where it ought to be 
granted ; power may perpetuate that vassalage which violence and usurpation 
have produced ; the subjugation of white freemen may be necessary, that Af- 
rican slavery may succeed ; but such a course must not be expected to produce 
peace and satisfaction in our country, so long as the people retain any proper 
sentiment of justice, liberty, and law. 

On the 19th of March, the house of representatives passed a resolution pro- 
viding for a committee of three members of the house, to be sent to Kansas, 
to inquire into and collect evidence in regard to the troubles in that territory, 
and to report the same to the house. William A. Howard, of Michigan, John 
Sherman, of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver, of Missouri, were appointed the com- 
mittee of investigation. These gentlemen proceeded to Kansas and spent sev- 
eral weeks in taking testimony, which, when printed, formed a volume of twelve 
hundred pages. Our limits confine us to such extracts from the report as will fur- 
nish a brief history of the events in the territory subsequent to its organization. 

EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 

Tour committee deem it their duty to state, as briefly as possible, the prin- 
cipal facts proven before them. When the act to organize the territory of 
Kansas was passed on day of May, 1854, the greater portion of its east- 
ern border was included in Indian reservations not open for settlement, and 
there were but few white settlers in any portion of the territory. Its Indian 
population was rapidly decreasing, while many emigrants from different parts 
of our country were anxiously waiting the extinction of the Indian title, and 
the establishment of a territorial government, to seek new homes in its fertile 
prairies. It cannot be doubted that if its condition as a free territory had been 
left undisturbed by congress, its settlement would have been rapid, peaceful, 
and prosperous. Its climate, soil, and its easy access to the older settlements 
would have made it the favored course for the tide of emigration constantly 
flowing to the West, and by this time it would have been admitted into the 
Union as a free state, without the least sectional excitement. If so organized, 
none but the kindest feelings could have existed between it and the adjoining 
state. Their mutual interests and intercourse, instead of, as now, endangering 
the harmony of the Union, would have strengthened the ties of national broth- 



678 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

erhood. The testimony clearly shows, that before the proposition to repeal 
the Missouri compromise was introduced into congress, the people of western 
Missouri appeared indifferent to the prohibition of slavery in the territory, and 
neither asked nor desired its repeal. 

When,' however, the prohibition was removed by the action of congress, the 
aspect of affairs entirely changed. The whole country was agitated by the 
reopening of a controversy which conservative men in different sections hoped 
had been settled, in every state and territory, by some law beyond the danger 
of repeal. The excitement which has always accompanied the discussion of 
the slavery question was greatly increased by the hope on the one hand of ex- 
tending slavery into a region from which it had been excluded by law, and on 
the other by a sense of wrong done by what was regarded as a dishonor of a 
national compact. This excitement was naturally transferred into the border 
counties of Missouri and the territory, as settlers favoring free or slave insti- 
tutions moved into it. A new difficulty soon occurred. Different construc- 
tions were put upon the organic law. It was contended by the one party that 
the right to hold slaves in the territory existed, and that neither the people nor 
the territorial legislature could prohibit slavery — that the power was alone 
possessed by the people when they were authorized to form a state government. 
It was contended that the removal of the restriction virtually established slav- 
ery in the territory. This claim was urged by many prominent men in western 
Missouri, who actively engaged in the affairs of the territory. Every move- 
ment, of whatever character, which tended to establish free institutions, was 
regarded as an interference with their rights. 

Within a few days after the organic law passed, and as soon as its passage 
could be known on the border, leading citizens of Missouri crossed into the ter- 
ritory, held squatter meetings, and then returned to their homes. Among their 
resolutions are the following : 

" That we will afford protection to no abolitionist as a settler of this territory." 
"That we recognize the institution of slavery as already existing in this territory, and 
advise slaveholders to introduce their property as early aa possible." 

Similar resolutions were passed in various parts of the territory, and by 
meetings in several counties of Missouri. Thus the first effect of the repeal of 
the restriction against slavery was to substitute the resolves of squatter meet- 
ings, composed almost exclusively of citizens of a single state, for the delib- 
erate action of congress, acquiesced in for thirty-five years. 

This unlawful interference has been continued in every important event in 
the history of the territory ; every election has been controlled not by the ac- 
tual settlers, but by citizens of Missouri, and as a consequence every officer in 
the territory, from constables to legislators, except those appointed by the pres- 
ident, owe their positions to non-resident voters. None have been elected by 
the settlers, and your committee have been unable to find that any political 
power whatever, however unimportant, has been exercised by the people of the 
territory. 



REPORT OF IJJVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. G79 

In October, A. D. 1854, Gov. A. H. Reeder and the other officers appoint- 
ed by the president, arrived in the territory. Settlers from all parts of the 
country were moving in in great numbers, making their claims and building their 
cabins. About the same time, and before any election was or could be held 
in the territory, a secret political society was formed in the state of Missouri. 
It was known by different names, such as " Social Band," " Friends' Society," 
"Blue Lodge," " The Sons of the South." Its members were bound together 
by secret oaths, and they had passwords, signs, and grips, by which they were 
known to each other. Penalties were imposed for violating the rules and se- 
crets of the order. Written minutes were kept of the proceedings of the 
lodges, and the different lodges were connected together by an effective organi- 
zation. It embraced great numbers of the citizens of Missouri, and was ex- 
tended into other slave states and into the territory. Its avowed purpose was 
not only to extend slavery into Kansas, bnt also into other territory of the 
United States, and to form a union of all the friends of that institution. Its 
plan of operating was to organize and send men to vote at the elections in the 
territory, to collect money to pay their expenses, and, if necessary, to protect 
them iii voting. It also proposed to induce pro-slavery men to emigrate into 
the territory, to aid and sustain them while there, and to elect none to office 
but those friendly to their views. This dangerous society was controlled by 
men who avowed their purpose to extend slavery into the territory at all haz- 
ards, and was altogether the most effective instrument in organizing the subse- 
quent armed invasions and forays. In its lodges in Missouri the affairs of 
Kansas were discussed, the force necessary to control the election was divided 
into bands, and leaders selected, means were collected, and signs and badges 
were agreed upon. 

The first election was for a delegate to congress. It was appointed for the 
29th»of November, 1854. The governor divided the territory into seventeen 
election districts ; appointed judges and prescribed proper rules for the elec- 
tion. In the 1st, Hid, VIHth, IXth, Xth, Xllth, XIHth, and XVIIth dis- 
tricts, there appears to have been but little if any fraudulent voting. 

The election in the lid district was held at the village of Douglas, nearly 
fifty miles from the Missouri line. On the day before the election, large com- 
panies of men came into the district in wagons and on horseback, and declared 
that they were from the state of Missouri, and were going to Douglas to vote. 
On the morning of the election they gathered around the house where the elec- 
tion was to be held. Two of the judges appointed by the governor did not 
appear, and other judges were elected by the crowd. All then voted. In or- 
der to make a pretense of right to vote, some persons of the company kept a 
pretended register of scpiatter claims, on which any one could enter his name 
and then assert he had a claim in the territory. A citizen of the district who 
was himself a candidate for delegate to congress, was told by one of the stran- 
gers that he would be abused and probably killed if he challenged a vote. He 
was seized by the collar, called a d — d abolitionist, and was compelled to seek 
protection in the room with the judges. About the time the polls were closed, 



680 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

these strangers mounted their horses and got into their wagons and cried out — 
" All aboard for Westport and Kansas City." A number were recognized as 
residents of Missouri, and among them was Samuel H. Woodson, a leading 
lawyer of Independence. Of those whose names are on the poll-books, 35 
were resident settlers and 226 were non-residents. 

The election in the IVth district was held at Dr. Chapman's, over 40 miles 
from the Missouri state line. It was a thinly-settled region, containing but 47 
votes in February, 1855, when the census was taken. On the day before the 
election, from 100 to 150 citizens of Cass and Jackson counties, Mo., came into 
the district, declaring their purpose to vote, and that they were bound to make 
Kansas a slave state, if they did it at the point of the sword. Persons of the 
party on the way drove each a stake in the ground and called it a claim — and 
in one case several names were put on one stake. The party of strangers 
camped all night near where the election was to be held, and in the morning 
■were at the election-polls and voted. One of their party got drunk, and to 
get rid of Dr. Chapman, a judge of the election, they sent for him to come 
and see a sick man, and in his absence filled his place with another judge, who 
was not sworn. They did not deny or conceal that they were residents of 
Missouri, and many of them were recognized as such by others. They declared 
that they were bound to make Kansas a slave state. They insisted upon their 
right to vote in the territory if they were in it one hour. After the election, 
they again returned to their homes in Missouri, camping over night on the 
way. 

We find upon the poll-books 161 names ; of these not over 30 resided in the 
territory; 131 were non-residents. 

But few settlers attended the election in the Vth district, the district being 
large and the settlement scattered. 82 votes were cast ; of these between 20 
and 30 were settlers, and the residue were citizens of Missouri. They passed 
into the territory by way of the Santa Fe road and by the residence Uf Dr. 
Westfall, who then lived on the western line of Missouri. Some little excite- 
ment arose at the polls as to the legality of their voting, but they did vote for 
General Whitfield, and said they intended to make Kansas a slave state — and 
that they had claims in the territory. Judge Teazle, judge of the court in 
Jackson county, Missouri, was present, but did not vote. He said he did not 
intend to vote, but came to see that others voted After the election, the 
Missourians returned the way they came. 

The election in the YIth district was held at Fort Scott, in the southeast 
part of the territory and near the Missouri line. A party of about one hun- 
dred men, from Cass and the counties in Missouri south of it, went into the 
territory, traveling about 45 miles, most of them with their wagons and tents, 
and camping out. They appeared at the place of election. Some attempts 
were made to swear them, but two of the judges were prevailed upon not to 
do so, and none were sworn, and as many as chose voted. There were but 
few resident voters at the polls. The settlement was sparse — about 25 actual 
settlers voted out of 105 votes cast, leaving 80 illegal votes. After the voting 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 081 

was over the Missourians went to their wagons and commenced leaving for home. 
The most shameless fraud practiced upon the rights of the settlers at this 
election was in the Vllth district. It is a remote settlement, about 75 miles 
from the Missouri line, and contained in February, A. D. 1855, three months 
afterwards, when the census was taken, about 53 voters ; and yet the poll- 
books show that 604 votes were east. The election was held at the house of 
Frey McGee, at a place called " 110." But few of the actual settlers were 
present at the polls. A witness who formerly resided in Jackson county, Mis 
souri, and was well acquainted with the citizens of that county, says that he 
saw a great many wagons and tents at the place of election, and many indi- 
viduals he knew from Jackson county. He was in their tents and conversed 
with some of them, and they told him they had come with the intention of vo- 
ting. He went to the polls intending to vote for Flennekin, and his ticket be- 
ing of a different color from the rest, his vote was challenged by Frey McGee, 
who had been appointed one of the judges but did not serve. Lemuel Ralstone, 
a citizen of Missouri, was acting in his place. The witness then challenged 
the vote of a young man by the name of Nolan, whom he knew to reside in 
Jackson county. Finally the thing was hushed up, as the witness had a good 
many friends there from that county, and it might lead to a fight if he chal- 
lenged any more votes. Both voted, and then went down to their camp. He 
there saw many of his old acquaintances whom he knew had voted at the 
election in August previous in Missouri, and who still resided in that state. 
By a careful comparison of the poll-lists with the census-rolls, we find but 
12 names on the poll-book who were voters when the census was taken three 
months afterwards, and we are satisfied that not more than 20 legal votes 
could have been polled at that election. The only residents who are known 
to have voted are named bythe witness, and are 13 in number — thus leaving 
584 illegal votes cast in a remote district, where the settlers within many 
miles were acquainted with each other. 

The total number of white inhabitants in the Xlth district in the month of 
February, A. D. 1855, including men, women, and children, was 36, of whom 
24 were voters — yet the poll-lists in this district show that 245 votes were cast 
at this election. For reasons stated hereafter in regard to the election on the 
30th of March, your committee were unable to procure the attendance of wit- 
nesses from this district. From the records, it clearly appears that the votes 
cast could not have been by lawful resident voters. The best test, in the ab- 
sence of direct proof, by which to ascertain the number of legal votes cast, is 
by a comparison of the census-roll with the poll-book— by which it appears 
that but 1 resident settlers voted, and 238 votes were illegally and fraudulently 
given. 

The election in the XlVth district was held at the house of Benjamin Hard- 
ing, a few miles from the town of St. Joseph, Missouri. Before the polls were 
opened, a large number of citizens of Buchanan county, Missouri, and among 
them many of the leading citizens of St. Joseph, were at the place of voting, 
and made a majority of the company present. At the time appointed by the 
44 



682 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

governor for opening the polls, two of the judges were not there, and it be- 
came the duty of the legal voters present to select other judges. The judge 
who was present suggested the name of Mr. Waterson as one of the judges, 
but the crowd voted down the proposition. Some discussion then arose as to 
the right of non-residents to vote for judges, during which Mr. Bryant was 
nominated and elected by the crowd. Some one nominated Colonel John 
Scott as the other judge, who was then and is now a resident of St. Joseph. 
At that time he was the city attorney of that place, and so continued until this 
spring, but he claimed that the night before he had come to the house of Mr. 
Bryant, and had engaged boarding for a month, and considered himself a resi- 
dent of Kansas on that ground. The judges appointed by the governor re- 
fused to put the nomination of Colonel Seott to vote, because he was not a 
resident. After some discussion, Judge Leonard, a citizen of Missouri, 
stepped forward and put the vote himself ; and Mr. Scott was declared by him 
as elected by the crowd, and served as a judge of election that day. After the 
election was over he returned to St. Joseph, and never since has resided in the 
territory. It is manifest that this election of a non-resident lawyer as a judge 
was imposed upon the settlers by the citizens of the state. When the board 
of judges was thus completed, the voting proceeded, but the effect of the 
rule adopted by the judges allowed many, if not a majority, of the non-resi- 
dents to vote. They claimed that their presence on the ground, especially 
when they had a claim in the territory, gave them a right to vote — under that 
construction of the law they readily, when required, swore they were "resi- 
dents " and then voted. By this evasion, as near as your committee can ascer- 
tain from the testimony, as many as 50 illegal votes were cast in this district 
ont of 153, the whole number polled. 

The election in the XVth district was held ftt Penseman's, on Stranger 
Creek, a few miles from Weston, Missouri. On the day of the election a large 
number of citizens of Platte county, but chiefly* from Weston and Platte city, 
came in small parties, in wagons and on horseback, to the polls. Among them 
were several leading citizens of that town, and the names of many of them are 
given by the witnesses. They generally insisted upon their right to vote, on the 
ground that every man having a claim in the territory could vote, no matter 
where he lived. All voted who chose. No man was challenged or sworn. 
Some of the residents did not vote. The purpose of the strangers voting was 
declared to be to make Kansas a slave state. We find by the poll-books that 
306 votes were cast — of these we find but 57 are on the census-rolls as legal 
voters in February following. Tour committee is satisfied from the testimony 
that not over 100 of those who voted had any right so to do, leaving at least 
206 illegal votes cast. 

The election in the XVIth district was held at Leavenworth. It was then 
% small village of three or four houses, located on the Delaware Reservation. 
There were but comparatively few settlers then in the district, but the number 
rapidly increased afterward. On the day before and on the day of election, a 
great many citizens of Platte, Clay, and Ray counties crossed the river — most 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. C83 

of them camping in tents and wagons about the town, "like a camp-meeting." 
They were in companies or messes of ten to fifteen in each, and numbered in 
all several hundred. They brought their own provisions and cooked it them- 
selves, and were generally armed. Many of them were known by the witnesses, 
and their names given, and their names are found upon the poll-books. Among 
them were several persons of influence where they resided in Missouri, who 
held, or had held, high official positions in that state. They claimed to be 
residents of the territory, from the fact that they were then present and insisted 
upon the right to vote, and did vote. Their avowed purpose in doing so was 
to make Kansas a slave state. These strangers crowded around the polls, and 
it .was with great difficulty that the settlers could get to the polls. One resi- 
dent attempted to get to the polls in the afternoon, but was crowded out and 
pulled back. He then went outside of the crowd and hurrahed for General 
Whitfield, and some of those who did not know him said, " that's a good pro- 
slavery man," and lifted him up over their heads so that he crawled on their 
heads and put in his vote. A person who saw from the color of his ticket 
that it was not for General Whitfield, cried out, " He is a damned abolition- 
ist — let him down ; " and they dropped him. Others were passed to the polls 
in the same way, and others crowded up the best way they could. After this 
mockery of an election was over, the non-residents returned to their homes in 
Missouri. Of the 312 votes cast, not over 150 were by legal voters. 

Thus your committee find that in this the first election in the territory, a 
very large majority of votes were cast by citizens of the state of Missouri, in 
violation of the organic law of the territory. 

In January and February, 1855, the governor caused an enumeration to be 
taken of the inhabitants and qualified voters in the territory. There were 
2,905 voters ; 8,501 inhabitants. 

On the day the census was completed, the governor issued his proclamation 
for an election to be held on the 30th of March, A. D. 1855, for members of the 
legislative assembly of the territory. By an organized movement in Missouri, 
which extended from Andrew county on the north to Jasper county in the 
south, and as far eastward as Boone and Cole counties, companies of men were 
arranged in regular parties and sent into every council district in the terri- 
tory, and into every representative district but one. The numbers were so 
distributed as to control the election in each district. They went to vote, and 
with the avowed design to make Kansas a slave state. They were generally 
armed and equipped, carried with them their own provisions and tents, and so 
marched iuto the territory. The details of this invasion, from the mass of the 
testimony taken by your committee, are so voluminous that we can here state 
but the leading facts elicited. If the governor's proclamation had been ob- 
served, a just and fair election would have resulted. 

The company of persons who marched into Lawrence district, collected in 
Ray, Howard, Carroll, Boone, La Fayette, Randolph, Saline, and Cass coun- 
ties, in the state of Missouri. Their expenses were paid— those who could 



G84 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

not come contributing provisions, wagons, etc. Provisions were deposited for 
those who were expected to come to Lawrence, in the house of William Ly- 
kins, and were distributed among the Missourians after they arrived there. 
The evening before and the morning of the day of election, about 1,000 men 
from the above counties arrived at Lawrence, and encamped in a ravine a short 
distance from town, near the place of voting. They came in wagons — of which 
there were over one hundred — and on horseback, under the command of Col. 
Samuel Young, of Boone county, Missouri, and Claibourne F. Jackson, of Mis- 
souri. They were armed with guns, rifles, pistols, and bowie-knives, and had 
tents, music, and flags with them. They brought with them two pieces of ar- 
tillery loaded with musket-balls. On their way to Lawrence, some of them 
met Mr. N. B. Blanton, who had been appointed one of the judges of election 
by Gov. Reeder, and after learning from him that he considered it his duty to 
demand an oath from them as to their place of residence, first attempted to 
bribe, and then threatened him with hanging, in order to induce him to dis- 
pense with that oath. In consequence of these threats, he did not appear at 
the polls the nest morning to act as judge. 

The evening before the election, while in camp, the Missourians were called 
together at the tent of Captain Claibourne F. Jackson, and speeches were made 
to them by Col. Young and others, calling for volunteers to go to other dis- 
tricts where there were not Missourians enough to control the election, and 
there were more at Lawrence than were needed there. Many volunteered to 
go, and the morning of the election, several companies, from 150 to 200 men 
each, went off to Tecumseh, Hickory Point, Bloomingtou, and other places. 
On the morning of the election, the Missourians came over to the place of 
voting from their camp, in bodies of one hundred at a time. Mr. Blanton not 
appearing, another judge was appointed in his place — Col. Young claiming 
that, as the people of the territory had two judges, it was nothing more than 
right that the Missourians should have the other one, to look after their inter- 
ests ; and Robert E. Cummins was elected in Blantou's stead, because he con- 
sidered that every man had a right to vote if he had been in the territory but 
an hour. The Missourians brought their tickets with them ; but not having 
enough, they had three hundred more printed in Lawrence on the evening be- 
fore and the day of election. They had white ribbons in their button-holes to 
distinguish themselves from the settlers. 

When the voting commenced, the question of the legality of the vote of a 
Mr. Page was raised. Before it was decided, Col. Samuel Young stepped up 
to the window where the votes were received, and said he would settle the mat- 
ter. The vote of Mr. Page was withdrawn, and Col. Young offered to vote. 
He refused to take the oath prescribed by the governor, but swore he was a 
resident of the territory, upon which his vote was received. He told Mr. Ab- 
bott, one of the judges, when asked if he intended to make Kansas his future 
home, that it was none of his business ; that if he were a resident then, he 
should ask no more. After his vote was received, Col. Young got up in the 
window-sill and announced to the crowd that he had been permitted to vote, 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 685 

and they could all come up and vote. He told the judges that there was no 
use in swearing the others, as they would all swear as he had done. After the 
other judges concluded to receive Col. Young's vote, Mr. Abbott resigned as 
judge of election, and Mr. Benjamin was elected in his place. 

The polls were so much crowded until late in the evening, that, for a time, 
when the men had voted, they were obliged to get out by being hoisted up on 
the roof of the building where the election was being held, and pass out over 
the house. Afterward a passage-way through the crowd was made by two 
lines of men being formed, through which the voters could get up to the polls. 
Col. Young asked that the old men be allowed to go up first and vote, as they 
were tired with the traveling, and wanted to get back to camp. 

The Missourians sometimes came up to the polls in procession, two by two, 
and voted. 

During the day the Missourians drove off the ground some of the citizens, 
Mr. Stevens, Mr. Bond, and Mr. Willis. They threatened to shoot Mr. Bond, 
and a crowd rushed after him threatening him, and as he ran from them some 
shots were fired at him as he jumped off the bank of the river and made his 
escape. The citizens of the town went over in a body, late in the afternoon, 
when the poll? had become comparatively clear, and voted. 

Before the voting had commenced, the Missourians said, if the judges ap- 
pointed by the governor did not receive their votes, they would choose other 
judges. Some of them voted several times, changing their hats or coats and 
coming up to the window again. They said they intended to vote first, and 
after they had got through, then the others could vote. Some of them claimed 
a right to vote under the organic act, from the fact that their mere presence in 
the territory constituted them residents, though they were from Wisconsin, and 
had homes in Missouri. Others said they had a right to vote, because Kansas 
belonged to Missouri, and people from the east had no right to settle in the 
territory and vote there. They said they came to the territory to elect a leg- 
islature to suit themselves, as the people of the territory and persons from the 
east and north wanted to elect a legislature that would not suit them. They 
said they had a right to make Kansas a slave state, because the people of the 
north had sent persons out to make it a free state. Some claimed that they 
had heard that the emigrant aid society had sent men out to be at the election, 
and they came to offset their votes ; but the most of them made no such claim. 
Col. Young said he wanted the citizens to vote in order to give the election 
some show of fairness. The Missourians said there would be no difficulty if 
the citizens did not interfere with their voting, but they were determined to 
vote — peaceably, if they could, but vote any how. They said each one of them 
was prepared for eight rounds without loading, and would go the ninth round 
with the butcher-knife. Some of them said that by voting in the territory, they 
would deprive themselves of the right to vote in Missouri for twelve months 
afterward. The Missourians began to leave the afternoon of the day of elec- 
tion, though some did not go home until the next morning. In many cases, 
when a wagon-load had voted, they immediately started for home. On their 



68G KANSAS AFFAIKS. 

way home, they said if Gov. Reeder did not sanction the election, they would 
hang him. 

The citizens of the town of Lawrence, as a general thing were not armed 
on the day of election, though some had revolvers, but not exposed, as were 
the arms of the Missourians. They kept a guard about the town, the night 
after the election, in consequence of the threats of the Missourians, in order to 
protect it. The pro-slavery men of the district attended the nominating con- 
ventions of the free-state men, and voted for, and secured the nominations of, 
the men they considered the most obnoxious to the free-state party, in order to 
cause dissension in that party. 

Quite a number of settlers came into the district before the day of election, 
and after the census was taken. According to the census returns, there were 
then in the district 369 legal voters. Of those whose names are on the census 
returns, 111 are to be found on the poll-books of the 30th of March, 1855. 
Messrs. Ladd, Babcock, and Pratt testify to 55 names on the poll books of 
persons they knew to have settled in the distinct after the census was taken and 
hefore the election. A number of persons came into the territory in March, 
before the election, from the northern and eastern states, intending to settle, 
who were in Lawrence on the day of election. At that time; many of them 
had selected no claims, and had no fixed place of residence. Such were not 
entitled to vote. Many of them became dissatisfied with the country. Others 
were disappointed in its political condition, and the price and demand for la- 
bor, and returned. Whether any such voted at the election, is not clearly 
shown, but from the proof, it is probable that in the latter part of the day, 
after the great body of the Missourians had voted, some did go to the polls. 
The number was not over fifty. These voted the free-state ticket. The whole 
number of names appearing on the poll-list is 1034. After full examination, 
we are satisfied that not over 232 of these were legal voters, and 802 were 
non-resideut and illegal voters. This district is strongly in favor of making 
Kansas a free state, and there is no doubt but that the free-state candidates 
would have been elected by large majorities, if none but the actual settlers had 
voted. At the preceding election in November, 1854, when none -but legal 
votes were polled, general Whitfield, who received the full strength of the pro- 
slavery party, got but 46 votes. 

In Bloomington district, on the morning of the election, the judges ap- 
pointed by the governor appeared and opened the polls. Their names were 
Harrison Burson, Nathaniel Ramsay, and Mr. Ellison. The Missourians began 
to come in early in the morning, some 500 or 600 of them, in wagons and in 
carriages, and on horseback, under the lead of Samuel J. Jones, then post- 
master of Westport, Missouri, Claibourne P. Jackson, and Mr. Steely, of 
Independence, Missouri. They were armed with double-barreled guns, rifles, 
bowie-knives and pistols, and had flags hoisted. They held a sort of informal 
election, off at one side, at first for governor of Kansas, and shortly afterwards 
announced Thomas Johnson, of Shawnee Missions, elected governor. The 
polls had been opened but a short time, when Mr. Jones marched with the 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. G87 

crowd up to the window and demanded that they should be allowed to vote 
without swearing as to their residence. After some noisy and threatening talk, 
Claibourne F. Jackson addressed the crowd, saying they had come there to 
vote, that they had a right to vote if they had been there but five minutes, and 
he was not willing to go home without voting ; which was received with cheers. 
Jackson then called upon them to form into little bands of fifteen or twenty, 
which they did, and went to an ox wagon filled with guns, which were dis- 
tributed among them, and proceeded to load some of them on the ground. In 
pursuance of Jackson's request, they tied white tape or ribbon in their button- 
holes to distinguish them from the "abolitionists." They again demanded 
that the judges should resign, and on their refusing to do so, smashed in the 
window, sash and all, and presented their pistols and guns to them, threatening 
to shoot them. Some one on the outside cried out to them not to shoot, as 
there were pro-slavery men in the room with the judges. They then put a 
pry under the corner of the house, which was a log house, and lifted it up a 
few inches and let it fall again, but desisted upon being told there were pro- 
slavery men in the house. During this time the crowd repeatedly demanded 
to be allowed to vote without being sworn, and Mr. Ellison, one of the judges, 
expressed himself willing, but the other two judges refused ; thereupon a body 
of men, headed by " Sheriff Jones," rushed into the judges' room with cocked 
pistols and drawn bowie-knives in their hands, and approached Burson and 
Ramsay. Jones pulled out his watch, and said he would give them five min- 
utes to resign in, or die. "When the five minutes had expired and the judges 
did not resign, Jones said he would give them another minute, and no more. 
Ellison told his associates that if they did not resign, there would be one hun- 
dred shots fired in the room in less than fifteen minutes ; and then snatching 
up the ballot-box, ran out into the crowd, holding up the ballot-box and hur- 
rahing for Missouri. About that time Burson and Ramsay were called out by 
their friends, and not suffered to return. As Mr. Burson went out, he put the 
ballot poll-books in his pocket, and took them with him ; and as he was going 
out, Jones snatched some papers away from him, and shortly afterward came 
out himself holding them up, crying " hurrah for Missouri." After he discov- 
ered they were not the poll-books, he took a party of men with him and started 
off to take the poll-books from Burson. Mr. Burson saw them coming, and 
he gave tin ''ooks to Mr. TJmberger, and told him to start off in another 
direction, so us to mislead Jones and his party. Jones and his party caught 
Mr. TJmberger, took the poll-books away from him, and Jones took him up 
behind him on a horse, and carried him back a prisoner. After Jones and his 
party had taken TJmberger back, they went to the house of Mr. Ramsay and 
took judge John A. Wakefield prisoner, and carried him to the place of elec- 
tion, and made him get up on a wagon and make them a speech ; after which 
they put a white ribbon in his button-hole and let him go. They then chose 
two new judges, and proceeded with the election. 

They also threatened to kill the judges if they did not receive their votes 
•without swearing them, or else resign. They said no man should vote who 



688 KANSAS AFFAIES. 

would submit to be sworn — that they would kill any one who would offer to do 
so — "shoot him," "cut his guts out," etc. They said no man should vote 
this day unless he voted an open ticket, and was " all right on the goose," and 
that if they could not vote by fair means, they would by foul means. They 
said they had as much right to vote, if they had been in the territory two min- 
utes, as if they had been there for two years, and they would vote. Some of 
the citizens who were about the window, but had not voted when the crowd of 
Missourians marched up there, upon attempting to vote, were driven back by 
the mob, or driven off. One of them, Mr. J. M. Marcy, was asked if he 
would take the oath, and upon his replying that he would if the judges re- 
quired it, he was dragged through the crowd away from the polls, amid cries 
of "kill the d — d nigger thief," "cut his throat," "tear his heart out," etc. 
After they got him to the outside of the crowd, they stood around him with 
cocked pistols and drawn bowie-knives, one man putting a knife to his heart, 
so that it touched him, another holding a cocked pistol to his ear, while another 
struck at him with a club. The Missourians said they had a right to vote if 
they had been in the territory but five minutes. Some said they had been 
hired to come there and vote, and get a dollar a day, and by G — d, they would 
vote or die there. 

They said the 30th of March was an important day, as Kansas would be 
made a slave state on that day. They began to leave in the direction of Mis- 
souri in the afternoon, after they had voted, leaving some thirty or forty around 
the house where the election was held, to guard the polls until after the elec- 
tion was over. The citizens of the territory were not around, except those 
who took part in the mob, and a large portion of them did not vote ; 341 
votes were polled there that day, of which but some thirty were citizens. A 
protest against the election was made to the governor. The returns of the 
election made to the governor were lost by the committee of elections of the 
legislature at Pawnee. The duplicate returns left in the ballot-box were taken 
by F. E. Laley, one of the judges elected by the Missourians, and were either 
lost or destroyed in his house, so that your committee have been unable to 
institute a comparison between the poll-lists and census returns of this district. 
The testimony, however, is uniform, that not over thirty of those who voted 
there that day were entitled to vote, leaving 311 illegal votes. We are satis- 
fied from the testimony that had the actual cottiers alone voted, the free-state 
candidates would have been elected by handsome majorities. 

On the 28th of March, persons from Clay, Jackson and Howard comities, 
Missouri, began to come into Tecumseh district, in wagons, carriages, and on 
horseback, armed with guns, bowie-knives and revolvers; and with threats, 
encamped close by the town, aDd continued coming until the day of election. 
The night before the election 200 men were sent for from the camp of Missou- 
rians at Lawrence. On the morning of the election, before the polls were 
opened, some 300 or 400 Missourians and others were collected in the yard 
about the house of Thomas Stinson, where the election was to be held, armed 
with bowie-knives, revolvers and clubs. They said they came to vote, and 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 689 

whip the d — d Yankees, and would vote without being sworn. Some said they 
came to have a fight and wanted one. Colonel Samuel H. Woodson, of Inde- 
pendence, Missouri, was in the room of the judges when they arrived, preparing 
poll-books and tally-lists, and remained there during their attempts to organize. 
The room of the judges was also filled by many of the strangers. The judges 
could not agree concerning the oath to be taken by themselves, and the oath to 
be administered to the voters, Mr. Burgess wishing to administer the oath pre- 
scribed by the governor and the other two judges opposing it. During this 
discussion between the judges, which lasted some time, the crowd outside 
became excited and noisy, threatening and cursing Mr. Burgess, the free-state 
judge. Persons were sent, at different times, by the crowd outside, into the 
room where the judges were, with threatening messages, especially against Mr. 
Burgess, and at last ten minutes were given them to organize in or leave ; and 
as the time passed, persons outside would call out the number of minutes left, 
with threats against Burgess, if he did not agree to organize. At the end of 
that time, the judges not being able to organize, left the room and the crowd 
proceeded to elect nine judges and carry on the election. The free-state men 
generally left the ground without voting, stating that there was no use in 
their voting there. The polls were so crowded during the first part of the day 
that the citizens could not get up to the window to vote. Threats were made 
against the free-state men. In the afternoon the reverend Mr. Gispatrick was 
attacked and driven off by the mob. A man, by some called " Texas," made 
a speech to the crowd, urging them to vote and to stay on the ground till the 
polls were closed, for fear the abolitionists would come there in the afternoon 
and overpower them, and thus they would loose all their trouble. 

For some days prior to the election, companies of men were organized in 
Jackson, Cass, and Clay counties, Mo., for the purpose of coming to the ter- 
ritory and voting in the Vth district. The day previous to the election, some 
400 or 500 Missourians, armed with guns, pistols, and knives, came into the 
territory and camped, some at Bull Creek, and others at Potawatamie Creek. 
Their camps were about sixteen miles apart. On the evening before the elec- 
tion, Judge Hamilton, of the Cass county court, Mo., came from the Potawat- 
amie Creek camp to Bull Creek for sixty more Missourians, as they had not 
enough there to render the election certain, and about that number went down 
there with him. On the evening before the election, Dr. B. C. Westfall was 
elected to act as one of the judges of election in the Bull Creek precinct, in 
place of one of the judges appointed by the governor, who, it was said, would 
not be there the next day. Dr. Westfall was at that time a citizen of Jack- 
son county, Mo. On the morning of the election, the polls for Bull Creek pre- 
cinct were opened, and, without swearing the judges, they proceeded to re- 
ceive the votes of all who offered to vote. For the sake of appearance, they 
would get some one to come to the window and offer to vote, and when asked 
to be sworn, he would pretend to grow angry at the judges, and would go 
away, and his name would be put down as having offered to vote, but " reject- 
ed, refusing to be sworn." This arrangement was made previously, and per- 



690 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

fectly understood by the judges. But few of the residents of the district were 
present at the election, and only thirteen voted. The number of votes cast in 
the precinct was 393. 

One Missonrian voted for himself and then voted for his little son, but 10 or 
11 years old. Col. Coffer, Henry Younger, and Mr. Lykins, who were voted 
for and elected to the legislature, were residents of Missouri at the time. Col. 
Coffer subsequently married in the territory. After the polls were closed, the 
returns were made, and a man, claiming to be a magistrate, certified on them 
that he had sworn the judges of election before opening the polls. In the 
Potawatamie precinct, the Missourians attended the election, and after threat- 
ening Mr. Chesnut, the only judge present appointed by the governor, to in- 
duce him to resign, they proceeded to elect two other judges — one a Misson- 
rian and the other a resident of another precinct of that district. The polls 
were then opened, and all the Missourians were allowed to vote without being 
sworn. 

After the polls were closed, and the returns made out for the signature of 
the judges, Mr. Chesnut refused to sign them, as he did not consider them cor- 
rect returns of legal voters. 

Col. Coffer, a resident of Missouri, but elected to the Kansas legislature 
from that district at that election, endeavored with others to induce Mr. Ches- 
nut by threats to sign the returns, which he refused to do, and left the house. 
On his way home, he was fired at by some Missourians, though not injured. 
There were three illegal to one legal vote given there that day. At the Big 
Layer precinct, the judges appointed by the governor met at the time appoint- 
ed, and proceeded to open the polls, after being duly sworn. After a few votes 
had been received, a party of Missourians came into the yard of the house 
where the election was held, and, unloading a wagon filled with arms, stacked 
their gnus in the yard, and came up to the window and demanded to be ad- 
mitted to vote. Two of the judges decided to receive their votes, whereupon 
the third judge, Mr. J. M. Arthur, resigned, and another was chosen in his 
place. Col. Youug, a citizen of Missouri, but a candidate for, and elected to, 
the territorial legislative council, was present and voted in the precinct. He 
claimed that all Missourians who were present on the day of election were en- 
titled to vote. But thirty or forty of the citizens of the precinct were pres- 
ent, and many of them did not vote. At the Little Sugar precinct, the elec- 
tion seemed to have been conducted fairly, and there a free state majority was 
polled. From the testimony, the whole district appears to have been largely 
free state, and had none but actual settlers voted, the free state candidates 
would have been elected by a large majority. From a careful examination of 
the testimony and the records, we find that from 200 to 225 legal votes were 
polled out of 885, the total number given in the precincts of the Yth district. 
Of the legal votes cast, the free state candidates received 152. 

A company of citizens from Missouri, mostly from Bates county, came into 
the YIth district the day before the election, some camping and others putting 
np at the public house. They numbered from 100 to 200, and came in wagons 



KEPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 691 

and on horseback, carrying their provisions and tents with them, and were gen- 
erally armed with pistols. They declared their purpose to vote, and claimed 
the right to do so. They went to the polls generally in small bodies, with 
tickets in their hands, and 'many, if not all, voted. In some cases, they de- 
clared that they had voted, and gave their reasons for so doing. Mr. Ander- 
son, a pro-slavery candidate for the legislature, endeavored to dissuade the non- 
residents from voting, because he did not wish the election contested. This 
person, however, insisted upon voting, and upon his right to vote, and did so. 
No one was challenged or sworn, and all voted who desired to. Out of 350 
votes cast, not over 100 were legal, and but 64 of these named in the census 
taken one month before by Mr. Barber, the candidate for council, voted. Many 
of the free state men did not vote, but your committee is satisfied that, of the 
legal votes cast, the pro-slavery candidates received a majority. Mr. Ander- 
son, one of these candidates, was an unmarried man, who came into the dis- 
trict from Missouri a few days before the election, and boarded at the public 
house until the day after the election. He then took with him the poll-lists, 
and did not return to Fort Scott until the occasion of a barbecue the week be- 
fore the election of October 1, 1855. He voted at that election, and after it, 
left, and has not since been in the district. S. A. Williams, the other pro- 
slavery candidate, at the time of the election had a claim in the territory, but 
his legal residence was not there until after the election. 

From two to three hundred men, from the state of Missouri, came in wag- 
ons or on horseback to the election ground at Switzer's Creek, in the Vllth 
district, and encamped near the polls, on the day preceding the election. They 
were armed with pistols and other weapons, and declared their purpose to 
vote, in order to secure the election of pro-slavery members. They said they 
were disappointed in not finding more Yankees there, and that they had 
brought more men than were necessary to counterbalance their vote. A num- 
ber of them wore badges of blue ribbon, with a motto, and the company were 
under the direction of leaders. They declared their intention to conduct them- 
selves peacefully, unless the residents of the territory attempted to stop them 
from voting. Two of the judges of election appointed by Gov. Reeder re- 
fused to serve, whereupon two others were appointed in their stead by the 
crowd of Missourians who surrounded the polls. The newly-appointed judges 
refused to take the oath prescribed by Gov. Reeder, but made one to suit them- 
selves. 

The election in the Xllth district was conducted fairly. No complaint was 
made that illegal votes were cast. 

Previous to the day of election, several hundreds of Missourians from Platte, 
Clay, Boone, Clinton, and Howard counties, came into the XHIth district in 
wagons and on horseback, and camped there. They were armed with guns, 
revolvers, and bowie-knives, and had badges of hemp in their button-hole3 and 
elsewhere about their persons. They claimed to have a right to vote, from the 
fact that they were there on the ground, and had, or intended to make, claims 
; n the territory, although their families were in Missouri. 



692 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

The judges appointed by the governor opened the polls, and some persons 
offered to vote, and when their votes were rejected on the ground that they were 
not residents of the district, the crowd threatened to tear the house down if 
the judges did not leave. The judges then withdrew, taking the poll-books 
with them. The crowd then proceeded to select other persons to act as judges, 
and the election went on. Those persons voting who were sworn were asked 
if they considered themselves residents of the district, and if they said they 
did, they were allowed to vote. But few of the residents were present and 
voted, and the free state men, as a general thing, did not vote. 

Several hundred Missourians from Buchanan, Platte, and Andrew counties, 
Mo., including a great many of the prominent citizens of St. Joseph, came 
into the XIYth district the day before and on the day of election, in wagons 
and on horseback, and encamped there. Arrangements were made for them to 
cross the ferry at St. Joseph free of expense to themselves. They were armed 
with bowie-knives and pistols, guns and rifles. On the morning of the elec- 
tion, the free state candidates resigned in a body, on account of the presence 
of the large number of armed Missourians, at which the crowd cheered and 
hurrahed. Gen. B. F. Stringfellow was present, and was prominent in pro- 
moting the election of the pro-slavery ticket, as was also the Hon. Willard P. 
Hall, and others of the most prominent citizens of St. Joseph, Mo. But one 
of the judges of election, appointed by the governor, served on that day, and 
the crowd chose two others to supply the vacancies. 

The evening before the election, some two hundred or more Missourians from 
Platte, Buchanan, Saline, and Clay counties, Mo., came into the Doniphan pre- 
cinct, with tents, music, wagons, and provisions, and armed with guns, rifles, 
pistols, and bowie-knives, and encamped about two miles from the place of 
voting. They said they came to vote, to make Kansas a slave state, and in- 
tended to return to Missouri after they had voted. 

On the morning of the election, the judges appointed by the governor would 
not serve, and others were appointed by the crowd. The Missourians were 
allowed to vote without being sworn — some of them voting as many as eight 
or nine times ; changing their hats and coats, and giving in different names 
each time. After they had voted, they returned to Missouri. The free state 
men generally did not vote, though constituting a majority in the precinct. 
Upon counting the ballots in the box and the names on the poll-lists, it was 
found that there were too many ballots, and one of the judges of election took 
out ballots enough to make the two numbers correspond. 

The election in the XVth district was held in the house of a Mr. Hayes. 
On the day of election, a crowd of from 400 to 500 men collected around the 
polls, of which the great body were citizens of Missouri. One of the judges 
of election, in his testimony, states that the strangers commenced crowding 
around the polls, and that then the residents left. Threats were made before 
and during the election day that there should be no free state candidates, al- 
though there were nearly or quite as many free state as pro-slavery men resi- 
dent in the district. Most of the crowd were drinking and carousing, cursing 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. G93 

the abol tionists and threatening the only free state judge of election. A ma- 
jority of those who voted wore hemp in their button-holes, and their pass- 
word was, " all right on the hemp." Many of the Missourians were known, 
and are named by the witnesses. Several speeches were made by them at the 
polls, and among those who spoke were Major Oliver, one of your committee, 
Col. Burns, and Lalan Williams, of Platte county. Major Oliver urged upon 
all present to use no harsh words, and expressed the hope that nothing would 
be said or done to harm the feelings of the most sensitive on the other side. 
He gave some grounds, based on the Missouri compromise, in regard to the 
right of voting, and was understood to excuse the Missourians for voting. 
Your committee are satisfied that he did not vote. Col. Burns recommended 
all to vote, and he hoped none would go home without voting. Some of the 
pro-slavery residents were much dissatisfied at the interference with their rights 
by the Missourians, and for that reason — because reflection convinced them that 
it would be better to have Kansas a free state — they " fell over the fence." 
The judge requested the voters to take an oath that they were actual residents. 
They objected at first, some saying they had a claim, or " I am here." But 
the free state judge insisted upon the oath, and his associates, who at first were 
disposed to waive it, coiucided with him, and the voters all took it after some 
grumbling. One said he cut him some poles and laid them in the shape of a 
square, and that made him a claim ; and another said that he had cut him a 
few sticks of wood, and that made him a claim. 

For some time previous to the election, meetings were held and arrange- 
ments made in Missouri to get up companies to come over to the territory and 
vote, and the day before and on the day of election, large bodies of Missou- 
rians from Platte, Clay, Ray, Charlton, Carrol, Clinton, and Saline counties, 
Missouri, came into the XVIth district and camped there. They were armed with 
pistols and bowie-knives, and sum with guns and rifles, and had badges of 
hemp in their button-holes and elsewhere about their persons. 

On the morning of the election there were from 1,000 to 1,400 persons 
present on the ground. Previous to the election, the Missourians endeavored 
to persuade the free state judges to resign by making threats of personal vio- 
lence to them, one of whom resigned on the morning of election, and the 
crowd chose another to fill his place. But one of the judges, the free state 
judge, would take the oath prescribed by the governor, the other two deciding 
that they had no right to swear any one who offered to vote, but that all on 
the ground were entitled to vote. The only votes refused were some Delaware 
Indians, some 30 Wyandot Indians being allowed to vote. 

One of the free state candidates withdrew in consequence of the presence of 
the Missourians, amid cheering and acclamations by the Missourians. During 
the day, the steamboat New Lucy came down from Western Missouri, with a 
large number of Missourians on board, who voted and then returned on the 
boat. 

' The Missourians gave as a reason for their coming over to vote, that the 
north had tried to force emigration into the territory, and they wanted to conn- 



694 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

teract that movement. Some of the candidates and many of the Missourians 
took the ground that, under the Kansas-Nebraska act, all who were on the 
ground on the day of election were entitled to vote, and others, that laying 
out a town, staking a lot, or driving down stakes, even on another man's claim, 
gave them a right to vote. And one of the members of the council, R. R. 
Rees, declared in his testimony that he who should put a different construction 
upon the law must be either a knave or a fool. 

The free state men generally did not vote at that election ; and no newly 
arrived eastern emigrants were there. The free state judge of election refused 
to sign the returns until the words "by lawful resident voters" were stricken 
out, which was done, and the returns made in that way. The election was 
contested, and a new election ordered by Governor Reeder for the 22d of 
May. 

The testimony is divided as to the relative strength of parties in this dis- 
trict. The whole number of voters in the district, according to the census 
returns, was 385 ; and according to a very carefully prepared list of voters, 
prepared for the pro-slavery candidates and other pro-slavery men, a few days 
previous to the election, there were 305 voters in the district, including those 
who had claims but did not live on them. The whole number of votes cast 
was 964. Of those named in the census, 106 voted. Your committee, upon 
careful examination, are satisfied that there were not over 150 legal votes cast, 
leaving 814 illegal votes. 

The election in the XVIIth district seems to have been fairly conducted, and 
not contested at all. In this district the pro-slavery party had the majority. 

Previous to the election, Gen. David R. Atchison, of Platte City, Mo., got 
up a company of Missourians, and passing through Weston, Mo., went over 
into the territory. He remained all night, and then exhibited his arms, of 
which he had an abundance. He proceeded to the Nemohaer (XYIIIth) dis- 
trict. On his way, he and his party attended a nominating convention in the 
XlVth district, and proposed and caused to be nominated a set of candidates 
in opposition to the wishes of the pro-slavery residents of the district. At 
that convention he said that there were 1,100 men coming over from Platte 
county, and if that wasn't enough they could send 5,000 more — that they 
came to vote, and would vote or kill every G — d d — d abolitionist in the ter- 
ritory. 

On the day of election, the Missourians under Atchison, who were encamp- 
ed there, came up to the polls in the XVIIIth district, taking the oath that 
they were residents of the district. The Missourians were all armed with 
pistols or bowie-knives, and said there were 60 in their company. But 17 
votes given on that day were given by residents of the district. The whole 
number of votes was 62. 

Your committee report the following facts not shown by the tables : Of the 
twenty-nine hundred and five voters named in the census-rolls, eight hundred 
and thirty-one are found on the poll-books. Some of the settlers were pre- 
vented from attending the election by the distance of their homes from the 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 695 

polls ; but the great majority were deterred by the open avowal that large 
bodies of armed Missourians would be at the polls to vote, and by the fact that 
they did so appear and control the election. The same causes deterred the 
free state settlers from running candidates in several districts, and in others 
induced the candidates to withdraw. 

The poll-books of the lid and VHIth districts were lost ; but the proof is 
quite clear that, in the lid district, there were thirty, and in the VHIth dis- 
trrict thirty-eight legal votes, making a total of eight hundred and ninety- 
eight legal voters of the territory, whose names are on the census returns ; and 
yet the proof, in the state in which we are obliged to present it, after excluding 
illegal votes, leaves the total vote of 1,310, showing a discrepancy of 412. 
The discrepancy is accounted for in two ways : first, the coming in of settlers 
before the March election, and after the census was taken, or settlers who were 
omitted in the census ; or secondly, the disturbed state of the territory while 
we were investigating the elections in some of the districts, thereby preventing 
us from getting testimony in relation to the names of legal voters at the time 
of election. 

If the election had been confined to the actual settlers, undeterred by the 
presence of non-residents, or the knowledge that they would be present in 
numbers sufficient to out-vote them, the testimony indicates that the council 
would have been composed of seven in favor of making Kansas a free state, 
elected from the 1st, lid, Hid, IVth, and Vlth council districts. The result 
in the VIHth and Xth, electing three members, would have been doubtful, and 
the Vth, Vllth, and IXth would have elected three pro-slavery members. 

Under like circumstances, the house of representatives would have been com- 
posed of fourteen members in favor of making Kansas a free state, elected from 
the Hd Hid, IVth, Vth, VHth, VIHth, IXth, and Xth representative 
districts. 

The result in the XHth and XlVth representative districts, electing five 
members, would have been doubtful, and the 1st, Vlth, Xlth, and XVth dis- 
tricts would have elected seven pro-slavery members. 

By the election, as conducted, the pro-slavery candidates in every district but 
the VIHth representative district, received a majority of the votes ; and sev- 
eral of them, in both the council and the house, did not " reside in," and 
were not "inhabitants of" the district for which they were elected, as required 
by the organic law. By that act it was declared to be the true intent and 
meaning of this act to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and reg- 
ulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject to the constitution of 
the United States. 

So careful was congress of the right of popular sovereignty, that to secure 
it to the people, without a single petition from any portion of the country, they 
removed the restriction against slavery imposed by the Missouri compromise. 
And yet this right, so carefully secured, was thus by force and fraud over- 
thrown by a portion of the people of an adjoining state. 

The striking difference between this republic and other republics on this con» 



696 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

tinent, is not in the provisions of constitutions and laws, but that here changes 
iu the administration of those laws have been made peacefully and quietly 
through the ballot-box. This invasion is the first and only one in the history 
of our government, by which an organized force from one state has elected a 
legislature for another state or territory, and as such it should have been 
resisted by the whole executive power of the national government. 

Tour committee are of the opinion that the constitution and laws of the 
United States have invested the president and governor of the territory with 
ample power for this purpose. They could only act after receiving authentic 
information of the facts, but when received, whether before or after the certifi- 
cates of election were granted, this power should have been exercised to its 
fullest extent. It is not to be tolerated that a legislative body thus selected 
should assume or exercise any legislative functions ; and their enactments should 
be regarded as null and void ; nor should the question of its legal existence 
as a legislative body be determined by itself, as that would be allowing the 
criminal to judge of his own crime. In section twenty-two of the organic act, 
it is provided that " the persons having the highest number of legal votes in 
each of said council districts for members of the council, shall be declared by 
the governor to be duly elected to the council, and the persons having the high- 
est number of legal votes for the house of representatives, shall be declared by 
the governor duly elected members of said house." The proclamation of the 
governor required a verified notice of a contest, when one was made, to be filed 
with him within four days after the election. Within that time he did not ob- 
tain information as to force or fraud in any except the following districts, and 
in these there were material defects iu the returns of election. Without de- 
ciding upon his power to set aside elections for force and fraud, they were set 
aside for the following reasons : 

In the 1st district, because the words "by lawful resident voters," were 
stricken from the returns. 

Iu the lid district, because the oath was administered by G. W. Taylor, who 
was not authorized to administer an oath. 

In the Hid district, because material erasures from the printed form of the 
oath were purposely made. 

In the IVth district, for the same reason. 

In the VHth district, because the judges were not sworn at all. 

In the Xlth district, because the returns show the election to have been held 
viva voce instead of by ballot. 

In theXVIth district, because the words "by lawful residence" were stricken 
from the returns. 

Although the fraud and force in other districts were equally great as in these, 
yet as the governor had no information in regard to them, he issued certificates 
according to the returns. 

Your committee here felt it to be their duty not only to inquire into and col- 
lect evidence in regard to force and fraud attempted and practiced at the elec- 
tions in the territory, but also into the facts and pretexts by which this force 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 097 

and fraud has been excused and justified ; and for this purpose, your commit- 
tee have allowed the declarations of non-resident voters to be given as evi- 
dence in their own behalf; also the declarations of all those who came up the 
Missouri river as emigrants, in March, 1855, whether they voted or not, and 
whether they came into the territory at all or not ; and also the rumors which 
were circulated among the people of Missouri previous to the election. The 
great body of the testimony taken at the instance of the sitting delegate is of 
this character. 

When the declarations of parties passing up the river were offered in evi- 
dence, your committee received them upon the distinct statement that they 
would be excluded unless the persons making the declarations were by other 
proof shown to have been connected with the elections. This proof was not 
made, and therefore much of this class of testimony is incompetent by the rules 
of law, but is allowed to remain as tending to show the cause of the action of 
the citizens of Missouri. 

The alleged causes of the invasion of March, 1855, are included in the fol- 
lowing charges : 

I. That the New England Aid Society of Boston was then importing into 
the territory large numbers of men merely for the purpose of controlling the 
elections. That they came without women, children, or baggage, went into 
the territory, voted, and returned again. 

II. That men were hired in the eastern or northern states, or induced to go 
into the territory solely to vote, and not to settle, and by so doing to make it 
a free state. 

III. That the governor of the territory purposely postponed the day of 
election to allow this emigration to arrive, and notified the emigrant aid soci- 
ety, and persons in the eastern states, of the day of election, before he gave 
notice to the people of Missouri and the territory. 

That these charges were industriously circulated ; that grossly exaggerated 
statements were made in regard to them ; that the newspaper press and lead- 
ing men in public meetings in western Missouri, aided in one case by a chap- 
lain of the United States army, gave currency and credit to them, and thus ex- 
cited the people, and induced many well-meaning citizens of Missouri to march 
into the territory to meet and repel the alleged eastern paupers and abolition- 
ists, is fully proven by many witnesses. 

But these charges are not sustained by the proof. 

In April, 1854, the general assembly of Massachusetts passed an act entitled 
"An act to incorporate the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society." The ob- 
ject of the society, as declared in the first section of this act, was " for the pur- 
pose of assisting emigrants to settle in the west." The moneyed capital of the 
corporation was not to exceed five millions of dollars ; but no more than four 
per cent, could be assessed during the year 1854, and no more than ten per 
cent, in any one year thereafter. No organization was perfected, or proceed- 
ings had, under this law. 

On the 24th of July, 1854, certain persons in Boston, Massachusetts, con- 
45 



G98 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

eluded articles of agreement and association for an emigrant aid society. The 
purpose of this association was declared to be "assisting emigrauts to settle in 
the west." Under these articles of association, each stockholder was individ- 
ually liable. To avoid this difficulty, an application was made to the general 
assembly of Massachusetts for an act of incorporation, which was granted. 
On the 21st day of February, 1855, an act was passed to incorporate the Xew 
England Emigrant Aid Company. The purposes of this act. were declared to 
be " directing emigration westward, and aiding and providing accommodation 
for the emigrants after arriving at their place of destination." The capital 
stock of the corporation was not to exceed one million of dollars. Under this 
charter a company was organized. 

Your committee have examined some of its officers and a portion of its cir- 
culars and records to-ascertain what has been done by it. The public atten- 
tion, at that time, was directed to the territory of Kansas, and emigration nat- 
urally tended in that direction. To ascertain its character and resources, this 
company sent its agent into it, and the information thus obtained was publish- 
ed. The company made arrangements with various lines of transportation to 
reduce the expense of emigration into the territory, and procured tickets at the 
reduced rates. Applications were made to the company by persons desiring to 
emigrate, and when they were numerous enough to form a party of convenient 
size, tickets were sold to them at the reduced rates. An agent acquainted with 
the route was selected to accompany them. Their baggage was checked, and 
all trouble and danger of loss to the emigrant in this way avoided. 

Under these arrangements, companies went into the territory in the fall of 
1854, under the articles of association referred to. The company did not pay 
any portion of the fare, or furnish any real or personal property to the emi- 
grant. The company during 1855 sent into the territory from eight to ten 
saw-mills, purchased one hotel in Kansas City, which they subsequently sold, 
built one hotel at Lawrence, and owned one other building in that place; In 
some cases, to induce them to make improvements, town lots were given to them 
by town associations in this territory. They held no property of any other 
kind or description. They imposed no condition upon their emigrants, and did 
not inquire into their political, religious, or social opinions. The total amount 
expended by them, including the salaries of their agents and officers, and the 
expenses incident to all organizations, was less than $100,000. 

Their purposes, as far as your committee can ascertain, were lawful, and con- 
tributed to supply those wants most experienced in the settlement of a new 
country. 

The only persons or company who emigrated into the territory under the 
auspices of the emigrant aid society in 1855, prior to the election in March, 
was a party of 159 persons, who came under the charge of Charles Robinson. 

In this party there were 67 women and children. They came as actual set- 
tlers, intending to make their homes in the territory, and for no other purpose. 
They had about their persons but little baggage ; usually sufficient clothing in 
a carpet-sack for a short time. Their personal effects, such as clothing, furni- 



EEPOET OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 099 

tnre, etc., was put into trunks and boxes ; and for convenience in selecting and 
cheapness in transporting, was marked "Kansas part}* bag-gage, care E. Slater, 
St. Louis." Generally tins was consigned as freight, in the usual way, to the 
care of a commission merchant. This party had, in addition to the usual al- 
lowance of one hundred pounds to each passenger, a large quantity of bag- 
gage, on which the respective owners paid the usual extra freight. Each pas- 
or party paid his or their own expenses; and the only benefit they de- 
rived fn-m the society, not shared by all the people of the territory, was the 
reduction of about $Y in the price of the fare, the convenience of traveling in 
a, company instead of alone, and the cheapness and facility of transporting their 
freight through regular agents. Subsequently, many emigrants, being either 
disappointed with the country or its political condition, or deceived by the 
statements made by the newspapers and by the agents of the society, became 
dissatisfied, and returned, both before and after the election, to their old homes. 
Most of them are now settlers in the territory. Some few voted at the election 
in Lawrence, but the number was small. The names of these emigrants have 

been ascertained, and of them were found upon the polL-books. This 

company of peaceful emigrants, moving with their household goods, was dis- 
torted into an invading horde of pauper abolitionists, who were, with others of 
a similar character, to control the domestic institutions of the territory, and 
then overturn those of a neighboring powerful state. 

In regard to the second charge : There is no proof that any man was cither 
hired or induced to come into the territory from any free state, merely to vote. 
The entire emigration in March, 1855, is estimated at 500 persons, including 
men, women, and children. They came on steamboats up the Missouri river, 
in the ordinary course of emigration. Many returned for causes similar to 
those before stated ; but the body of them are now residents. The only per- 
sons of those who were connected by proof with the election, were some who 
voted at the Big Blue precinct in the Xth district, and at Pawnee in the IXth 
district. Their purpose and character are stated in a former part of this re- 
port. 

The third charge is entirely groundless. 

Your committee are satisfied that these charges were made the mere pretext 
to induce an armed invasion into the territory, as a means to control the elec- 
tion and establish slavery there. 

The real purpose is avowed and illustrated by the testimony and conduct 
of Col. John Scott, of St. Joseph, Missouri, who acted as the attorney for the 
sitting delegate before your committee. The following is an extract from his 
deposition : 

"It is my intention, and the Intention of a grea* many other Missourians now resi- 
dent in Missouri, whenever the slavery issue is to be determined upon by the people of 
this territory in the adoption of the state constitution, to reniove to this territory in time 
to acquire the right to become legal voters upon that question. Thu leading purpose of 
our intended removal to the territory is to determine the domestic institutions of this 
territory, when it comes to be a state, and we would not come but for that purpose, aud 



700 ZANSAS AFFAIRS. 

would never think of coming litre but for that purpose. I believe there are a groat 
many in Missouri who are so situated." 

The invasion of March 30th left both parties in a state of excitement, tend- 
ing directly to produce violence. The successful party was lawless and reck- 
less, while assuming; the name of the "law and order" party. The other 
party, at first surprised and confounded, was greatly irritated, and some 
resolved to prevent the success of the invasion. In some districts protests 
were sent to the governor ; in others this was prevented by threats ; in others, 
by the want of time, only four days being allowed by the proclamation for this 
purpose ; and in others, by the belief that a new election would bring a new 
invasion. About the same time all classes of men commenced bearing deadly 
weapons about their person, a practice which has continued to this time. Un- 
der these circumstances, a slight or accidental quarrel produced unusual 
violence, and lawless acts became frequent, This evil condition of the public 
mind was further increased by acts of violence in Western Missouri, where, 
in April, a newspaper press called " The Parkville Luminary " was destroyed 
by a mob. 

About the same time, Malcolm Clark assaulted Cole McCrea, at a squatter 
meeting in Leavenworth, and was shot by McCrea, in alleged self-defense. 

On the lUh day of May, William Phillips, a lawyer of Leavenworth, was 
first notified to leave, and upon his refusal, was forcibly seized, taken across the 
river, and carried several miles into Missouri, and then tarred and feathered, 
and one side of his head shaved, and other gross indignities put upon his 
person. 

Previous to the outrage, a public meeting was held, at which resolutions 
were unanimously passed, looking to unlawful violence, and grossly intolerant 
in their character. The right of free speech upon the subject of slavery was 
characterized as a disturbance of the peace and quiet of the community, and 
as "circulating incendiary sentiments." They say "to the peculiar friends of 
northern fanatics," " go home and do your treason where you may find sympa- 
thy." Among other resolves is the following : 

"Resolved, That the institution of slavery is known and recognized in this territory; 
that we repel the doctrine that it is a moral and political evil, and we hurl back with 
scorn upon its slanderous authors the charge of inhumanity ; and we warn all persons 
not to come to our peaceful firesides to slander us, and sow the seeds of discord between 
the master and the servant ; for, as much as we deprecate the necessity to which we may 
be driven, we cannot be responsible for the consequences." 

A committee of vigilance of thirty men was appointed, " to ooserve and 
report all such persons as shall, * * * * by the expression of abolition senti- 
ments, produce disturbance to the quiet of the citizens, or danger to their 
domestic relations ; and all such persons so offending, shall be notified, and 
made to leave the territory." 

The meeting was " ably and eloquently addressed by Judge Lecompte, Col. 
J. N. Burns, of Western Missouri, and others." Thus the head of the jadi- 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 701 

ciary in the territory, not only assisted at a public aud bitterly partisan meeting, 
whose direct tendency was to produce violence and disorder, but before any law 
is passed in the territory, ho prejudges the character of domestic institutions, 
which the people of the territory were, by their organic law, " left perfectly 
free to form and regulate in their own way." 

On this committee were several of those who held certificates of election as 
members of the legislature ; some of the others were then and still are resi- 
dents of Missouri ; aud many of the committee have since been appointed to 
the leadiug offices in the territory, one of which is the sheriffalty of the county. 
Their first act was that of mobbing Phillips. 

Subsequently, on the 25th of May, A. D. 1855, a public meeting was held, 
at which R. R. Iiees, a member elect of the council, presided. The following 
resolutions, offered by Judge Payne, a member elect of the house, were unani- 
mously adopted : 

"Resolved, That we heartily indorse the action of the committee of citizens that 
shaved, tarred and feathered, rode on a rail, and had sold by a negro, Wm. Phillips, the 
moral perjurer. 

"Resolved, That we return our thanks to the committee for faithfully performing the 
trust enjoined upon them by the pro-slavery party. 

"Resolved, That the committee be now discharged. 

' ' Resolved, That we se verely condemn those pro-slavery men who, from mercenary 
motives, are calling upon the pro-slavery party to submit without further action. 

"Resolved, That in order to secure peace and harmony to the community, we now 
solemnly declare that the pro-slavery party will stand firmly by and carry out the reso- 
lutions reported by the committee appointed for that purpose on the memorable 30th." 

The act of moral perjury here referred to, is the swearing by Phillips to a 
truthful protest in regard to the election of March 30, in the XVIth district. 

The members receiving their certificates of the governor as members of the 
general assembly of the territory, met at Pawnee, the place appointed by the 
governor, on the 2d of July, A. D. 1855. Their proceedings are stated in 
three printed books, herewith submitted, entitled respectively, " The Statutes 
of the Territory of Kansas ; " " The Journal of the Council of the Territory 
of Kansas ; " and " The Journal of the House of Representatives of the Ter- 
ritory of Kansas." 

Your committee do not regard their enactments as valid laws. A legisla- 
ture thus imposed upon a people, cannot affect their political rights. Such an 
attempt to do so, if successful, is virtually an overthrow of the organic law, 
and reduces the people of the territory to the condition of vassals to a neigh- 
boring state. The great body of the general laws are exact transcripts from 
the Missouri code. To make them in some cases conform to the organic act, 
separate acts were passed, defining the meaning of words. Thus the word 
"state'Ms to be understood as meaning "territory;" the word " county court" 
shall be considered to mean the board of commissioners transacting county 
business, or the probate court, according to the intent thereof. The words 
" circuit court " to mean " district court." 



702 KANSAS Ai FAIRS. 

The material differences iu the Missouri aud Kansas statutes are upon the 
following subjects : The qualifications of voters and of members of the legis- 
lative assembly; the official oath of all officers, attorneys, and voters; the 
mode of selecting officers, aud their qualifications ; the slave code, and the 
qualifications of jurors. 

Upon these subjects the provisions of the Missouri code are such as are 
usual in many of the states. But by the " Kansas statutes," every office in the 
territory, executive and judicial, was to be appointed by the legislature, or by 
some officer appointed by it. These appointments were not merely to meet a 
temporary exigency, but were to hold over two regular elections, and until 
after the general election in October, 1851, at which the members of the new 
council were to be elected. The new legislature is required to meet on the first 
Monday in January, 185S. Thus, by the terms of these "laws," the people 
have no control whatever over either the legislative, the executive, or the judi- 
cial departments of the territorial government until a time before which, by 
the natural progress of population, the territorial government will be super- 
seded by a state government. 

No session of the legislature is to be held during 1856, but the members of 
the house are to be elected in October of that year. A candidate, to be eligi- 
ble at this election, must swear to support the fugitive slave law, aud each 
judge of election, and each voter, if challenged, must take the same oath. The 
same oath is required of every officer elected or appointed in the territory, and 
of every attorney admitted to practice in the courts. 

A portion of the militia is required to muster on the day of election. 
"Every free white male citizen of the United States, and every free male 
Indian, who is made a citizen by treaty or otherwise, and over the age of twen- 
ty-one years, and who shall be an inhabitant of the territory, and of the county 
and district in which he offers to vote, and shall have paid a territorial tax, 
shall be a qualified elector for all elective offices." Two classes of persons 
were thus excluded, who by the organic act were allowed to vote, viz : those 
who would not swear to the oath required, and those of foreign birth who had 
declared on oath their intention to become citizens. Any man of proper age 
who was in the territory on the day of election, and who had paid one dollar 
as a tux to the t-licrilt', who was required to be at the polls to receive it, could 
vote as an " inhabitant," although he had breakfasted in Missouri, and intended 
to return there for supper. There can be no doubt that this unusual and 
unconstitutional provision was inserted to prevent a full and fair expression of 
the popular will in the election of members of the house, or to control it by 
non-residents. 

All jurors are required to be selected by the sheriff, and " no person who is 
conscientiously opposed to the holding of slaves, or who does not admit the 
right to hold slaves in the territory, shall be a juror iu any cause " affecting the 
right to hold slaves, or relating to slave property. 

The slave code, and every provision relating to slaves, are of a character 
iutolerent and unusual, even for that class of legislation. The character and 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 703 

conduct of the men appointed to hold office in the territory contributed very 
much to produce the events which followed. Thus, Samuel J. Jones was ap- 
pointed sheriff of the county of Douglas, which included within it the 1st and 
lid election districts. He had made himself peculiarly obnoxious to the set- 
tlers by his conduct on the 30th of March, in the-IId district, and by his burn- 
ing the cabina of Joseph Oakley and Samuel Smith. 

While these enactments of the alleged legislative assembly were being made, 
a movement was instituted to form a state government, and apply for admis- 
sion into the Union as a state. The first general meeting was held in Law- 
rence on the 15th of August, 1855. The following preamble and resolutions 
were then passed: 

"WnEKKAS, The people of Kansas have been, since its settlement, and now are, with- 
out any law-making power ; therefore, be it 

"Resolved, That we, the people of Kansas territory, in mass meeting assembled, ir- 
respective of party distinctions, influenced by common necessity, and greatly desirous 
of promoting the common good, do hereby call upon and request all bona fide citizens of 
Kansas territory, of whatever political views or predilections, to consult together in their 
respective election districts, and in mass convention or otherwise, elect three delegates 
for each representative to which said election district is entitled in the house of repre- 
sentatives of the legislative assembly, by proclamation of Governor Reeder, of date 19th 
of March, 1855 ; said delegates to assemble in convention at the town of Topefca, on the 
19th day of September, 1855, then and there to consider and determine upon all sub- 
jects of public interest, and particularly upon that having reference to the speedy for- 
mation of a state constitution, with an intention of an immediate application to be ad- 
mitted as a state into the Union of the United States of America." 

Other meetings were held in various parts of the territory, which indorsed 
the action of the Lawrence meeting, and delegates wre selected in compliance 
with its recommendations. 

They met at Topeka on the 19th day of September, 1855. By their reso- 
lutions they provided for the appointment of an executive committee to con- 
sist of seven persons, who were required to " keep a record of their proceed- 
ings, and shall have a general superintendence of the affairs of the territory, so 
far as regards the organization of the state government." They were required 
to take steps for an election to be held on the second Tuesday of the October 
following, under regulations imposed by that committee, " for members of a 
convention to form a constitution, adopt a bill of rights for the people of Kan- 
sas, and take all needful measures for organizing a state government, prepara- 
tory to the admission of Kansas into the Union as a state." The rules pre- 
scribed were such as usually govern elections in most of the states of the Union, 
and in most respects were similar to those contained in the proclamation of 
Gov. Reeder for the election of March 30, 1855. 

The executive committee, appointed by that convention, accepted their ap- 
pointment, and entered upon the discharge of their duties by issuing a procla- 
mation addressed to the legal voters of Kansas, requesting them to meet at 
their several precincts, at the time and places named in the proclamation, then 



704 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

and there to cast their ballots for members of a constitutional convention, to 
meet at Topeka on the 4th Tuesday of October then next. 

The proclamation designated the places of elections, appointed judges, re- 
cited the qualifications of voters and the apportionment of members of the con- 
vention. 

After this proclamation was issued, public meetings were held in every dis- 
trict in the territory, and in nearly every precinct. The state movement was 
a general topic of discussion throughout the territory, and there was but little 
opposition exhibited to it. Elections were held at the time and places desig- 
nated, and the returns were sent to the executive committee. 

The result of the election was proclaimed by the executive committee, and 
the members elect were required to meet on the 23d day of October, 1855, ai 
Topeka. In pursuance of this proclamation and direction, the constitutional 
convention met at the time and place appointed, and formed a state constitu- 
tion. A memorial to congress was also prepared, praying for the admission 
of Kansas into the Union under the constitution. The convention also pro- 
vided that the question of the adoption of the constitution and other questions 
be submitted to the people, and required the executive committee to take the 
necessary steps for that purpose. 

Accordingly, an election was held for that purpose on the 15th day of De- 
cember, 1S55, in compliance with the proclamation issued by the executive 
committee. The returns of this election were made to the executive commit- 
tee, exhibiting the following result : For the adoption of the constitution, 
1731 ; against it, 4G. 

The executive committee then issued a proclamation reciting the results of 
the election of the 15th of December, and at the same time provided for an 
election to be held on the 15th day of January, 1856, for state officers and 
members of the general assembly of the state of Kansas. The result of this 
election was announced by a proclamation by the executive committee. 

In accordance with the constitution thus adopted, the members of the state 
legislature and most of the state officers met on the day and at the place de- 
signated by the state constitution, and took the oath therein prescribed. 

After electing United States senators, passing some preliminary laws, and 
appointing a codifying committee and preparing a memorial to congress, the 
general assembly adjourned to meet on the 4th day of July, 1856. 

The laws passed were all conditional upon the admission of Kansas as a 
state into the Union. These proceedings were regular, and, in the opinion of 
your committee, the constitution thus adopted fairly expresses the will of the 
majority of the settlers. They now await the action of congress upon their 
memorial. 

These elections, whether they were conducted in pursuance of law or not, 
were not illegal. 

Whether the result of them is sanctioned by the action of congress, or they 
are regarded as the mere expression of a popular will, and congress should re 
fuse to grant the prayer of the memorial, that cannot affect their legality. The 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 705 

right of the people to assemble and express their political opinion in any form, 
whether by means of an election or a convention, is secured to them by the 
constitution of the United States. Even if the elections are to be regarded 
as the act of a party, whether political or otherwise, they were proper, in ac- 
cordance with examples, both in states and territories. 

The elections, however, were preceded and followed by acts of violence on 
the part of those who opposed them, and those persons who approved and sus- 
tained the invasion from Missouri were peculiarly hostile to these peaceful 
movements preliminary to the organization of a state government. Instances 
of this violence will be referred to hereafter. 

In the fall of 1855, there sprang out of the existing discords and excite- 
ment in the territory two secret free state societies. They were defensive in 
their character, and were designed to form a protection to their members 
against unlawful acts of violence and assault. One of the societies was purely 
of a local character, and was confined to the town of Lawrence. Yery shortly 
after its organization, it produced its desired effect, and then went out of use 
and ceased to exist. Both societies were cumbersome, and of no utility ex- 
cept to give confidence to the free state men, and enable them to know and aid 
each other in contemplated danger. So far as the evidence shows, they led to 
no act of violence in resistance to either real or alleged laws. 

On the 21st day of November, 1855, F. M. Coleman, a pro-slavery man, 
and Charles W. Dow, a free-state man, had a dispute about the division line 
between their respective claims. Several hours afterward, as Dow was pass- 
ing from a blacksmith's shop towards his claim, and by the cabin of Coleman, 
the latter shot Dow with a double-barreled gun loaded with slugs. Dow was 
unarmed. He fell across the road and died immediately. This was about 1 
o'clock p. m. His dead body was allowed to lie where it fell until after sun- 
down, when it was conveyed by Jacob Branson to his house, at which Dow 
boarded. The testimony in regard to this homicide is voluminous, and shows 
clearly that it was a deliberate murder by Coleman, and that Harrison Buckely 
and a Mr. Hargous were accessories to it. The excitement caused by it was 
very great among all classes of the settlers. On the 26th, a large meeting of 
citizens was held at the place where the murder was committed, and resolutions 
passed that Coleman should be brought to justice. In the meantime Coleman 
had gone to Missouri, and then to governor Shannon, at Shawnee Mission, in 
Johnson county. He was there taken into custody by S. J. Jones, then acting 
as sheriff. No warrant was issued or examination had. On the day of the 
meeting at Hickory Point, Harrison Bradley procured a peace warrant against 
Jacob Branson, which was placed in the hands of Jones. That same evening, 
after Branson had gone to bed, Jones came to his cabin with a party of about 
25 persons, among whom were Hargous and Buckley — burst open the door 
and saw Branson in bed. He then drew his pistol, cocked it, and presented it 
to Branson's breast, and said, " You are my prisoner, and if you move I will 
blow you through." The others cocked their guns and gathered round him, 
and took him prisoner. They all mounted and went to Buckley's house. Af- 



706 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

ter a time they went on a circuitous route towards Blanton's bridge, stopping 
to " drink " on the way. As they approached the bridge, there were 13 in the 
party, several having stopped. Jones rode up to the prisoner, and among 
other things, told him he had "heard there were 100 men at your house to- 
day," and "that he regretted they were not there, and that they were cheated 
out of their sport." In the meantime the alarm had been given in the neigh- 
borhood of Branson's arrest, and several of the settlers, among whom were 
some who had attended the meeting at Hickory Point that day, gathered 
together. They were greatly excited ; the alleged injustice of such an arrest 
of a quiet settler, under a peace warrant by " sheriff Jones," aided by two men 
believed to be accessory to a murder, and who were allowed to be at large, 
exasperated them, and they proceeded as rapidly as possible by a nearer route 
than that taken by Jones, and stopped near the house of J. S. Abbott, one of 
them. They were on foot as Jone's party approached on a canter. The res- 
cuers snddenly formed across the road in front of Jones and his party. Jones 
halted, and asked, " what's up?" The reply was, "that's what we want to 
know. "What's up?" Branson said, " they have got me a prisoner. " Some 
one in the rescuing party told him to come over to their side. He did so, and 
dismounted, and the mule he rode was driven over to Jone's party ; Jones then 
left. Of the persons engaged in this rescue, three were from Lawrence, and 
had attended the meeting. Your committee have deemed it proper to detail 
the particulars of this rescue, as it was made the groundwork of what is known 
as the Wakerusa war. On the same night of the rescue the cabins of Cole- 
man and Buckley were burned, but by whom, is left in doubt by the testimony. 

On the morning of the rescue of Branson, Jones was at the village of 
Franklin, near Lawrence. The rescue was spoken of in the presence of Jones, 
and more conversation passed between two others in his presence, as to whether 
it was most proper to send for assistance to colonel Boon in Missouri, or to 
governor Shannon. Jones wrote a dispatch and handed it to a messenger. 
As soon as he started, Jones said : " That man is taking my dispatch to Mis- 
souri, and by G — d I'll have revenge before I see Missouri." A person pres- 
ent, who was examined as a witness, complained publicly that the dispatch was 
not ?ent to the governor; and within half an hour one was sent to the gover- 
nor by Jones, through Hargous. Within a few days, large numbers of men 
from the state of Missouri gathered and encamped on the Wakarusa. They 
brought with them all the equipments of war. To obtain them, a party of 
men under the direction of Judge T. V. Thompson broke into the United 
States arsenal and armory at Liberty, Missouri, and after a forcible detention 
of captain Leonard (then in charge,) they took the cannon, muskets, rifles, 
powder, harness, and in deed all the materials and munitions of war they desir- 
ed, some of which have never been returned or accounted for. 

The chief hostility of this military foray was against the town of Lawrence, 
and this was especially the case with the officers of the law. 

Your committee can see in the testimony no reason, excuse or palliation for 
this feeling. Up to this time no warrant or proclamation of any kind had 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 707 

been in the hands of any officer against any citizen of .Lawrence. No 
arrest had been attempted, and no writ resisted in that town. The rescue of 
Branson sprang out of a murder committed thirteen miles from Lawrence, m 
a detached settlement, and neither the town nor its citizens extended any pro- 
tection to Branson's rescuers. On the contrary, two or three days after the 
rescue, S. N. Wood, who claimed publicly to be one of the rescuing party, 
wished to be arrested for the purpose of testing the territorial laws, and walk- 
ed up to sheriff Jones and shook hands with him, and exchanged other courte- 
sies. He could have been arrested without any difficulty, and it was his design, 
when he went to Mr. Jones, to be arrested, but no attempt was made to do so. 

It is obvious that the only cause of this hostility is the known desire of the 
citizens of Lawrence to make Kansas a free state, and their repugnance to laws 
imposed upon them by non-residents. 

Your committee do not propose to detail the incidents connected with this 
foray. Fortunately for the peace of the country, a direct conflict between the 
opposing forces was avoided by an amicable arrangement. The losses sustain- 
ed by the settlers in property taken and time and money expended in their own 
defense, added much to the trials incident to a new settlement. Many persons 
were unlawfully taken and detained — in some cases, under circumstances of 
gross cruelty. This was especially so in the arrest and treatment of doctor G. 
A. Cutter and G. F. Warren. They were taken without cause or warrant, 60 
miles from Lawrence, and when doctor Cutter was quite sick. They were 
compelled to go to the camp at Lawrence, were put into the custody of 
" Sheriff Jones." who had no process to arrest them — they were taken into a 
small room kept as a liquor shop, which was open and very cold. That night 
Jones came in with others, and went to " playing poker at twenty-five cents 
ante." The prisoners were obliged to sit up all night, as there was no room 
to lie down when the men were playing. Jones insulted them frequently, and 
told one of them he must either " tell or swing." The guard then objected to 
this treatment of the prisoners, and Jones desisted. G. F. Warren thus descri- 
bes their subsequent conduct : 

" They then carried us down to their camp ; Kelly, of The Squatter Sove)-- 
eiffn, who lives in Atchison, came round and said he thirsted for blood, and 
said he should like to hang us on the first tree. Cutter was very weak, and 
that excited him so that he became delirious. They sent for three doctors, 
who came. Doctor Stringfellow was one of them. They remained there with 
Cutter until after midnight, and then took him up to the office, as it was very 
cold in camp." 

During the foray, either George W. Clark or Mr. Burns murdered Thomas 
Barber, while the latter was on the highway on his road from Lawrence to his 
claim. Both fired at him, and it is impossible from the proof to tell whose 
shot was fatal. The details of this homicide are stated by an eye witness. 

Among the many acts of lawless violence which it has been the duty of your 
committee to investigate, this invasion of Lawrence is the most defenseless. A 
comparison of the facts proven, with the official statement of the officers of 



708 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

the government, will show how groundless were the pretexts which gave rise to 
it. A community in which no crime had been committed by any of its mem- 
bers against none of whom had a warrant been issued or a complaint made, 
who had resisted no process in the hands of a real or pretended officer, was 
threatened with destruction in the name of " law and order," and that, too, by 
men who marched from a neighboring state with arms obtained by force, and 
who, in every stage of their progress, violated many laws, aud among others 
the constitution of the United States. 

The chief guilt of it must rest on Samuel J. Jones. His character is illus- 
trated by his language at Lecompton, where peace was made: " He said 
major Clark aud Burns both claimed the honor of killing that d — d abolition- 
ist, and he did'nt know which ought to have it. If Shannon had'nt been a 

d d old fool, that peace would never have been declared. He would have 

wiped Lawrence out. He had men and means enough to do it." 

Shortly after the retreat of the forces from before Lawrence, the election 
upon the adoption of the state constitution was held at Leavenworth city, on 
the 15th of December, 1855. While it was proceeding quietly, about noon, 
Charles Dunn, with a party of others, smashed in the window of the building 
in which the election was being held, and then jumped into the room where 
the judges of election were sitting, and drove them off. One of the clerks of 
election snatched up the ballot-box and followed the judges, throwing the box 
behind the counter of an adjoining room through which he passed on his way 
out. As he got to the street door, Dunn caught him by the throat, and pushed 
him up against the side of the building, and demanded the ballot-box. 

Then Dunn and another person struck him in the face, and he fell into the 
mud, the crowd rushed on him and kicked him on the head and in his sides. 
In this manner the election was broken up, Dunn and his party obtaining the 
ballot-box and carrying it off. 

To avoid a similar outrage at the election for state officers, etc., to be held on 
the 15th of January, 1856, the election for Leavenworth district was appointed 
to be held at Easton, and the time postponed until the 11th day of January, 
1856. On the way to the election, persons were stopped by a party of men 
at a grocery, and their guns taken from them. During the afternoon, parties 
came up to the place of election and threatened to destroy the ballot-box, aud 
were guilty of other insolent and abusive conduct. After the polls were clos- 
ed, many of the settlers being apprehensvie of an attack, were armed in the 
house where the election had been held until the next morning. Late that 
night Stephen Sparks, with his sou and nephew, started for home, his route run- 
ning by the store of a Mr. Dawson, where a large party of armed men had 
collected. As he approached, these men demanded that he should surrender, 
aud gathered about him to enforce the demand. Information was carried by 
a man in the company of Mr. Sparks to the house where the election had been 
held. R. P. Brown and a company of men immediately went down to relieve 
Mr. Sparks, and did relieve him when he was iu immiuent danger. Mr. 
Sparks then started back with Mr. Brown and his party, and while on their 



EEPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 709 

way were fired on by the other party. They returned the fire, and an irregular 
fight then ensued, in which a man by the name of Cook, of the pro-slavery 
party, received a mortal wound, and two of the free state prrty were slightly 
wounded. 

Mr. Brown, with seven others who had accompanied him from from Leaven- 
worth, started on their return home. 'When they had proceeded part of the 
way, they were stopped and taken prisoners by a party of men called the 
Kickapoo Rangers, under the command of captain John W. Martin. They 
were disarmed and taken back to Easton, and put in Dawson's store. Brown 
was separated from the rest of his party, and taken into the office of E. S. 
Trotter. By this time several of Martin's party and some of the citizens of 
the place had become intoxicated, and expressed a determination to kill Brown. 
Captain Martin was desirous, and did all in his power to save him. Several 
hours were spent in discussing what should be done with Brown and his 
party. In the meantime, without the knowledge of his party, captain Martin 
liberated all of Brown's party but himself, and aided them in their escape. 
The crowd repeatedly tried to get into the room where Brown was, and at one 
time succeeded, but were put out by Martin and others. Martin, finding that 
further effort on his part to save Brown was useless, left and went home. The 
crowd then got possession of Brown and finally butchered him in cold blood. 
The wound of which he died was inflicted with a hatchet by a man by the 
name of Gibson. After he had been mortally wounded, Brown was sent home 
with Charles Dunn, and died that night. No attempt was made to arrest and 
punish the murderers of Brown. Many of them were well-known citizens, and 
some of them were officers of the law. On the next grand jury that set in 
Leavenworth county, the sheriff summoned several of the persons implicated in 
this murder. One of them was M. P. Rively, at that time treasurer of the county. 
He has been examined as a witness before us. The reason he gives why no 
indictments were found is, " they killed one of the pro-slavery men, and the 
pro-slavery men killed one of the others, and I thought it was about mutual." 
The same grand jury, however, found bills of indictment against those who 
acted as judges of the free-state election. Rively says, "I know our utmost 
endeavors were made to find out who acted as judges and clerks on the 17th 
of January last, and at all the bogus elections held by the abolitionists here. 
We were very anxious to find them out, as we thought them acting illegally." 

Your committee, in their examination, have found that in no case of crime 
or homicide, mentioned in the report or in the testimony, has any indictment 
been found against the guilty party, except in the homicide of Clark by Mc- 
Crea, McCrea being a free state man. 

Your committee did not deem it within their power or duty to take testi- 
mony as to events which have transpired since the date of their appointment ; 
but as some of the events tended seriously to embarrass, hinder, and delay their 
investigations, they deem it proper here to refer to them. On their arrival in 
the territory, the people were arrayed in two hostile parties. The hostility of 
them was continually increased during our stay in the territory, by the arrival 



710 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

of armed bodies of men, who, from their equipment?, came not to follow the 
peaceful pursuits of life, but armed and organized into companies, apparently 
for war — by the unlawful detention of persons and property while passing- 
through the state of Missouri, and by frequent forcible seizures of persons and 
property in the territory without legal warrant. Your committee regret that 
they were compelled to witness instances of each of these classes of outrages 
While holding their session at Westport, Mo., at the request of the sitting del- 
egate, they saw several bodies of armed men, confessedly citizens of Missouri, 
march into the territory on forays against its citizens, but under the pretense 
of enforcing the enactments before referred to. The wagons of emigrants were 
stopped in the highways, and searched without claim or legal powers, and in 
some instances all their property taken from them. In Leavenworth City, lead- 
ing citizens were arrested at noonday in our presence, by an armed force, with- 
out any claim of authority, except that derived from a self-constituted commit- 
tee of vigilance, many of whom were executive aud legislative officers. Some 
were released on promising to leave the territory, and others, after being de- 
tained for a time, were formally notified to leave, under the severest penalties. 
The only offense charged against them was their political opinions, and no one 
was thus arrested for alleged crime of any grade. There was no resistance to 
these lawless acts by the settlers, because, in their opinion, the persons engaged 
in them would be sustained and reinforced by the citizens of the populous bor- 
der counties of Missouri, from whence they were only separated by the river. 
In one case witnessed by your committee, an application for the writ of habeas 
corpus was prevented by the urgent solicitation of pro-slavery men, who in- 
sisted that it would endanger the life of the prisoner to be discharged under 
legal process. 

While we remained in the territory, repeated acts of outrage were committed 
upon the quiet, unoffending citizens, of which we received authentic intelli- 
gence. Men were attacked on the highway, robbed, and subsequently impris- 
oned. Men were seized and searched, and their weapons of defense taken from 
them without compensation. Horses were frequently taken and appropriated. 
Oxen were taken from the yoke while plowing, and butchered in the presence 
of their owners. One young man was seized in the streets of the town of 
Atchison, and under circumstances of gross barbarity was tarred and cottoned, 
and in that condition was sent to his family. All the provisions of the consti- 
tution of the United States, securing persons and property, are utterly disre- 
garded. The officers of the law, instead of protecting the people, were in 
some instances engaged in these outrages, and in no instance did we learn that 
any man was arrested, indicted, or punished for any of these crimes. While 
such offenses were committed with impunity, the laws were used as a means of 
indicting men for holding elections, preliminary to framing a constitution and 
applying for admission into the Union as the state of Kansas. Charges of 
high treason were made against prominent citizens upon grounds which seem 
to your committee absurd and ridiculous, and under these charges they are now 
held in custody and are refused the privilege of bail. In several cases, men 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 711 

were arrested in the state of Missouri while passing on their lawful business 
through the state, and detained until indictments could be found iu the terri- 
tory. 

These proceedings were followed by an offense of still greater magnitude. 
Under color of legal process, a company of about tOO armed men, the great 
body of whom your committee are satisfied were not citizens of the territory, 
marched into the town of Lawreuce under Marshal Donaldson and S. J. Jones, 
officers claiming to act under the law, and bombarded and then burned to the 
ground a valuable hotel and one private house ; destroyed two printing-presses 
and material ; and then, being released by the officers, whose posse they claim 
to be, proceeded to sack, pillage, and rob houses, stores, trunks, etc., even to 
the clothing of women and children. Some of the letters thus unlawfully ta- 
ken were private ones, written by the contesting delegate, and they were of- 
fered in evidence. Tour committee did not deem that the persons holding 
them had any right thus to use them, and refused to be made the instruments 
to report private letters thus obtained. 

This force was not resisted, because it was collected and marshaled under 
the forms of law. But this act of barbarity, unexampled in the history of our 
government, was followed by its natural consequences. All the restraints 
which American citizens are accustomed to pay even to the appearance of law, 
were thrown off; one act of violence led to another ; homicides became fre- 
quent. A party under H. C. Pate, composed chiefly of citizens of Missouri, 
were taken prisouers by a party of settlers; and while your committee were at 
Westport, a company, chiefly of Missourians, accompanied by the acting dele- 
gate, went to relieve Pate and his party, and a collision was prevented by the 
United States troops. Civil war has seemed impending in the territory. Noth- 
ing can prevent so great a calamity but the presence of a large force of United 
States troops, under a commander who will with prudence and discretion quiet 
the excited passions of both parties, and expel with force the armed bands of 
lawless men coming from Missouri and elsewhere, who, with criminal pertinacity, 
infest that territory. 

In some cases, and as to one entire election district, the condition of the 
country prevented the attendance of witnesses, who were either arrested or de- 
tained while obeying our process, or deterred from so doing. The sergeant- 
at-arms who served the processes upon them was himself arrested and detained 
for a short time by an armed force, claiming to be a part of the posse of the 
marshal, but was allowed to proceed upon an examination of his papers, and 
<vas furnished with a pass signed by "Warren D. Wilkes, of South Carolina." 
John Upton, another officer of the committee, was subsequently stopped by 
a lawless force on the borders of the territory, and after being detained and 
treated with great indignity, was released. He also was furnished with a pass 
signed by two citizens of Missouri, and addressed to " pro-slavery men." By 
reason of these disturbances, we were delayed in Westport, so that while in 
session there, our time was but partially occupied. 

But the obstruction which created the most serious embarrassment to your 



712 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

committee was the attempted arrest of Gov. Reeder, the contesting delegate, 
upon a writ of attachment issued against him by Judge Lecompte to compel 
his attendance as a witness before the grand jury of Douglas county. Wil- 
liam Fane, recently from the state of Georgia, and claiming to be the deputy 
marshal, came into the room of the committee while Gov. Reeder was exam- 
ining a witness before us, and producing the writ, required Gov. Reeder to at- 
tend him. Subsequent events have only strengthened the conviction of your 
committee that this was a wanton and unlawful interference by the judge who 
issued the writ, tending greatly to obstruct a full and fair investigation. Gov. 
Reeder and Gen. Whitfield alone were possessed of that local information 
which would enable us to elicit the whole truth, and it was obvious to every 
one that any event which would separate either of them from the committee 
would necessarily hinder, delay, and embarrass it, Gov. Reeder claimed that, 
under the circumstances in which he was placed, he was privileged from arrest 
except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. As this was a question of 
privilege, proper for the courts, or for the privileged person alone to determine 
on his peril, we declined to give him any protection or take any action in the 
matter. He refused to obey the writ, believing it to be a mere pretense to get 
the custody of his person, and fearing, as he alleged, that he would be assassi- 
nated by lawless bands of men then gathering in and near Lecompton. He 
then left the territory. 

Subsequently, H. Miles Moore, an attorney in Leavenworth City, but for 
several years a citizen of Westport, Mo., kindly furnished the committee in- 
formation as to the residence of persons voting at the elections, and in some 
cases examined witnesses before us. He was arrested on the streets of that 
town by an armed band of about thirty men, headed by W. D. Wilkes, with- 
out any color of authority, confined, with other citizens, under a military guard 
for twenty-four hours, and then notified to leave the territory. His testimony 
was regarded as important, and upon his sworn statement that it would endan- 
ger his person to give it openly, the majority of your committee deemed it 
proper to examine him ex parte, and did so. 

By reason of these occurrences, the contestant, and the party with and for 
whom he acted, were unrepresented before us during a greater portion of the 
time, and your committee were required to ascertain the truth in the best man- 
ner they could. 

Your committee report the following facts and conclusions as established by 
the testimony : 

First : That each election in the territory, held under the organic or alleged 
territorial law, 1ms been carried on by organized invasions from the state of 
Missouri, by which the people of the territory have been prevented from exer- 
cising the rights secured to them by the organic law. 

Second : That the alleged territorial legislature was an illegally constituted 
body, and had no power to pass valid laws, and their enactments are, there- 
fore, null and void. 

Third : That these alleged laws have not, as a general thing, been used to 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 713 

protect persons and property and to punish wrong, but for unlawful pur- 
poses. 

Fourth : That the election under which the sitting delegate, John W. Whit- 
field, holds his seat, was not held in pursuance of any valid law, and that it 
should be regarded only as the expression of the choice of those resident citi- 
zens who voted for him. 

Fifth : That the election under which the contesting delegate, Andrew H. 
Reeder, claims his seat, was not held in pursuance of law, and that it should 
be regarded only as the expression of the choice of the resident citizens who 
voted for him. 

Sixth : That Andrew H. Reeder received a greater number of votes of resi- 
dent citizeus than John W. Whitfield, for delegate. 

Seventh : That in the present condition of the territory, a fair election can- 
not be held without a new census, a stringent and well-guarded election law, 
the selection of impartial judges, and the presence of United States troops at 
every place of election. 

Eighth : That the various elections held by the people of the territory pre- 
liminary to the formation of the state government, have been as regular as the 
disturbed condition of the territory would allow ; and that the constitution 
passed by the convention held in pursuance of said elections, embodies the will 
of a majority of the people. 

As it is not the province of your committee to suggest remedies for the ex- 
isting troubles in the territory of Kansas, they content themselves with the fore- 
going statement of facts. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. Wm. A. Howard, 

John Sherman. 

The free state constitution,* framed at Topeka, as set forth in the foregoing 
report, was duly submitted to congress, and referred, in both houses, to the 
committees on territories ; but the accompanying memorial from the free state 
legislature, setting forth the grounds of the application, and praying for admis- 
sion as a state, was rejected by the senate on the allegation that material 
changes had been made in it since it left Kansas. The senate also rejected re- 
peated motions to accept the constitution and admit Kansas as a free state ; 
but sixteen senators being found in favor of such admission. 

In the house, the majority -of the committee on territories reported in favor 
of the admission of Kansas, under the aforesaid constitution, as a free state ; 
and after debate, the previous question thereon was ordered on the 28th of 
June by a vote of 98 ayes to 63 noes. Previous to this, Mr. Stephens, of 
Georgia, had proposed, as an amendment or substitute, a radically different 
bill, contemplating the appointment by the president and senate of five com- 
missioners, who should repair to Kansas, take a census of the inhabitants and 
legal voters, and thereupon proceed to apportion, during the month of Sep- 
tember, 1856, the delegates (52) to form a constitutional convention, to be 

♦Article I. Sec. 6. There shall be no slavery in this state, nor involuntary servitude, 
unless for the punishment of crime. 
46 



714 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

elected by the legal voters aforesaid ; said delegates to be chosen on the day 
of the presidential election (Tuesday, November 4th, 1856,) and to assemble 
in convention on the first Monday in December, 1856, to form a state constitu- 
tion. The bill proposed, also, penalties for illegal voting at said election. 

To this substitute bill, Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, proposed the following 
amendment, to come in at the end as an additional section : 

Sec. 18. And be it further enacted, That so much of the fourteenth sec- 
tion and of the thirty-second section of the act passed at the first session of 
the thirty-third congress, commonly called the Kansas and Nebraska act, as 
reads as follows : "Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the ad- 
mission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which, being 
inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention by congress with slavery in 
the states and territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly 
called the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void ; it 
being the true intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery into any 
state or territory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the constitution of the United States ; provided, that nothing 
herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regula- 
tion -which may have existed prior to the act of 6th March, 1820, either pro- 
tecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery," be, and the same is 
hereby repealed ; provided, that any person or persons lawfully held to service 
within either of the territories named in said act shall be discharged from such 
service, if they shall not be removed and kept out of said territories within 
twelve months from the passage of this act. 

This amendment to the Stephens substitute was carried by a vote of 109 to 
102, and the bill, thus amended by its adversaries, was abandoned by its friends 
and received but two votes, Dunn, of Indiana, and Harrison, of Ohio. 

Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, now moved that the bill reported by the committee 
do lie on the table, which was defeated by a vote of yeas, 106 ; nays, 10T. The 
house now refused to adjourn by a vote of 106 to 102 ; and after a long strug- 
gle, the final question was reached and the bill rejected, by a vote of 107 to 
106. On the 1st of July, Mr. Barclay, of Pennsylvania, moved a reconsider- 
ation of the preceding vote by which the free Kansas bill had been rejected. 
The reconsideration was carried on the 3d of July, by a vote of 101 to 99. 
The previous question on the passage of the bill was then ordered, and the bill 
was finally passed, yeas, 99 ; nays, 97. 

On the 30th of June, Mr. Douglas reported to the senate on several bills 
submitted by Messrs. Clayton, Toombs and others for the pacification of the 
Kansas troubles, as also against Governor Seward's proposition to admit Kan- 
sas as a free state under the Topeka constitution. Mr. Collamer, being the 
minority of the territorial committee, made a counter report. Mr. Douglas 
gave notice that he would ask for a final vote on the 3d of July. The bill was 
debated on the 1st and 2d of July, and the following night, the majority re 
sisting all motions to adjourn. An amendment, moved by Mr. Adams, of 



REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 715 

Mississippi, striking out so much of the bill as secured the right of suffrage in 
the proposed reorganization of Kansas to alien residents who shall have de- 
clared their intention to become citizens, and renounced all allegiance to 
foreign governments, was adopted by a vote of 22 to 16. Sometime in the 
morning of July 3d, the following amendment, reduced to shape by Mr. Geyer, 
of Missouri, was added to the 18th section of the bill, by a vote of 40 to 3 : 

" No law shall be made or have force or effect in said territory [of Kansas] 
which shall require any attestation or oath to support any act of congress or 
other legislative act, as a qualification for any civil office, public trust, or for 
any employment or profession, or to serve as juror, or vote at any election, or 
which shall impose any tax upon, or condition to, the exercise of the right of 
suffrage, by any qualified voter, or which shall restrain or prohibit the free dis- 
cussion of any law or subject of legislation in the said territory, or the free ex- 
pression of opinion thereon by the people of said territory." 

Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, moved the following: 

" And be it further enacted, That it was the true intent and meaning of 
the 'act to organize the territory of Nebraska and Kansas,' not to legislate 
slavery into Kansas, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people 
thereof perfectly free through their territorial legislature to regulate the in- 
stitution of slavery in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the 
United States ; and that, until the territorial legislature acts upon the subject, 
the owner of a slave in one of the states has no right or authority to take such 
slave into the territory of Kansas, and there hold him as a slave ; but every 
slave taken to the territory of Kansas by his owner for the purposes of settle- 
ment is hereby declared to be free, unless there is some valid act of a duly con- 
stituted legislative assembly of said territory, under which he may be held as a 
slave." 

The yeas and nays being ordered, the proposition was voted down ; yeas, 
9 ; nays, 34. Mr. Trumbull then proposed the following : 

" And be it further enacted, That the provision in the ' act to organize the 
territory of Nebraska and Kansas,' which declares it to be ' the true intent and 
meaning ' of said act ' not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor 
to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form 
and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
constitution of the United States,' was intended to, and does, confer upon, or 
leave to, the people of the territory of Kansas full power, at any time, through 
its territorial legislature, to exclude slavery from said territory or to recognize 
and regulate it therein." 

This was also voted down; yeas, 11; nays, 34. Mr. Trumbull then sub- 
mitted the following : 

"And be it further enacted, That all the acts and proceedings of all and 
every body of men heretofore assembled in said territory of Kansas, and claim- 
ing to be a legislative assembly thereof, with authority to pass laws for the 
government of said territory, are hereby declared to be utterly null and void. 
And no person shall hold any office, or exercise any authority or jurisdiction 



716 KANSAS AFFAIRS. 

in said territory, under or by virtue of any power or authority derived from 
such legislative assembly ; nor shall the members thereof exercise any power 
or authority as such." 

This, too, was voted down; yeas, 11; nays, 36. Mr. Foster, of Connecti- 
cut, moved the following amendment : 

And be it further enacted, That, until the inhabitants of said territory 
shall proceed to hold a convention to form a state constitution according to 
the provisions of this act, and so long as said territory remains a territory, the 
following sections contained in chapter one hundred and fifty-one, in the volume 
transmitted to the senate by the President of the United States, as containing 
the laws of Kansas, be, and the same are hereby, declared to be utterly null 
and void, viz. : 

"Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that per 
sons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this terri- 
tory any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or circular, containing any denial of the 
right of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of 
felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two years. 

"Sec. 13. No person who is conscientiously opposed to holding slaves, or who does not 
admit the right to hold slaves in this territory, shall sit as a juror on the trial of any 
prosecution for the violation of anyone of the sections of this act." 

This was rejected, as superfluous, or covered by the amendment of Mr. 
Geyer; yeas, 13; nays, 32. Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, proposed the fol- 
lowing: 

And be it further enacted, That until the people of said territory shall 
form a constitution and state government, and be admitted into the Union un- 
der the provisions of this act, there shall be neither slavery or involuntary ser- 
vitude in said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the 
party shall have been duly convicted ; provided always, that any person escaping 
into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any state, 
such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming 
his or her service or labor as aforesaid. 

This was voted down ; yeas, 10 ; nays, 35. Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, 
moved that the whole bill be stricken out, and another inserted instead, repeal- 
ing all the territorial laws of Kansas. This was rejected ; yeas, 8 ; nays, 35. 
Mr. Seward moved to strike out the whole bill, and insert instead one admitting 
Kansas as a free state under the Topeka constitution. Lost, yeas, 11 ; nays, 
36. The bill was now reported as amended, and the amendment made in com- 
mittee of the whole concurred in. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the bill was 
ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and on the question of its final 
passage the vote stood, yeas, 33 ; nays, 12. The bill was then sent to the 
house. The title is as follows : "An act to authorize the people of the terri- 
tory of Kansas to form a constitution and state government preparatory to 
their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states." 

This bill was never acted on in the house, but lay on the speaker's table 
when the session terminated on the 18th of August. 



THE DUNN BILL. 717 

In the senate, on the 8th of July, Mr. Douglas reported back from the com- 
mittee on territories the house bill to admit Kansas as a state, with an amend- 
ment, striking out all after the enacting clause, and inserting instead the sen- 
ate bill above referred to. Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, moved to amend 
this substitute by providing that all who migrate to the territory prior to July 
4th, 1857, shall be entitled to vote in determining the character of the institu- 
tions of Kansas. Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, moved that all the territorial laws 
of Kansas be repealed and the territorial officers dismissed. Mr. Collamer, of 
Vermont, proposed an amendment prohibiting slavery in all that portion of 
the Louisiana purchase north of 36° 30', not included in the territory of Kan- 
sas. These propositions were severally rejected, and the substitute reported 
by Mr. Douglas agreed to. This amendment was, however, never acted upon 
by the house. 

In the house, on the 29th of July, Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, called up a bill 
"to reorganize the territory of Kansas and for other purposes," which he had 
originally proposed as a substitute for the before-mentioned senate bill. The 
two last sections of Mr. Dunn's bill are as follows: 

Sec. 24. And be it further enacted, That so much of the fourteenth sec- 
tion, and also so much of the thirty-second section, of the act passed at the first 
session of the thirty-third congress, commonly known as the Kansas-Nebraska 
act, as reads as follows, to wit : " Except the eighth section of the act prepar- 
atory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, 
which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by congress 
with slavery in the states and territories as recognized by the legislation of 
1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative 
and void ; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate 
slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the 
people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions 
in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States ; provided, 
that nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any 
law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of 6th March, 1820, 
either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery," be, and the 
same is hereby repealed, and the said eighth section of said act of the 6th of 
March, 1820, is hereby revived and declared to be in full force and effect within 
the said territories of Kansas and Nebraska ; provided, however, that any 
person lawfully held to service in either of said territories shall not be dis- 
charged from such service by reason of such repeal and revival of said eighth 
section, if such person shall be permanently removed from such territory or 
territories prior to the 1st day of January, 1858 ; and any child or children 
born in either of said territories, of any female lawfully held to service, if in 
like manner removed without said territories before the expiration of that date, 
shall not be, by reason of anything in this act, emancipated from any service it 
might have owed had this act never been passed ; and provided further, that 
any person lawfully held to service in any other state or territory of the 
United States, and escaping into either the territory of Kansas or Nebraska, 



718 KANSAS AFFAIBS. 

may be reclaimed and removed to the person or place where such service is 
due, under any law of the United States which shall be in force upon the 
subject. 

Sec. 25. And be it further enacted, That all other parts of the aforesaid 
Kansas-Nebraska act which relate to the said territory of Kansas, and every 
other law or usage having, or which is pretended to have, any force or effect in 
said territory in conflict with the provisions or the spirit of this act, except 
such laws of congress and treaty stipulations as relate to the Indians, are 
hereby repealed, and declared void. 

Mr. Dunn moved to strike out a bill previously introduced by Mr. Grow, re- 
pealing all the acts of the alleged territorial legislature of Kansas, and the in- 
sertion of his own as a substitute. This motion prevailed ; and Mr. Dunn 
moved the previous question on ordering this bill to be engrossed and read a 
third time, which prevailed, and the bill passed, yeas, 88 ; nays, 74. This bill 
was not acted upon by the senate. 

"When the annual appropriation bills came before congress, the house affixed 
to several of them provisos respecting the obnoxious acts of the territorial leg- 
islature of Kansas ; these were resisted by the senate, and finally given up by 
the house save one, appropriating $20,000 for the pay and expenses of the 
next territorial legislature. This the senate gave up, and thus secured the 
passage of the civil appropriation bill. The army bill remained unpassed 
wheu the session terminated, as the two houses could not agree on a proviso 
forbidding the employment of the army to enforce the acts of the Kansas 
Shawnee-Mission legislature. In this state of affairs, the president issued his 
proclamation, convening an extra session, August 21st, three days after the 
termination of the former session. A quorum was present, and the house re- 
passed the army bill with the same proviso attached, which proviso was again 
struck out by the senate, and reinserted by the house. The senate insisted on 
its disagreement, and the house decided to adhere to its proviso by a close 
vote. The senate also voted to adhere. Mr. Clayton, in the senate, proposed 
a committee of conference, which was objected to. Mr. Campbell in the house 
made the same proposition, which was likewise objected to. The struggle 
continued until the 30th, when the house again passed the army bill with the 
proviso modified. This gave no better satisfaction to the senate. It was 
struck out, and the bill returned to the house, which finally concurred in the 
senate amendment by a vote of 101 yeas to 97 nays. The use of the army 
in Kansas was left at the president's discretion. 



TROUBLES m KANSAS. 719 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

History op the Troubles in Kansas, continued. 

Judge Lecompte's charge to Grand Jury — Presentments. — Official correspondence. — At- 
tack on Lawrence. — Free State bands organized — attack pro-slavery settlements. — 
Fights at Palmyra, Franklin, and Ossawattamie. — Murders. — Shannon removed. — 
Atchison's army retreat. — Geary appointed governor. — Deplorable condition of the ter- 
ritory. — Letter to Secretary Marcy. — Inaugural address and proclamations. — Atchison's 
call upon the South. — Woodson's proclamation. — Armed bands enter the territory. — 
Lawrence doomed to destruction. — Gov. Geary's decisive measures. — Army dispersed 
and Lawrence saved. — Hickory Point — capture of Free State company. — Dispatch to 
Secretary Marcy. — Murder of Buffum. — Geary and Lecompte in collision. — Official doc- 
uments. — The Judiciary. — Rumors of Lane's army.. — Redpath's company captured — 
released by governor. — Capture of Eldridge's company.- — Official correspondence. — As- 
sembling of Topeka legislature — Members arrested. — Territorial Legislative Assembly 
convened. — Inaugural — Vetoes of the governor. — The "Census Bill" — its provisions 
for forming State Constitution. — Constitution not to be submitted to the people. — Gov. 
Geary's proposition rejected. — He vetoes the bill — Bill passed. — Disturbances in the 
capital. — Geary's requisition for U. S. troops refused. — His application for money re- 
fused. — Difficulties of his situation — he resigns — Ms farewell address. — Robert J. 
Walker appointed his successor. — Secretary Stanton.- — Fraudulent apportionment. — 
Walker's Inaugural — his recommendation to have Constitution submitted to the peo- 
ple. — This measure denounced at the South. — Convention assembles September, 1857. 
— Adjourns to October 26th, 1857. 



A 



S the legislation of congress at the session of 1856-1 on the affairs of Kan- 
sas produced no defiuite results, the details are omitted, and other sources than 
congressional documents sought for information relative to everts in the terri- 
tory. We will now take a look at the internal affairs of Kansas, iu order to 
see how " the people " behave when they are " left entirely free to settle their 
iuterual affairs in their own way." The report of the congressional committee, 
given in the previous chapter, furnishes a history of events down to the summer 
of 1856. On the 5th of May of that year, Judge Lecompte, the judicial head 
of the territory, delivered a charge to the grand jury of Douglas county, from 
which we make an extract : 

" This territory was organized by an act of congress, and so far its authority 
is from the United States. It has a legislature elected in pursuance of that 
organic act. This legislature, being an instrument of congress, by which it 
governs the territory, has passed laws ; these laws, therefore, are of United 
States authority and making, and all that resist these laws, resist the power 
and authority of the United States, and are, therefore, guilty of high treason. 
Now, gentlemen, if you find that any persons have resisted these laws, then 
must you, under your oaths, find bills against such persons for high treason. 
If you find that no such resistance has been made, but that combinations have 
been formed for the purpose of resisting them, and individuals of influence and 
notoriety have been aiding and abetting in such combinations, then must you 
still find bills for constructive treason, as the courts have decided that to con- 
stitute treason the blow need not be struck, but only the ■intention be made 
evident." 

The grand jury accordingly made a presentment, as follows : 

" The grand jury, sitting for the adjourned term of the first district court 



720 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

in and for the county of Douglas, in the territory of Kansas, beg leave to re- 
port to the honorable court that, from evidence laid before them, showing that 
the newspaper known as The Herald of Freedom, published at the town of 
Lawrence, has from time to time issued publications of the most inflammatory 
and seditious character, denying the legality of the territorial authorities, ad- 
dressing and commanding forcible resistance to the same, demoralizing the 
popular mind, and rendering life and property uusafe, even to the extent of ad- 
vising assassination as a last .resort : 

" Also, that the paper known as The Kansas Free State has been similarly 
engaged, and has recently reported the resolutions of a public meeting in John- 
son county, in this territory, in which resistance to the territorial laivs, even 
unto blood, has been agreed upon ; and that we respectfully recommend their 
abatement as a nuisance. Also, that we are satisfied that the building known 
as the ' Free State Hotel,' in Lawrence, has been constructed with the view to 
military occupation and defense, regularly parapeted and port-holed for the 
use of cannon and small arms, and could only have been designed as a strong- 
hold of resistance to law, thereby endangering the public safaty, and encourag- 
ing rebellion and sedition in this country ; and respectfully recommend that 
steps may be taken whereby this nuisance may be removed. 

" Owen C. Stewart, Foreman." 

In order to accomplish the objects of this presentment, a number of writs 
were made out and placed in the hands of the marshal for the arrest of promi- 
nent citizens of that place. Although it is asserted that no attempts were 
made to resist the marshal's deputies in serving these writs, the marshal, on the 
11th of May, issued the following proclamation: 
" To the People of Kansas Territory : 

" Whereas, certain judicial writs of arrest have been directed to me by the 
first district court of the Uuited States, etc., to be executed within the county 
of Douglas ; and whereas, an attempt to execute them by the United States 
deputy marshal was evidently resisted by a large number of the citizens of 
Lawrence, and as there is every reason to believe that any attempt to execute 
these writs will be resisted by a large body of armed meu ; now, therefore, the 
law-abidiug citizens of the territory are commanded to be aud appear at Le- 
comjiton, as soon as practicable, aud in numbers sufficient for the execution of 
the law. 

" Given under my hand, this 11th day of May, 1856. 

"I B. DONALSON, 

" United States Marshal for Kansas Territory.' 1 '' 

Previous to the publication of this proclamation, Buford's Alabama, South 
Carolina, and Georgia regiment, and other armed bands, had taken up posi- 
tions in the vicinity of Lawrence, who were not only committing depredations 
upon the property of the settlers, but were intercepting, robbing, and impris- 
oning travelers on the public thoroughfares, and threatening to attack the 
town, in consequence of which a meeting was held, and a committee appointed 



OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 721 

to address Gov. Shannon, stating the facts in gentle terms, and asking his pro- 
tection against snch bauds by the United States troops at his disposal. 

To this respectful application the committee received the following reply: 

" Gentlemen : Your note of the 11th inst. is received, and, iu reply, I have 
to state that there is uo force around or approaching Lawrence, except the le- 
gally constituted posse of the United States marshal aud sheriff of Douglas 
county, each of whom, I am informed, have a number of writs in their hands 
for execution against persons now in Lawrence. I shall in no way interfere 
with either of these officers in the discharge of their official duties. 

" If the citizens of Lawrence submit themselves to the territorial laws, and 
aid and assist the marshal and sheriff in the execution of processes in their 
hands, as all good citizens are bound to do when called on, they, or all such, 
will entitle themselves to the protection of the law. But so long as they keep 
up a military or armed organization to resist the territorial laws and the offi- 
cers charged with their execution, I shall not interpose to save them from the 
legitimate consequences of their illegal acts. 

" I have the honor to be yours, with great respect, 

" Wilson Shannon." 

Still desirous of averting the impending difficulties, the citizens of Law- 
rence held another meeting on the 13th, when the following preamble aud re- 
solution were adopted, copies of which were immediately forwarded to Marshal 
Donalson and Governor Shannon : 

" Whereas, by a proclamation to the people of Kansas territory, by I. B. 
Donalson, United States Marshal for said territory, issued on the 11th day of 
May, 1856, it is alleged that 'certain judicial writs of arrest have been direct- 
ed to him by the first district court of the United States, etc., to be executed 
within the county of Douglas, and that an attempt to execute them by the 
United States deputy marshal was violently resisted by a large number of the 
citizens of Lawrence, and that there is every reason to believe that any attempt 
to execute said writs will be resisted by a large body of armed men ' ; there- 
fore, 

" Resolved, by this public meeting of the citizens of Lawrence, held this 
thirteenth day of May, 1856, that the allegations and charges against us, con- 
tained in the aforesaid proclamation, are wholly untrue in fact, and the con- 
clusion which is drawn from them. The aforesaid deputy marshal was resisted 
in no manner whatever, nor by any person whatever, in the execution of said 
writs, except by him whose arrest the said deputy marshal was seeking to make. 
And that we now, as we have done heretofore, declare our willingness and de- 
termination, without resistance, to acquiesce in the service upon us of any ju- 
dicial writs against us by the United States deputy marshal for Kansas terri- 
tory, and will furnish him with a posse for that purpose, if so requested ; but 
that we are ready to resist, if need be, unto death, the ravages and desolation 
of an invading mob. J- A. Wakefield, President." 

On the 1 4th, "till another meeting was held at Lawrence, and a letter, signed 



722 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

by a large and respectable committee appointed for that purpose, was sent to 
the marshal, in which it was affirmed " that no opposition will now, or at any 
future time, be offered to the execution of any legal process by yourself, or any 
person acting for you. We also pledge ourselves to assist you, if called upon, 
in the execution of any legal process. 

" We declare ourselves to be order-loving and law-abiding citizens ; and 
only await an opportunity to testify our fidelity to the laws of the country, the 
constitution, and the Union. 

" We are informed, also, that those men collecting about Lawrence openly 
declare that it is their intention to destroy the town and drive off the citizens. 
Of course we do not believe you give any countenance to such threats ; but, in 
view of the excited state of the public mind, we ask protection of the consti- 
tuted authorities of the government, declaring ourselves in readiness to coope- 
rate with them for the maintenance of the peace, order, and quiet of the com- 
munity in which we live." 

In reply to this, the marshal sends a lengthy communication, which he closes 
with these words : 

"You say you call upon the constituted authorities of the government for 
protection. This, indeed, sounds strange from a large body of men armed with 
Sharpe's rifles, and other implements of war, bound together by oaths and 
pledges, to resist the laws of the government they call on for protection. All 
persons in Kansas territory, without regard to location, who honestly submit 
to the constituted authorities, will ever find me ready to aid in protecting them; 
and all who seek to resist the laws of the land, and turn traitors to their coun- 
try, will find me aiding and enforcing the laws, if not as an officer, as a citizen." 

Whilst these documents were passing, the roads were blockaded by the mar- 
shal's posse of southern volunteers, upon which no man without a passport 
could safely venture. Captain Samuel Walker, who had carried one of the 
above-mentioned letters to Lecompton, was fired upon on his return to Law- 
rence. Mr. Miller, who with two others had gone up to negotiate with the 
governor for an amicable adjustment of the pending troubles, was taken pris- 
oner by a detachment of Buford's South Carolinians near Lecompton, who, 
knowing him to have been from their own state, tried him for treason and sen- 
tenced him to be hung. He contrived, somehow, to get away with the loss of 
his horse and purse. Mr. Weaver, a sergeant-at-arms of the congressional 
committee, was arrested while in the discharge of his duty, and carried across 
the Kansas river, to the South Carolinian camp, where, after a critical exami- 
nation of his papers, he was discovered to be in the service of the United 
States, and released, the officer in command giving him a pass, and kindly ad- 
vising him to answer promptly, if challenged, otherwise he might be shot. 
Outrages of this kind became so frequent that all travel was at last suspended. 
On the l?th of May, the citizens of Lawrence, through a committee, again 
addressed the United States marshal in the words of the following letter : 
" I. B. Donalson, U. S. Marshal of K. T. 
" Dear Sir : We desire to call your attention, as citizens of Kansas, to the 



THE MARSHAL'S ARMY. 723 

fact that a large force of armed men have collected in the vicinity of Lawrence, 
and are engaged in committing depredations upon our citizens ; stopping wag- 
ons, arresting, threatening and robbing unoffending travelers on the highway, 
breaking open boxes of merchandise and appropriating the contents ; have 
slaughtered cattle, and terrified many of the women and children. 

"We also learned from governor Shannon, 'that there are no armed forces 
in the vicinity of this place but the regular constituted militia of the territory; 
this is to ask if you recognize them as your posse, and feel responsible for their 
acts. If you do not, we hope and trust you will prevent a repetition of such 
acts, and give peace to the settlers." Signed by the citizens. 

To this communication no reply was given. ''In the meantime, prepara- 
tions were going forward, and vigorously prosecuted, for the sacking of Law- 
rence.* The pro-slavery people were to 'wipe out' this ill-fated town under 
authority of law. They had received the countenance of the president — the 
approbation of the chief-justice — the favorable presentment of the grand 
jury — the concurrence of the governor — the orders of the marshal, — and were 
prepared to consummate their purpose with the arms of the government, in the 
hands of a militia force gathered from the remotest sections of the Union. 
They concentrated their troops in large numbers around the doomed city, steal- 
ing, or, as they termed it, ' pressing into the service,' all the horses they could 
find belonging to free-state men, whose cattle were also slaughtered, without 
remuneration, to feed the marshal's forces ; and their stores and dwellings bro- 
ken open and robbed of arms, provisions, blankets and clothing. The mar- 
shal's army had a host of commanders. There was general Atchison, with 
the Missouri Platte county rifles, and two pieces of artillery ; captain Dunn, 
with the Kickapoo Rangers ; general Stringfellow, and colonel Abel, his law- 
partner, aided by doctor John H. Stringfellow, and Robert S. Kelly, editors 
of the Squatter Sovereign, with the forces from Doniphin, Atchison and 
Leavenworth ; colonel Boone, with sundry aids, at the head of companies from 
"Westport, Liberty and Independence ; colonels Wilkes and Buford, with the 
Carolinians, Georgians and Mississippians ; colonel H. T. Titus, in command 
of the Douglas county militia ; and many others too numerous to mention. 
On the 19th of May, while these forces were collecting for the destruction of 
Lawrence, a young man from Illinois, named Jones, had been to a store near 
Blanton's bridge, to purchase flour, when he was attacked by two of the mar- 
shal's party, who were out as scouts. To escape these men, Jones dismounted 
and entered the store, into which they followed, and there abused him. He 
again mounted his horse and started for home, the others following, and swear- 
ing that the d— d abolitionist should not escape. When near the bridge, they 
leveled their guns ( United States muskets, ) and fired. Jones fell mortally 
wounded, and soon expired. On the following morning, several young men, 
hearing of this transaction, left Lawrence to visit the scene of the tragedy. 
One of these was named Stewart, who had but recently arrived from the 



*Gihon's History of Kansas. 



724 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

state of New York. They had gone about a mile aud a half, when they met 
two men, armed with Sharpe's rifles. Some words passed between them, when 
the two strangers raised their rifles, and, taking deliberate aim at Stewart, 
fired. One of the balls entered his temple. The work of death was instantly 
accomplished. Soon after sunrise, on the morning of the 21st, an advanced 
guard of the marshal's army consisting of about 200 horsemen, appeared on 
the top of Mount Oread, on the outskirts of Lawrence, where their cannon 
had been stationed late on the preceding night. The town was quiet, and 
the citizens had determined to submit without resistance to any outrage that 
might be perpetrated. About seven o'clock, doctor Robinson's house, which 
stood on the side of the hill, was taken possession of, and used as the head 
quarters of the invaders. At eight o'clock, the main body of the army posted 
themselves on the outer edge of the town. Deputy marshal Fain, with ten 
men, entered Lawrence, and, without molestation, served the writs in his pos- 
session, and arrested judge G. W. Smith and G. W. Deitzler. Fain and his 
companions dined at the free-state hotel, and afterwards returned to the army 
on Mount Oread. The marshal then dismissed his monster posse, telling them 
he had no further use for them. It was three o'clock in the afternoon, when 
sheriff Jones rode rapidly into Lawrence, at the head of twenty-five mounted 
men ; and as he passed along the line of the troops, he was received with 
deafening shouts of applause. His presence was the signal for action, and a 
sanction for the outrages that ensued. Atchison addressed his forces, and then 
marched the whole column to within a short distance of the hotel, where they 
halted. Jones now informed colonel Eldridge, the proprietor, that the hotel 
must be destroyed ; he was acting under orders ; he had writs issued by the 
first district court of the United States to destroy the free-state Hotel, and 
the offices of the Herald of Freedom and Free Press. The grand jury at 
Lecompton had indicted them as nuisances, and the court had ordered them 
to be destroyed. He gave colonel Eldridge an hour and a half to remove his 
family and furniture, after which time the demolition commenced, and was 
prosecuted with an earnestness that would have done credit to a better cause. 
In the meantime the newspaper offices had been assailed, the presses broken to 
pieces, and these, with the type and other material, thrown into the Kansas 
river. Whilst the work of destruction was going on at the printing offices, 
the bombardment of the hotel, a strongly constructed three-story stone building, 
commenced. Kegs of gunpowder had been placed inside and the house fired 
in numerous places ; and whilst the flames were doing their destructive work 
within, heavy cannon were battering against the walls without ; and amid the 
crackling of the conflagration, the noise of falling walls and timbers, and the 
roar of the artillery, were mingled almost frantic yells of satisfaction. And 
then followed scenes of reckless pillage and wanton destruction in all parts of 
that ill-fated town. Stores were broken into and plundered of their contents. 
Bolts and bars were no obstacles to the entrance of drunken and infuriated 
men into private dwellings, from which most of the inhabitants had fled in ter- 
ror. From these everything of value was stolen, and much that was useless to 



GUERILLA BAJfDS. 725 

the marauders was destroyed. The closing act of this frightful drama was the 
burning of the house of doctor Robinson on the brow of Mount Oread. Thifl 
was set on tire after the suu had gone down, and the bright light which its 
flames shed over the country illuminated the paths of the retreating army, as 
they proceeded towards their homes. 

" After the sacking of Lawrence, parties of free-state men were organized 
and armed with the determination to continue the war which had now begun in 
earnest. Some of these committed depredations upon their political opponents 
utider the pretense of recovering horses and other property of which them- 
selves and neighbors had been robbed. They attacked the pro-slavery men in 
the roads and at their dwellings, and committed most flagrant outrages. 
These organizations and their actions were condemned by the prominent and 
more respectable portions of the free-state party, and very few of the actual 
settlers of the territory had any lot or part in their proceedings. They were 
chiefly composed of men of desperate fortunes, who were actuated in many 
instances as much by a disposition to plunder as from a spirit of retaliation 
and revenge for insults and injuries they had received. A detachment of one 
of these parties, eight in number, secreted themselves in a ravine near the 
Santa Fe road, where they laid in wait for a company of eighteen pro-slavery 
men who they had understood were coming in that direction on a marauding 
expedition, and as they approached, a fire was poured into them from their 
ambushed enemies, killing three and wounding several more. The remainder, 
not knowing the strength of their assailants, fled in dismay. Other instances 
of the kind were constantly occurring. Indeed, it seems as though each party 
was determined to vie with the other in the number of outrages it could com- 
mit. Captain John Brown, who lived near Ossawattomie, was the leader 
of one of these free-state guerilla bands. He was a Vermonter by birth, an 
old soldier, and had served through the war of 1812. He was a resolute, de- 
termined and brave old man ; but fierce, passionate, revengeful and inexorable. 
His hatred for the border-ruffians had reached so high a degree, that he could 
emulate the worst of them in acts of cruelty, whilst not one of them was his 
equal as a tactician, or possessed as much courage and daring. Hence his 
name soon became a terror, and not a few unsuccessful attempts were made to 
effect his capture. Brown is said to have been the leader of a band, who on 
the night of the 26th of May, attacked a pro-slavery settlement at Pottawat- 
tomie, and cruelly murdered a Mr. Doyle and his two sons, Mr. "Wilkinson and 
Win. Sherman. The excuse given for this act is, that the persons killed were 
there assembled to assassinate and burn the houses of certain free-state men, 
whom they had notified to quit the neighborhood. These five men were seized 
and disarmed, a sort of trial was had, and in conformity with the sentence 
passed, were shot in cold blood. This was doubtless an act of retaliation for 
the work done but a few days before at Lawrence. Captain H. C. Pate, who 
was in command of a predatory band of about sixty Missourians, called 
' Shannon's Sharp Shooters,' resolved to capture Capt. John Brown, and 
with this intent visited Ossawattomie on the last day of May. Brown was 



726 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

absent, and Captain Pate succeeded without resistance, in taking prisoners two 
of his sons, whom he found engaged in their peaceful occupations. Captain 
Pate's men burned the store of a German named Winer, who was supposed to 
have been in the Pottawatomie affair, and also the house of young John Brown, 
the Captain's son. After committing these and other depredations upon the 
free-state settlers, the most of whose houses they entered and robbed, Pate and 
his company left the place, taking with them their prisoners. These they de- 
livered to a company of United States dragoons, whom they found encamped 
on the Middle Ottawa Creek. When Captain Brown learned of the visit of 
Pate, he gathered a company of about thirty men, and hastening in pursuit, 
overtook him on the 2d of June, near Palmyra, ubout fifteen miles from Law- 
rence. Pate was encamped when Brown appeared, and having been informed 
of his approach, had fortified his camp by drawing together some heavy wag- 
ons. Brown soon made his arrangements, and notwithstanding the disparity 
of their forces, commenced the attack, when a spirited battle ensued. This 
lasted about three hours, when Captain Pate sent out a flag of truce, and un- 
conditionally surrendered. Some of his men had ridden off during the fight, 
as was also the case with some of Brown's command. Several were severely 
wounded on both sides, but none were killed. Brown took thirty-one prisoners, 
a large number of horses, some wagons, arms, munitions, and a considerable 
amount of plunder that had been seized at various places by Pate's men. 
Soon after the surrender of Pate, Brown was reinforced by Captain Abbott, 
with a company of fifty men from the Wakarusa, who had come to his assis- 
tance. Whilst Brown was in pursuit of Captain Pate with the free-state men 
from Ossawattomie, other parties from Lawrence and the Wakarusa were 
planning an attack on Franklin, where a number of the pro-slavery rangers 
had remained, since the sacking of Lawrence. Franklin is about four miles 
from the latter town, near the Wakarusa, and on the road to Westport. It 
was a sort of Missouri headquarters, where the forces were accustomed to as- 
semble whenever a descent upon Lawrence was contemplated. Having settled 
the preliminaries to their satisfaction, a company of the attacking party entered 
Franklin about two o'clock on the morning of June 4th. The night was ex- 
tremely dark, and everything in and about the town was wrapped in the most 
profound stillness. Yet the pro-slavery forces had been apprised of the in- 
tended visit, and were prepared to give the intruders a warm reception. The 
latter, numbering about fifteen men, proceeded directly to the guard-house and 
demanded a surrender, which was answered by the discharge of a cannon 
planted in the door, that had been loaded heavily with every imaginable sort 
of missile that could be crammed into its muzzle. The noise of the explosion 
was like the loud roar of thunder in the very midst of the town. Fortunately 
for the assailants, the gun was not properly pointed, and its infernal contents 
passed harmless over their heads. Then came on the battle. A volley from 
the Sharpe's rifles of the free-state men was poured into the guard-room door, 
simultaneously with which, many shots came down from the neighboring 
nouses. The attacking party threw themselves upon the ground, and without 



HICKORY POINT. 727 

any regular order, kept up a random fire as rapidly as they could load their 
pieces, their enemies constantly returning their shots. In the meantime, re- 
inforcements entered the town, but in consequence of the extreme darkness 
and the uncertainty of the positions of the contending forces, they could take 
no part in the fight, not being able to distinguish their foes from their friends. 
They nevertheless made the best of their time, having broken into the stores 
and loaded their wagon, which had been brought for the purpose, with ammu- 
nition, rifles, guns, provisions and such other articles as they desired, the greater 
part of which were Buford's stores, previously captured from free-state people. 
The firing continued on both sides until nearly daylight, when the pro-slavery 
men retired, leaving their enemies in possession of the town. In this affair a 
pro-slavery man named Teschmaker was killed, and three or four wounded. 
One man had his ear shot off. The assailants received no injury whatever. 
One remarkable feature in all these Kansas battles, is, that although many per- 
sons were sometimes engaged, who fought with passions inflamed to the most 
violent pitch, the loss on either side was almost invariably quite insignificant. 
Those who suffered death were generally murdered, not in the heat of battle, 
but deliberately and in cold blood, when the fights were over. General Whit- 
field, in the meantime, had collected a large force, chiefly from Jackson county, 
Mo., with which, accompanied by General Reid, and other prominent mem- 
bers of his party, professedly to relieve Captain Pate, and attack and capture 
Brown, he entered the territory and encamped near Palmyra. Whilst this 
army was assembling, the free-state bands were also concentrating and moving 
towards the same neighborhood. These latter, says one of their own writers, 
' were a harum-scarum set, as brave as steel, mostly mere boys, and did not 
consider it a sin to ' press ' a pro-slavery man's horse. At various times they 
have made more disturbance than all other free-state men together. They 
were under no particular restraint, and did not recognise any authority — mili- 
tary, civil, or otherwise — any further than suited their convenience. While 
they went around the country skirmishing, and carrying on the war against the 
pro-slavery men on their own hook, and in their own time and way, they were 
at the same time quite willing to lend a hand in more systematic and impor- 
tant fighting when there was an opportunity. These boys have been most bit- 
terly maligned, and the free state men, or conservative free-state men, were not 
slow to denounce them. Resolutions were passed by the sensitively moral free- 
state people, or the sensitively timid, declaring that these daring young guer- 
illas were a nuisance, and that they, the conservative class, did not wish to be 
held responsible for them. To all this moralizing these young braves turned 
up their noses, ironically recommending all who were too cowardly to fight to 
' keep right on the record.' For their own part they regarded the war as be- 
gun, and would wage it against the pro-slavery men as the pro-slavery men 
waged it against their free-state friends.' This was the state of affairs near 
Hickory Point on the morning of the 5th of June. Whitfield was encamped - 
behind Palmyra with near three hundred men. . The free-state camps mustered, 
on mustering on that day, were about two hundred strong, and two companies 



728 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

were marching from Topeka with fifty more, who arrived the day after. The 
governor, in view of this condition of things, issued a proclamation on the 4th, 
' commanding all persons belonging to military companies unauthorized by law 
to disperse, otherwise they would be dispersed by United States troops.' Col. 
Sumner, at the head of a large force of dragoons, proceeded towards Hickory 
Point to enforce the order. He went directly to the camp of Brown, on Ot- 
tawa Creek, who consented to disband, but not until he was assured that Whit- 
field's army should be dispersed. Pate and the other prisoners were then set at 
liberty, and their horses, arms and other property restored. Captain Pate re- 
ceived a severe rebuke for invading the territory without authority, and espe- 
cially for being in possession of the United States arms. Col. Sumner next 
visited the camp of Whitfield, who promised to return with his men to Missouri, 
and at once moved down the Santa Fe road, and encamped about five miles 
below Palmyra on the Black Jack. Early on the following morning, June 6th, 
this army separated into two divisions, one-half of it under General Reid, with 
Captain Pate, Bell, Jenigen, and other prominent leaders, moving towards 
Ossawattomie, whilst the others under Whitfield, started for Westport. They 
had, in their march on the day previous, taken several prisoners, and before 
they divided, held a court among themselves and tried one of these, a free- 
state man named Cantral, whom they sentenced to death, carried into a deep 
ravine near by, and shot. The executioner in this case is said to have been a 
man named Forman, of Pate's company, belonging to Westport, Missouri. 
On the 7th, Reid, with one hundred and seventy men, marched into Ossawatto- 
mie, and without resistance, entered each house, robbing it of everything of 
value. There were but few men in the town, and the women aud children 
were treated with the utmost brutality. Stores and dwellings were alike en- 
tered and pillaged. Trunks, boxes, and desks were broken open, and their 
contents appropriated or destroyed. Even rings were rudely pulled from the 
ears and fingers of the women, and some of the apparel from their persons. 
The liquor found was freely drunk, and served to incite the plunderers to in- 
creased violence in the prosecution of their mischievous work. Having com- 
pletely stripped the town, they set fire to several houses, and then beat a 
rapid retreat, carrying off a number of horses, and loudly urging each other to 
greater haste, as ' the d — d abolitionists were coming 1' There are hundreds 
of well authenticated accounts of the cruelties practiced by this horde of 
ruffians, some of them too shocking and disgusting to relate, or to be accred- 
ited if told. The tears and shrieks of terrified women failed to touch a chord 
of mercy, and the mutilated bodies of murdered men, hanging upon the trees, or 
left to rot upon the prairies or in the deep ravines, or furnish food for vultures 
and wild beasts, told frightful stories of brutal ferocity." 

An Indian agent named Gay, was traveling in the vicinity of Westport, and 
was stopped by a party of Buford's men, who asked if he was in favor of 
making Kansas a free state. He promptly answered in the affirmative, and 
was instantly shot dead. Whilst these events were transpiring on the south 
side of the Kansas river, Col. Wilkes, Captain Emory, and other prominent 



OSSAWATTOMIE AND FRANKLIN. 729 

pro-slavery men, were actively employed in persecuting the free-state citizens 
of Leavenworth. Notices were served on them to quit the city ; some were 
violently seized and imprisoned, and still others carried to the levee, having 
been deprived of all their property and the greater part of their clothing, 
placed on board of steamers, and thus compelled to leave the country. At the 
same time the steamboats coming up the river continued to be boarded at every 
stopping place, the free-state passengers insulted, their trunks broken open 
and robbed, and their arms taken from them ; after which they were put upon 
return boats, and forced to go back. 

In August, 1856, the- troubles in the territory reached their culminating 
point. The free state immigrants had opened a new route into the territory 
through Nebraska and Iowa, and large and well-armed companies came pour- 
ing in, many of them of irreproachable character, who came to the relief of the 
oppressed ; and others of desperate fortunes, eager to take part in the disturb- 
ances, from a spirit of revenge or a love of the excitement ; and still others, 
perhaps for the sole purpose of plunder. These bands were generally under 
the direction of Lane,Tledpath, Perry, and other prominent free state leaders. 
The pro-slavery marauders south of the Kansas river had established and forti- 
fied themselves at the town of Franklin ; at a fort thrown up near Osawat- 
tomie ; at another on Washington Creek, twelve miles from Lawrence ; and at 
Col. Titus' house, on the border of Lecompton. From these strongholds they 
would sally fort\ " press " horses and cattle, intercept the mails, rob stores and 
dwellings, plunder travellers, burn houses, and destroy crops. The fort near 
Osawattomie, in consequence of outrages committed in the neighborhood, and 
at the solicitation of the settlers, was attacked by a company of free state men 
from Lawrence, on the 5th of August. A party of Georgians who held this 
position, upon the approach of the enemy, fled without firing a gun, leaving 
behind a large quantity of plunder. The fort was then taken and demolished. 
The defeated party retreated to the fort at "Washington Creek, and thence con- 
tinued their depredations upon the neighboring inhabitants. On the 11th, the 
people of Lawrence sent Major D. S. Hoyt, a peaceable man, who was greatly 
respected, to thL camp to endeavor to make some sort of amicable arrange- 
ment with Col. Treadwell, the commander. On his way home he was waylaid 
and shot, his body being fairly riddled with bullets. This news so enraged the 
people of Lawrence, that on the 12th they attacked the pro-slavery post at 
Franklin. The enemy was strongly fortified in a block-house, and had one 
brass sis-pounder. This battle lasted three hours, and was conducted with 
great spirit on both sides. The free state men, at length, drew a wagon load 
of hay against the house, and were about to set it on fire, when the inmates 
cried for quarter. They then threw down their arms and fled. In this engage- 
ment the free state men had one killed and six wounded. The other side had 
four severely wounded, one of them mortally. The cannon taken was one that 
had been used to batter down the walls of the Lawrence hotel. A general 
panic seized the Missouri and other southern intruders, on learning these 
repeated free state successes. On the 15th, the Georgian camp at Washington 
47 



730 TROUBLES m KANSAS. 

Creek broke up in great confusion, its occupants flying in hot haste as the 
Lawrence forces approached. This fort was entered without resistance ; large 
quantities of provisions and goods taken at Lawrence were recovered ; the 
building was set on fire and entirely consumed. The next blow was struck at 
Col. Titus' fortified house, near Lecompton. Lecompton was the stronghold 
of the pro-slavery party. It was the capital of the territory, the headquarters 
of Governor Shannon, and within two miles of the house of Titus, a large 
force of United States dragoons was encamped. Captain Samuel Walker, a 
Penusylvaniau, commanded the attacking army With about four hundred 
men and one brass six-pounder, he took up a position upon an elevated piece 
of ground near the house, soon after sunrise on the morning of the 16th of 
August. The fight, which was a spirited one, immediately commenced, and 
resulted in the capture of Titus, Capt. William Donaldson (who also had ren- 
dered himself notorious at the sacking of Lawrence and elsewhere), and of 
eighteen others. Five prisoners, previously taken by Titus' party, were 
released, one of whom had been sentenced to be shot that very day. One of 
his men was killed in this engagement, and several others wounded. Titus 
was shot in the shoulder and hand. Walker's cannon was loaded with slugs 
and balls cast from the type of the Herald of Freedom, fished out of the 
Kansas river, where it had been thrown on the day that Lawrence was sacked. 
Walker set fire to the house of Titus, which was completely destroyed, and 
carried his prisoners to Lawrence. On the lTth of August, Governor Shan- 
non, Dr. Rodrique, and Major Sedgwick visited Lawrence, as a committee from 
Lecompton, to make a treaty. It was agreed that no more arrests should be 
made of free state people under the territorial laws ; that five free state men 
arrested after the attack on Franklin, should be set at liberty ; and that the 
howitzer taken by Jones from Lawrence, should be restored. On the 17th, a 
shocking affair occured in the neighborhood of Leavenworth. Two ruffians 
sat at a table in a low groggery, imbibing potations of whiskey. One of them, 
named Fugert, belonging to Atchison's band, bet his companion six dollars 
against a pair of boots, that he would go out, and in less than two hours bring 
in the scalp of an abolitionist. He went into the road, and meeting a Mr. 
Hoppe, who was in his carriage, just returning to Leavenworth from a visit to 
Lawrence, where he had conveyed his wife, Fugert deliberately shot him ; then 
taking out his bowie-knife, whilst his victim was still alive, he cut and tore off 
the scalp from his quivering head. Leaving the body of Hoppe lying in the 
road, he elevated his bloody trophy upon a pole, and paraded it through the 
streets of Leavenworth. This murderer was afterwards arrested, tried before 
Judge Lecompte, and acquitted. 

Governor Shannon receiving official notice of his removal, Secretary Wood- 
son took charge of the government. He forthwith issued a proclamation, 
declaring the territory in a state of rebellion and insurrection, and called for 
help from Missouri, to drive out and exterminate the destroyers of the public 
peace. Atchison and Stringfellow soon responded to this call, and concen- 
trated an army of eleven hundred men at Little Santa Fe, on the Missouri 



ATCHISON AND LANE. 731 

border. A detachment of Atchison's army, under Gen. Reid, numbering 
about three hundred men, with one piece of artillery, attacked Osawattomie 
on the 30th of August. Brown was in command at the time, and, having only 
between thirty and forty men, he retreated to the timber on the river or creek 
known as Marias Des Cygnes. The battle which ensued lasted about three 
hours, Brown having a decided advantage. He was overpowered, however, 
by superior numbers, and driven to the river, in crossing which ho suffered 
some loss from the enemy. After the retreat of Brown, Reid's forces burned 
some twenty or thirty houses, robbed the post office and stores, took possession 
of all the horses, cattle, and wagons in town, and committed many other dep- 
redations. They found a man named Garrison concealed in the woods, whom 
they killed, and wounded another by the name of Cutter, whom they supposed 
to be dead, but who has since recovered. A Mr. Williams, a pro-slavery man, 
was murdered by them in mistake. 

On the day of the battle at Osawattomie, Lane, with about three hundred 
men, marched in pursuit of Atchison, who was encamped with the main body 
of his army on Bull Greek. Atchison would not stop to fight, but retreated 
into Missouri, and Lane on the following day returned to Lawrence. Whilst 
these things were occurring, a party of pro-slavery men entered the Quaker 
Mission, on the Lawrence road, near Westport, plundered it of everything 
worth carrying away, and brutally treated the occupants. At the same time, 
Woodson's " territorial militia, " were amusing themselves by burning the 
houses of the free state settlers between Lecompton and Lawrence. Seven 
buildings were destroyed, among which were the dwellings of Capt. Walker 
and Judge Wakefield. Because of these outrages, and the seizure of some 
free state prisoners, Lane, with a large force, proceeded to Lecompton, on 
September 4th, and before any intimation was received by the citizens, his can- 
non was frowning upon their houses from the summit of Court House hill. 
Gen. Richardson, who was in command of the pro-slavery forces, refused to 
defend the town, having no confidence in the courage of the inhabitants, who 
were flying in all directions, in confusion and alarm, and he therefore resigned 
his commission. Gen. Marshall being next in command, held a parley with 
Lane, who demanded the liberation of free state prisoners. This was agreed 
to. Lane returned to Lawrence, and the next day the prisoners came down 
with an escort of United States dragoons. At Leavenworth and vicinity, out- 
rages had been renewed, and were being committed, if possible, with increased 
ferocity. As Governor Shannon afterwards remarked, " the roads were liter- 
ally strewn with dead bodies." A United States officer discovered a number 
of slaughtered men, thirteen, it is stated, lying unburied, who had been seized 
and brained, some of them being shot in the forehead, and others down through 
the top of the skull, whilst some were cut with hatchets, and their bodies shock- 
ingly and disgustingly mutilated. On the first of September, Capt. Frederick 
Emory, a United States mail contractor, rendered himself conspicuous in Lea- 
venworth, at the head of a band of ruffians, mostly from Western Missouri. 
They entered houses, stores, and dwellings of free state people, and, in the 



732 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

name of " law and order," abused and robbed the occupants, and drove them 
out into the roads, irrespective of age, sex, or condition. Under pretence ot 
searching for arms, they approached the house of William Phillips, the lawyer 
who had previously been tarred and feathered and carried to Missouri. Phil- 
lips, supposing he was to be subjected to a similar outrage, and resolved not 
to submit to the indignity, stood upon his defence. In repelling the assaults 
of the mob, he killed two of them, when the others burst into the house, and 
poured a volley of balls into his body, killing him instantly, in the presence of 
his wife and another lady. His brother, who was also present, had an arm 
badly broken with bullets, and was compelled to submit to an amputation. 
Fifty of the free state prisoners were then driven on board the Polar Star, 
bound for St. Louis On the next day a hundred more were embarked by 
Emory and his men, on the steamboat Emma. 

In July, 1856, Col. John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, was appointed by 
the president governor of the territory. His appointment was confirmed unan, 
imously by the senate. In September, he started for Kansas, and on the 6th 
of that month he held a consultation at Jefferson City with Governor Price, of 
Missouri, relative to the affairs of the territory, and to whom he unfolded his 
plans. Measures mutually approved were adopted to clear the Missouri river 
for the unobstructed transit of free state emigrants to Kansas. On Sunday, 
the 7th, Gov. Geary arrived at Glasgow, in Missouri. In company with the 
governor was his private secretary, J. H. Gihon, who, since his return, has pub- 
lished a history of the proceedings in the territory during the administration 
of Gov. Geary. " On approaching the town of Glasgow," says Mr. Gihon, 
" a most stirring scene was presented. The entire population of the city and 
surrounding neighborhood was assembled upon the high bank overlooking the 
river, and all appeared to be laboring under a state of extraordinary excite- 
ment. Whites and blacks — men, women, and children, of all ages, were crowd- 
ed together in one confused mass, or hurrying hither and yon, as though some 
terrible event was about to transpire. A large brass-field-piece was mounted 
in a prominent position, and ever and anon belched forth a fiery flame and deaf- 
ened the ear with its thundering warlike sounds. When the Keystone touched 
the landing, a party of about sixty, comprising Captain Jackson's company of 
Missouri volunteers for the Kansas militia, descended the hill, dragging their 
cannon with them, and ranged themselves along the shore ; the captain, after 
numerous attempts, failing to get them into what might properly be termed a 
line. He got them into as good a military position as possible, by backing 
them up against the foot of the hill. They were as raw and undisciplined a 
set of recruits as ever shouldered arms. Their ages varied, through every gra- 
dation, from the smooth-faced half-grown boy to the gray-bearded old man ; 
whilst their dresses, which differed as much as their ages, gave unmistakable 
evidences that they belonged to any class of society except that usually termed 
respectable. Each one carried some description of fire-arm, not two of which 
were alike. There were muskets, carbines, rifles, shot-guns, and pistols of 
every size, quality, shape, and style. Some of them were in good condition, 



RECRUITS. 733 

but others were never intended for use, and still others unfit to shoot robins or 
tomtits. 

" Whilst these parting ceremonies were being performed, a steamboat, bound 
down the river, and directly from Kansas, came alongside the Keystone. Ex- 
governor Shannon was a passenger, who, upon learning the close proximity of 
Gov. Geary, sought an immediate interview with him. The ex-governor was 
greatly agitated. He had fled in haste and terror from the territory, and 
seemed still to be laboring under an apprehension for his personal safety. His 
description of Kansas was suggestive of everything that is frightful and horri- 
ble. Its condition was deplorable in the extreme. The whole territory was in 
a state of insurrection, and a destructive civil war was devastating the country. 
Murder ran rampant, and the roads were everywhere strewn with the bodies of 
slaughtered men. No language can exaggerate the awful picture that was 
drawn ; and a man of less nerve than Gov. Geary, believing it not too highly 
colored, would instantly have taken the backward track, rather than rush upon 
the dangers so eloquently and fearfully portrayed. 

" During this interview, Captain Jackson embarked his company, cannon, 
wagons, arms and ammunition on board the Keystone, and soon after, she was 
again on her way. Opportunities now occurred for conversation with the vol- 
unteers. Very few of them had any definite idea of the nature of the enter- 
prise in which they had embarked. The most they seemed to understand about 
the matter was, that they were to receive so much per diem for going to Kan- 
sas to hunt and kill abolitionists. They seemed to apprehend no danger to 
themselves, as they had been told the abolitionists would not fight ; but being 
overawed by the numbers and warlike appearance of their adversaries, would 
escape as rapidly as possible out of the territory, leaving behind them any 
quantity of land, horses, clothing, arms, goods and chattels, all of which was 
to be divided among the victors. 

" The Keystone no sooner touched the shore at Kansas City, than she was 
boarded by half a dozen or more of the leading ruffians, who dashed through 
the cabins and over the decks, inspecting the passengers and the state-rooms 
to satisfy themselves that no abolitionists were on board. She remained at 
Kansas City only long enough for Captain Jackson to land his company with 
its paraphernalia of war, and to undergo a thorough inspection of the border 
ruffian inquisitors, when she proceeded up the river for Fort Leavenworth. 
She left Kansas City late on the evening of the 8th, and soon after day-break 
of the 9th, reached the landing at Leavenworth City, three miles below the 
fort. Here was given another exhibition of the wretched condition of»the 
country and deplorable spirit of the times. In front of the grog-shops, and 
these comprised nearly every house on the river front ; on piles of wood, lum- 
ber, and stone ; upon the heads of whiskey barrels ; at the corners of the 
streets; and upon the river bank — lounged, strolled, and idled, singly or in 
squads, men and boys clad in the ruffian attire, giving sure indication that no 
useful occupation was being pursued, and that vice, confusion, and anarchy had 
undivided and undisputed possession of the town. Armed horsemen were 



734 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

dashing about in every direction, the horses' feet striking fire from the stones 
beneath, and the sabres of the riders rattling by their sides. The drum and 
fife disturbed the stillness of the morning, and volunteer companies were on 
parade and drill, with all the habiliments and panoply of war. The town was 
evidently under a complete military rule, and on every side were visible indica- 
tions of a destructive civil strife." 

Previous to Gov. Geary's departure from Fort Leavenworth for Lecompton, 
the capital of the territory, he addressed a communication to the Hon. Wm. 
L. Marcy, secretary of state of the United States, in which he describes the 
condition of the territory at the time of his arrival : 



" Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, ") 

5.} 



" September 9, 1856. 
" Hon. Wm. L. Marcy : 

" Dear Sir : I arrived here this morning, and have passed the day mostly in 
consultation with Gen. P. F. Smith, in relation to the affairs of the territory, 
which, as I am now on the spot, I begin more clearly to understand. It is no 
exaggeration to say that the existing difficulties are of a far more complicated 
character than I had anticipated. 

"I find that I have not simply to contend against bands of armed ruffians and 
brigands, whose sole aim and end is assassination and robbery — infatuated ad- 
herents and advocates of conflicting political sentiments and local institutions — 
and evil-disposed persons, actuated by a desire to obtain elevated positions ; 
but worst of all, against the influence of men who have beeu placed in author- 
ity, and have employed all the destructive agents around them to promote their 
own personal interests, at the sacrifice of every just, honorable, and lawful con- 
sideration. 

" I have barely time to give you a brief statement of facts as I find them. 
The town of Leavenworth is now in the hands of armed bodies of men, who, 
having been enrolled as militia, perpetrate outrages of the most atrocious char- 
acter under shadow of authority from the territorial government. Within a 
few days, these men have robbed and driven from their homes unofl'euding citi- 
zens ; have fired upon and killed others in their own dwellings ; and stolen 
horses and property uuder the pretense of employing them in the public ser- 
vice. They have seized persons who had committed no offense; aud after 
stripping them of all their valuables, placed them on steamers, and sent them 
out of the territory. Some of these bands, who have thus violated their rights 
and privileges, and shamefully and shockingly misused and abused the oldest 
inhabitants of the territory, who had settled here with their wives and children, 
are strangers from distant states, who have no interest in, nor care for the wel- 
fare of Kansas, and contemplate remaining here only so long as opportunities 
for mischief and plunder exist. 

" The actual pro-slavery settlers of the territory are generally as well-dispos- 
ed persons as are to be found in most communities. But there are among them 
a few troublesome agitators, chiefly from distant districts, who labor assiduously 
to keep alive the prevailing sentiment. 



OFFICIAL. 



735 



" It is also true that among the free-soil residents are many peaceable and 
useful citizens ; and if uninfluenced by aspiring demagogues, would commit no 
unlawful act. But many of these, too, have been rendered turbulent by offi- 
cious meddlers from abroad. The chief of these is Lane, now encamped and 
fortified at Lawrence, with a force, it is said, of fifteen hundred men. They 
are suffering for provisions, to cut off the supplies of which, the opposing fac- 
tion is extremely watchful and active. 

"In isolated or country places, no man's life is safe. The roads are filled 
with armed robbers, aud murders for mere plunder are of daily occurrence. 
Almost every farm-house is deserted, and no traveler has the temerity to ven- 
ture upon the highway without an escort, 

" Such is the condition of Kansas, faintly pictured. It can be no worse. 
Yet I feel assured that I shall be able ere long to restore it to peace aud quiet. 
To accomplish this, I should have more aid from the general government. The 
number of United States troops here is too limited to render the needed ser- 
vices. Immediate reinforcements are essentially necessary ; as the excitement 
is so intense, and citizens generally are so much influenced by their political 
prejudices, that members of the two great factions cannot be induced to act in 
unison, and therefore cannot be relied upon. As soon, however, as I can suc- 
ceed in disbanding a portion of those now in service, I will from time to time 
cause to be enrolled as many of the bona fide inhabitants as exigencies may 
seem to require. In the meantime, the presence of additional government 
troops will exert a moral influence that cannot be obtained by any militia that 
can here be called into requisition. 

" In making the foregoing statements, I have endeavored to give the truth, 
and nothing but the truth. I deem it important that you should be apprised 
of the actual state of the case ; and whatever may be the effect of such rela- 
tions, they will be given, from time to time, without extenuation. 

" I shall proceed early in the morning to Lecompton, under an escort fur- 
nished by Gen. Smith, where I will take charge of the government, and whence 
I shall again address you at an early moment. 

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" Jno. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas." 

Governor Geary proceeded forthwith to Lecompton, the capital of the terri- 
tory. This town is situated on the Kansas river, about fifty miles from its 
junction with the Missouri, and contained at that time about thirty houses. 
Some $50,000 had been appropriated by congress for public buildings. No 
free-state man was permitted to live in the place. At Lecompton, Governor 
Geary issued his inaugural address. 

GOVERNOR GEARY'S INAUGURAL. 

"Fellow-Citizens :— I appear among you a stranger to most of you, and 
for the first time have the honor to address you, as the governor of the terri- 
tory of Kansas. The position was not sought by me ; but was voluntarily 
tendered by the present chief magistrate of the nation. As an American citi- 



■ft 



736 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

zen, deeply conscious of the blessings which ever flow from our belovt > • * •>, 
I did not consider myself at liberty to shrink from any duties, however aelieaW 
and onerous, required of me by my country. 

" With a full knowledge of all the circumstances surrounding the executive 
office, I have deliberately accepted it, and as God may give me strength and 
ability, I will endeavor faithfully to discharge its varied requirements. When 
I received my commission I was solemnly sworn to support the constitution of 
the United States, and to discharge my duties as governor of Kansas with 
fidelity. By reference to the act for the organization of this territory, passed 
by congress on the 30th day of March, 1854, I find my duties more particu- 
larly defined. Among other things, I am ' to take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed.' 

" The constitution of the United States and the organic law of the territory, 
will be the lights by which I will be guided in my official career. 

"A careful and dispassionate examination of our organic act will satisfy 
any reasonable person that its provisions are eminently just and beneficial. If 
this act has been distorted to unworthy purposes, it is not the fault of its pro- 
visions. The great leading feature of that act is the right therein conferred 
upon the actual and bona fide inhabitants of this territory ' in the exercise of 
self-government, to determine for themselves what shall be their domestic insti- 
tutions, subject only to the constitution and the laws duly enacted by congress, 
under it.' The people, accustomed to self-government in the states from whence 
they came, and having removed to this territory with the bona fide intention of 
making it their future residence, were supposed to be capable of creating their 
own municipal government, and to be the best judges of their own local neces- 
sities and institutions. This is what is termed "pojmlar sovereignty." By 
this phrase we simply mean the right of the majority of the people of the seve- 
ral states and territories, being qualified electors, to regulate their own domes- 
tic concerns, and to make their own municipal laws. Thus understood, this 
doctrine underlies the whole system of republican government. It is the great 
right of self-government, for the establishment of which our ancestors, in the 
stormy days of the revolution, pledged ' their lives, their fortunes and their 
sacred honor.' 

" A doctrine so eminently just should receive the willing homage of every 
American cit ;,, en. When legitimately expressed, and duly ascertained, the will 
of the majority must be the imperative rule of civil action for every law abid- 
ing citizen. This simple, just rule of action has brought order out of chaos, 
and by a progress unparalleled in the history of the world, has made a few feeble, 
infant colonies, a giant confederated republic. 

" No man, conversant with the state of affairs now in Kansas, can close his 
eyes to the fact that much civil disturbance has for a long time past existed in 
this territory. Various reasons have been assigned for this unfortunate state 
of affairs, and numerous remedies have been proposed. 

" The house of representatives of the United States have ignored the claims 
of both gentlemen claiming the legal right to represent the people of this ter- 



GOVERNOR GEARY S INAUGURAL. 737 

ritory in that body. The Topeka constitution, recognized by the house, has 
been repudiated by the senate. Various measures, each in the opinion of its 
respective advocates, suggestive of peace to Kansas, have been alternately 
proposed and rejected. Men, outside of the territory, in various sections of 
the Union, influenced by reasons best known to themselves, have endeavored to 
stir up internal strife, and to array brother against brother. 

" In this conflict of opinion, and for the promotion of most unworthy pur- 
poses, Kansas is left to suffer, her people to mourn, and her prosperity is en 
dangered. 

" Is there no remedy for these evils? Cannot the wounds of Kansas be 
healed, and peace restored to all her borders ? 

" Men of the north — men of the south — of the east, and of the west, in 
Kansas, you, and you only, have the remedy in your own hands. Will you 
not suspend fratricidal strife? Will you not cease to regard each other as ene- 
mies, and look upon one another as the children of a common mother, and 
come and reason together ? 

" Let ns banish all outside influences from our deliberations, and assemble 
around our council board with the constitution of our country and the organic 
law of this territory, as the great charts for our guidance and direction. The 
bona fide inhabitants of the territory alone are charged with the solemn duty 
of enacting her laws, upholding her government, maintaining peace, and laying 
the foundation for a future commonwealth. 

" On this point let there be a perfect unity of sentiment. It is the first great 
step towards the attainment of peace. It will inspire confidence amongst our- 
selves and insure the respect of the whole country. Let us show ourselves 
worthy and capable of self-government. 

" Do not the inhabitants of this territory better understand what domestic 
institutions are suited to their coudition — what laws will be most conducive to 
their prosperity and happiness, than the citizens of distant, or even neighbor- 
ing states? This great right of regulating our own affairs and attending to 
our own business, without any interference from others, has been guaranteed to 
ns by the law which congress has made for the organization of this territory. 
This right of self-government — this privilege guaranteed to us by the organic 
law of our territory, I will uphold with all my might, and with the entire 
power committed to me. 

" In relation to any changes of the laws of the territory which I may deem 
desirable, I have no occasion now to speak ; but these are subjects to which I 
shall direct public attention at the proper time. 

" The territory of the United States is the common properly of the several 
Btates, or of the people thereof. This being so, no obstacle should be inter- 
posed to the free settlement of this common property, while in a territorial 
condition. 

" I cheerfully admit that the people of this territory, under the organic act, 
have the absolute right of making their own municipal laws. And from citi- 
zens who deem themselves agrieved by recent legislation, I would invoke the 



738 



TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 



utmost forbearance, and point out to them a sure and peaceable remedy. You 
have the right to ask the next legislature to revise any and all laws ; and in 
the meantime, as you value the peace of the territory and the maintenance 
of future laws, I would earnestly ask you to refrain from all violations of the 
present statutes. 

" I am sure that there is patriotism sufficient in the people of Kansas to 
induce them to lend a willing obedience to law. All the provisions of the 
constitution of the United States must be sacredly observed — all the acts of 
congress, having reference to this territory, must be unhesitatingly obeyed, and 
the decisions of our courts respected. It will be my imperative duty to see 
that these suggestions are carried into effect. In my official action here, I will 
do justice at all hazards. Influenced by no other considerations than the wel- 
fare of the whole people of this territory, I desire to know no party, no sec- 
tion, no north, no south, no east, no west — nothing but Kansas and my 
country. 

" Fully conscious of my great responsibilities in the present condition of 
Kansas, I must invoke your aid, and solicit your generous forbearance. Your 
executive officer can do little without the aid of the people. With a firm reli- 
ance upon divine providence, to the best of my ability, I shall promote the 
interests of the citizens of this territory, not merely collectively, but individu- 
ally, and I shall expect from them, in return, that cordial aid and support, 
without which the government of no state or territory can be administered 
with beneficent effect. 

Let us all begin anew. Let the past be buried in oblivion. Let all strife 
and bitterness cease. Let us all honestly devote ourselves to the true interests 
of Kansas ; develop her rich agricultural and mineral resources ; build up 
manufacturing enterprises ; make public roads and highways; prepare amply 
for the education of our children ; devote ourselves to all the arts of peace ; 
and make our territory the sanctuary of those cherished principles which pro- 
tect the inalienable rights of the individual, and elevate states in their sover- 
eign capacities. 

" Then shall peaceful industry soon be restored ; population and wealth will 
flow upon us ; 'the desert will blossom as the rose ;' and the state of Kansas 
will soon be admitted into the Union, the peer and pride of her elder sisters. 

"John W. Geary." 

Simultaneously with this address, developing the policy by which his official' 
action was to be guided and controlled, the governor published the following 
proclamations : — 

PROCLAMATION. 

"Whereas, A large number of volunteer militia have been called into the 
service of the territory of Kansas, by authority of the late acting governor, 
for the maintenance of order, many of whom have been taken from occupations 



PROCLAMATIONS. 739 

or business, and deprived of their ordinary means of support and of their do- 
mestic enjoyments ; and 

" "Whereas, The employment of militia is not authorized by my instruc- 
tions from the general government, except upon requisition of the commander 
of the military department in which Kansas is embraced ; and 

" Whereas, An authorized regular force has been placed at my disposal, 
sufficient to insure the execution of the laws that may be obstructed by combi- 
nations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial pro- 
ceedings ; now 

" Therefore, I, John W. Geary, governor of the territory of Kansas, do 
issue this, my proclamation, declaring that the services of such volunteer mili- 
tia are no longer required ; and hereby order that they be immediately dis- 
charged. The secretary and adjutant-general of the territory will muster out 
of service each command at its place of rendezvous. 

" And I command all bodies of men, combined, armed and equipped with 
munitions of war, without authority of the government, instantly to disband or 
quit the territory, as they will answer the contrary at their peril. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and affixed the seal of 
the territory of Kansas. 

" Done at Lecompton, this eleventh day of September, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six. John W. Geary, 

Governor of Kansas Territory." 

PROCLAMATION. 

"Whereas, It is the true policy of every state or territory to be prepared 
for any emergency that may arise from internal dissension or foreign invasion : 

" Tlierefore, I, John W. Geary, governor of the territory of Kansas, do 
issue this my proclamation, ordering all free male citizens, qualified to bear 
arms, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, to enrol themselves, in 
accordance with the act to organize the militia of the territory, that they may 
be completely organized by companies, regiments, brigades, or divisions, and 
hold themselves in readiness, to be mustered, by my order, into the service of 
the United States, upon requisition of the commander of the military depart- 
ment in which Kansas is embraced, for the suppression of all combinations to 
resist the laws, and for the maintenance of public order and civil government. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and affixed the seal 
of the territory of Kansas. 

" Done at Lecompton, this eleventh day of September, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six. John W. Geary, 

Governor of Kansas Territory." 

When Governor Geary's appointment was first announced in Kansas, it was 
generally understood that he would not affiliate with either party, but would 
use his endeavors to carry out the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Measures 
were immediately set on foot, by the pro-slavery party, to frustrate his plans, 
by gathering an army in Missouri and other slave states, with which to overrun 



740 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

the territory, and drive out the free state people. An address was issued for 
circulation in the slave states, calling for assistance, and signed by Atchison, 
Stringfellow, Reid, Doniphan, and others. From this address we extract the 
following : 

" We have asked the appointment of a successor who was acquainted with 
our condition ; who, a citizen of the territory, identified with its interests, 
familiar with its history, would not be prejudiced or misled by the falsehoods 
which have been so systematically fabricated against us — one who, heretofore 
a resident as he is a native of a non-slaveholding state, is yet not a slaveholder, 
but has the capacity to appreciate, and the boldness and integrity requisite 
faithfully to discharge his duty, regardless of the possible effect it might have 
upon the election of some petty politician in a distant state. 

" In his stead we have one appointed who is ignorant of our condition, a 
stranger to our people ; who we have too much cause to fear will, if no worse, 
prove no more efficient to protect us than his predecessors. 

" With, then, a government which has proved imbecile — has failed to enforce 
the laws for our protection — with an army of lawless banditti overrunning our 
country — what shall we do ? 

" Though we have full confidence in the integrity and fidelity of Mr. Wood- 
son, now acting as governor, we know not at what moment his authority will 
be superseded. We cannot await the convenience, in coming, of our newly 
appointed governor. We cannot hazard a second edition of imbecility or cor- 
ruption. 

" We must act at once and effectively. These traitors, assassins, and rob- 
bers must be punished ; must now be taught a lesson they will remember. 

" We wage no war upon men for their opinions ; have never attempted to 
exclude any from settling among us ; we have demanded only that all should. 
alike submit to the law. To all such we will afford protection, whatever be 
their political opinions. But Lane's army and its allies must be expelled from 
the territory. Thus alone can we make safe our persons and property — thus 
alone can we bring peace to our territory. 

"To do this we will need assistance. Our citizens unorganized, many of 
them unarmed, for they came not as soldiers — though able heretofore to assem- 
ble a force sufficient to compel the obedience of the rebels, now that they have 
been strengthened by this invading army, thoroughly drilled, perfectly equipped, 
mounted, and ready to march at a moment's notice, to attack our defenceless 
settlements — may be overpowered. Should we be able even to vanquish this 
additional force, we are threatened with a further invasion of like character 
through Iowa and Nebraska. 

" This is no mere local quarrel; no mere riot; but it is a warl a war waged 
by an army ! a war professedly for our extermination. It is no mere resistance 
to tho laws ; no simple rebellion of our citizens, but a war of invasion — the 
army a foreign army — properly named the ' army of the north. ' 

" It is then not only the right but the duty of all good citizens of Missouri 



■woodson's proclamation. 741 

and every other state, to come to our assistance, and enable us to expel these 
invaders. 

" Mr. Woodson, since the resignation of Governor Shannon, in the absence 
of Governor Geary, has fearlessly met the responsibilities of the trust forced 
upon him, has proclaimed the existence of the rebellion, and called on the mili- 
tia of the territory to assemble for its suppression. 

"We call on you to come ! to furnish us assistance in men, provisions, and 
munitions, that we may drive out the ' army of the north,' who would subvert 
our government and expel us from our homes. 

" Our people though poor, many-of them stripped of their all, others harassed 
by these fiends, so that they have been unable to provide for their families, are 
yet true men ; will stand with you shoulder to shoulder in defence of rights, 
of principles in which you have a common if not deeper interest than they. 

"By the issue of this struggle is to be decided whether law or lawlessness 
shall reign in our country. If we are vanquished you too will be victims. 
Let not our appeal be in vain ! " 

Before Governor Geary's arrival, Secretary Woodson, the acting governor 
of the territory after the flight of Shannon, issued the following proclamation. 
This was issued at a time when Woodson was aware that Geary was on his 
way to the territory : 

" PROCLAMATION. 

" Whereas, satisfactory evidence exists that the territory of Kansas is 
infested with large bodies of armed men, many of whom have just arrived 
from the states, combined and confederated together, and amply supplied with 
the munitions of war, under the direction of a common head, with a thorough 
military organization, who have been and are still engaged in murdering law- 
abiding citizens of the territory, driving others from their homes, and compel- 
ling them to flee to the states for protection, capturing and holding others as 
prisoners of war, plundering them of their property, and in some instances 
burning down their houses and robbing United States post offices, and the local 
militia of the arras furnished them by the government, in open defiance and 
contempt of the laws of the territory, and of the constitution and laws of the 
United States, and of civil and military authority thereof — all for tho purpose 
of subverting, by force and violence, the government established by law of con- 
gress in this territory. 

" Now, therefore, I, Daniel Woodson, acting governor of the territory of 
Kansas, do hereby issue my proclamation declaring the said territory to be iu 
a state of open insurrection and rebellion ; and J. do hereby call upon all law- 
abiding citizens of the territory to rally to the support of their country and its 
laws, and require and command all officers, civil and military, and all other citi- 
zens of the territory, to aid and assist by all means in their power, in putting 
down the insurrectionists, and bringing to condign punishment all persons 
engaged with them, to the end of assuring immunity from violence, and full 



742 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

protection to the persons,"property, and civil rights to all peaceable and law- 
abiding inhabitants of the territory. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be 
attached the seal of the territory of Kansas. 

" Done at the city of Lecompton, this twenty-fifth day of August, in the 
year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-six, and of the independence of 
the United States the eightieth. 

" Daniel Woodson, Acting Governor, K. T." 

Private letters were written by the acting governor to parties in Missouri, 
calling for men, money, and the munitions of war, to carry out the purposes of 
the pro-slavery party. The address, the proclamation, and the letters had the 
effect of calling into the territory large numbers of armed men, chiefly from 
Missouri, with passions highly inflamed, and prepared for a war of extermina- 
tion against the free state settlements. Such was the state of affairs on the 
arrival of governor Geary at Lecompton. 

In accordance with his proclamation, he forthwith proceeded to disband all 
the armed bodies in the territory which had been collected under the authority 
of secretary Woodson, and to this end he issued the following orders to the 
proper military officers ; and on the same day sent the following dispatch to 
secretary Marcy : 

"Executive Department, Lecompton, K. T.,] 
September 12, 1856. ] 
"Adjt.-Gen. H. J. Strickler: 

" Dear Sir : You will proceed without a moment's delay to disarm and 
disband the present organized militia of the territory, in accordance with the 
instructions of the president, and the proclamations which I have issued, copies 
of which you will find enclosed. You will also take care to have the arms 
belonging to the territory deposited in a place of safety and under proper 
accountability. " Yours, &c, Jno. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

Executive Department, Lecompton, K. T.,') 
September 12, 1856. ) 

"Inspector-Gen. Thos. J. B. Cramer: 

" Sir : You will take charge of the arms of the territory of Kansas, now in 
the hands of the militia about to be disbanded and mustered out of the service 
by the adjutant-general. You will also carefully preserve the same agreeably 
to the 15th section of the act of assembly, to organize, discipline, and govern 
the militia of the territory. 

"Yours, &c, Jno. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

" Executive Office, Lecompton, K. T.,") 
September 12, 1856. ) 
" Hon. Wm. L. Marcy, 

" Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 
" My Dear Sir : I arrived here late on the night of the 10th inst., having 



OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. 743 

crossed from Fort Leavenworth with an escort furnished me by General Smith. 
On the road, I witnessed numerous evidences of the atrocities that are being 
committed by the bands of marauders that infest the country. In this place 
everything is quiet ; which is attributable to the presence of a large force of 
United States troops. Tfte trial of the United States prisoners was to have 
taken place on the day of my arrival ; but in consequence of the absence of the 
district attorney, and the non-appearance of witnesses, it was deferred until the 
nest regular term of court, Judge Lecompte admitting the prisoners to bail in 
the sum of five thousand dollars each. They departed on the same day for 
Lawrence, where Lane still continues in force. 

". Accompanying this you will find printed copies of my inaugural address, 
and my first proclamations, which will exhibit the policy I have thus far thought 
proper to pursue. 

" I have determined to dismiss the present organized militia, after consulta- 
tion with and by the advice of General Smith ; and for the reasons that they 
were not enrolled in accordance with the laws ; that many of them are not 
citizens of the territory ; that some of them were committing outrages under 
the pretence of serving the public ; and that they were unquestionably perpet- 
uating, rather than diminishing, the troubles with which the territory is 
agitated. 

" I have also, as you will see, taken the proper steps to enroll the militia of 
the territory, agreeably to the act of assembly, and to your instructions o» 
September 2d. I trust that the militia, thus organized, may be rendered ser- 
viceable to the government. It is probable also that these proclamations may 
have the tendency to disband the free state organizations at Lawrence. 

" Nothing of material importance has occurred, or come under my notice, 
siuce I last addressed you. I shall continue to keep you apprised of all mat- 
ters that I may deem of sufficient interest to communicate. 

" As there is no telegraphic communication nearer than Boonville, I am 
compelled to trust my dispatches to the mails, which are now in this region 
somewhat uncertain. 

" Most truly and respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" Jno. W. Geary." 

At the time of writing the above, the strength, movements and designs of 
the Missouri army were unknown to Governor Geary ; but soon afterwards 
their plans and operations began to be developed. Shortly after midnight, on 
the morning of September 13th, the governor received a messenger bearing 
the following dispatch : 

"Head Quarters, Mission Creek, K. T ,\ 
"11th September, 1856. • > 

" To His Excellency, J. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory. 
"Sir: In obedience to the call of Acting-Governor Woodson, I have or- 
ganized a militia force of about eight hundred men who are now in the field, 
wady for duty, and impatient to act. Hearing of your arrival, I beg leave to 



744 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

report them to you for orders. Any communication forwarded to us, will find 
us encamped at or near this point. 

" I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" Wm. A. Heisktll, 
"Brig. Gen. Com. 1st Brig., Southern Division, Kansas Militia. 
"By order: L. A. Maclean, Adjutant." 

Not more than an hour after the receipt of the foregoing, a second messen- 
ger arrived, himself almost exhausted with a long and fast ride, and his horse 
nearly broken down, and presented the following : 

"Head Quarters, Mission Camp,~> 
" 12th September, 1856. } 

" To Hie Excellency, J. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory. 
" Sir : Yesterday I had the honor to report to you my command of the 
Kansas Militia, then about eight hundred strong, which was dispatched via 
Leavenworth. In case it may not have reached you, I now report one thous- 
sand men as territorial militia, called into the field by proclamation of Acting- 
Governor Woodson, and subject to your orders. 

" I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Wm. A. Heiskill, 
" Brig. Gen. Com. 1st Brig. Southern Division, Kansas Militia. 
"By order: L. A. Mclean, Adjutant." 

Without a moment's hesitation, the governor determined at once to disband 
these troops and send them back to their homes ; and he accordingly answered 
the dispatches of General Heiskell, as follows : 

"Executive Office, Lecompton, K. T.,") 
" September 12, 1856, 1\ o'clock. | 
" Brig. Gen. Wm. A. Heiskell : 

" Sir : Your first and second dispatches have been received. I will com- 
municate with you through the person of either the secretary of the territory, 
or the adjutant-general, as soon as he can reach your camp, he starting from 
this place at an early hour this morning. 

"Very respectfully yours, 

Jno. W. Geary, 
" Governor of Kansas Territory. 

Whilst the foregoing was being written, a message was received from a 
special agent of the governor, dated at Lawrence, in which he says : 

" I arrived here a few moments ago, and distributed the address and procla- 
mations, and found the people prepared to repel a contemplated attack from 
the forces coming from Missouri. Reports are well authenticated, in the opin- 
ion of the best men here, that there are within six miles of this place a large 
number of men — three hundred have been seen. * * At this moment one 
of the scouts came in, and reports the forces marching against them at Frank- 
lin, three miles off, and all have flown to their arms to meet them." 



OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. 745 

This message was enclosed with the following dispatch, and sent immediately 
to Colonel Cook, commanding United States forces near Lecompton : 

"Executive Office, Lecompton, K. T.,") 
Sept. 13, 1856, at H o'clock, a. m. j 
" Col. P. St. George Cook : 

" Dear Sir : The accompanying dispatch, just received from Lawrence, 
gives sufficient reason to believe that trouble of a serious character is likely to 
take place there. Mr. Adams, the writer of the dispatch, is a special agent 
whom I sent down last evening to ascertain the state of affairs. I think you 
had better send immediately to Lawrence a force sufficient to prevent blood- 
shed, as it is my orders from the presideut to use every possible means to pre- 
vent collisions between belligerent troops. If desirable, I will accompany the 
forces myself, and should be glad to have you go along. 

" Truly yours, Jno. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

Colonel Cook, with three hundred mounted soldiers and four pieces of artil- 
lery, started immediately for Lawrence, accompanied by Governor Geary. 
On their arrival they learned that the danger was not imminent. The citizens 
of Lawrence were under arms and the town fortified at every point. The 
governor assembled the inhabitants, cautioned them against the commission 
of any unlawful acts, and promised them his protection in case they were at- 
tacked. He was immediately recalled to Lecompton with the troops in conse- 
quence of troubles in that neighborhood. Upon his arrival he found his office 
thronged with people excited by the intelligence that Lane meditated an at- 
tack upon the pro-slavery settlements of Hickory Point, Osawkee and the 
neighborhood ; some of the inhabitants of those places having fled in terror to 
Lecompton. Affidavits were made of outrages committed and handed to the 
governor, upon the receipt of which he made the following requisition upon 
Colonel Cook : 

» "Executive Department, Lecompton, K. T.,7 
September 14th, 1856. j 

" Col. P. St. G. Cook : 

" Dear Sir : You will perceive by the accompanying affidavit, and from 
verbal statements that will be made to you by Dr. Tebbs, that a desperate state 
of affairs is existing at Osawkee and its vicinity, which seems to require some 
action at our hands. I strongly recommend that you send a force, such as you 
can conveniently spare, to visit that neighborhood, at the earliest moment. If 
such a force cannot succeed in arresting the perpetrators of the outrages al- 
ready committed, and of which complaint has been made in due form, it may 
at least tend to disperse or drive off the band or bands of marauders who are 
threatening the lives and property of peaceable citizens. The deputy marshal] 
will accompany such troops as you may judge expedient to detail on this ser- 
Tice. " Yery respectfully and truly yours, Jno. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

A detachment of dragoons was forthwith dispatched by Colonel Cook to 



746 TROUBLES BS KANSAS. 

pursue the marauders and protect the neighborhood. At midnight they fell 
in with a party of armed men and took one hundred of them prisoners without 
resistance. They were mostly mounted, and heavily armed, and had with 
them a brass field-piece and several wagons, all of which were captured and 
taken to Lecompton They were said to be a detachment of forces of General 
Lane, under command of Captain Harvey, and were on their way from Law- 
rence to join a large body from Topeka. They had been engaged in an affray 
at Hickory Point. One of the leaders, on being asked if they had not read 
the governor's proclamation, wittily replied, " Oh yes, and before we com- 
menced our fire upon the border ruffians, we read the proclamation to them, and 
commanded them to surrender in the name of the governor. " These prisoners 
were taken to a dilapidated house in Lecompton and guarded by a company 
of militia under command of Colonel Titus. Here they suffered for the want 
of food, clothing and bedding ; overrun with vermin, and exposed to constant 
insults from the guards. At the October term of the district court, some 
were acquitted and others convicted of manslaughter. These were sentenced 
to terms of confinement varying from five to ten years of hard labor, and to 
wear a ball and chain. As sheriff Jones had not been permitted by the verdict 
to hang the prisoners, he was exceedingly anxious to apply the ball and chain, 
and wrote to Governor Geary that "It is indipensably necessary that balls and 
chains should be furnished, aud understanding that the same can be procured 
by your application to General Smith, I will request that you will procure 
and have them sent over at the earliest day possible." To this application 
the governor replied that " General Smith has no balls and chains for the pur- 
pose nor is it deemed advisable to procure any." The governor immediately 

remitted that portion of their sentence requiring the ball and chain, as being 
"cruel and unusual, and especially inappropriate." The prisoners were subse- 
quently placed under the charge of Captain Hampton, Master of Convicts, 
an office created by an act of the territorial legislature. They were treated 
with a kindness and consideration by that generous hearted Kentuckian, which 
called down upon him the vengeance of the leading members of his party, and 
his removal by the governor was demanded. The prisoners were subsequently 
pardoned by Governor Geary. 

While the governor was attending to the troubles at Hickory Point, a large 
army was gathering on the Wakarusa preparatory to an attack on Lawrence. 
As these men styled themselves the territorial militia and were called into 
service by Woodson, the governor immediately commanded that officer to take 
with him adjutant-general Strickler with an escort of United States troops 
and disband the forces he had assembled. But Woodson discovered that he 
had raised a storm which he could not control. Mr. Adams, who accompanied 
Woodson to the camp, sent the following dispatch to the governor : 
" His Excellency, Governor Geary : 

" Sir : I went as directed to the camp of the militia, and found at the town 
of Franklin, three miles from this place, encamped three hundred men, with 
four pieces of artillery. One mile to the right, on the Wakarusa, I found 8 



THE WAKAKUSA ARMY. 747 

yery large encampment of three hundred tents and wagons. They claim to 
have two thousand five hundred men ; and from the appearance of the camp, I 
have no doubt they have that number. General Reid is in command. I saw 
and was introduced to General Atchison, Col. Titus, Sheriff Jones, General 
Richardson, etc. The proclamations were distributed. 

" Secretary Woodson and General Striekler had not, up to the time I left, 
delivered their orders , but were about doing so as soon as they could get the 
officers together. 

" The outposts of both parties were fighting about an hour before sunset. 
One man killed of the militia, and one house burned at Franklin. 

" There were but few people at Lawrence, most of them having gone to their 
homes after your visit here. 

" I reported these facts to the officer in command here, and your prompt ac- 
tion has undoubtedly been the means of preventing the loss of blood and sav- 
ing valuable property. 

" Secretary Woodson thought you had better come to the camp of the mili- 
tia as soon as you can. I think a prompt visit would have a good effect. I 
will see you as you come this way, and communicate with you more fully. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" Theodore Adams." 

Before this dispatch reached Lecompton, the governor had departed with 
three hundred United States mounted troops and a battery of light artillery, 
and riding speedily, arrived at Lawrence early in the evening of the 14th, 
where he found matters precisely as described. Skillfully stationing his troops 
outside the town, in commanding positions, to prevent a collision between the 
invading forces from Missouri and the citizens, he entered Lawrence alone, and 
there he beheld a sight which a writer has thus eloquently described : 

"About three hundred persons were found in arms, determined to sell their 
lives at the dearest price to their ruffian enemies. Among these were many 
women, and children of both sexes, armed with guns and otherwise accoutred 
for battle. They had been goaded to this by the courage of despair. Law- 
rence was to have been their Thermopylae, and every other free town would 
have proved a Saragossa. When men determine to die for the right, a heca- 
tomb of victims grace their immolation ; but when women and children betake 
themselves to the battle-field, ready to fight and die with their husbands and 
fathers, heroism becomes the animating principle of every heart, and a giant's 
strength invigorates every arm. Each drop of blood lost by such warriors be- 
comes a dragon's tooth, which will spring from the earth, in all the armor of 
truth and justice, to exact a fearful retribution. Had Lawrence been destroy- 
ed, and her population butchered, the red right hand of vengeance would have 
gleamed over the entire south, and the question of slavery have been settled 
by a bloody and infuriated baptism. There are such examples in history, and 
mankind have lost none of their impulses or human emotions. 

" Gov. Geary addressed the armed citizens of Lawrence, and when he as- 
sured them of his and the law's protectioo, they offered to deposit their arms 



748 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

at his feet and return to their respective habitations. He bid them go to theii 
homes in confidence, and to carry their arms with them, as the constitution of 
the Union guaranteed that right ; but to use those arms only in the last resort 
to protect their lives and property, and the chastity of their females. They 
obeyed the governor and repaired to their homes." 

On the morning of the loth of September, the governor, having left the 
United States troops to protect the town of Lawrence, proceeded alone to the 
camp of the invading army, then within three miles, and drawn up in order of 
battle. The scene that was presented is thus described by the governor's pri- 
vate secretary : " The militia had taken a position upon an extensive and 
beautiful plain near the junction of the Wakarusa with the Kansas river. On 
one side towered a lofty hill, known as the Blue Mound, and on the other Mount 
Oread showed its fortified summit. The town of Franklin, from its elevated 
site, looked down upon the active scene, while beyond, in a quiet vale, the 
more flourishing city of Lawrence reposed as though unconscious of its threat- 
ened doom. The waters of the Kansas river might be seen gliding rapidly to- 
ward the Missouri, and the tall forest trees which line its banks, plainly indi- 
cated the course of the Wakarusa. The red face of the rising sun was just 
peering over the top of the Blue Mound, as the governor, with his strange es« 
cort of three hundred mounted men, with red shirts and odd-shaped hats, de. 
scended upon the Wakarusa plain. There, in battle array, were ranged at 
least three thousand armed and desperate men. They were not dressed in the 
usual habiliments of soldiers ; but in every imaginable costume that could be 
obtained in that western region. Scarcely two presented the same appearance, 
while all exhibited a ruffianly aspect. Most of them were mounted, and man- 
ifested an unmistakable disposition to be at their bloody work. In the back- 
ground stood at least three hundred army tents and as many wagons, while 
here and there a cannon was planted ready to aid in the anticipated destruction. 
Among the banners floated black flags to indicate the design that neither age, 
sex, nor condition would be spared in the slaughter that was to ensue. The 
arms and cannon also bore the black indices of extermination. 

" In passing along the lines, murmurs of discontent and savage threats of 
assassination fell upon the governor's ears ; but heedless of these, and regard- 
less, in fact, of everything but a desire to avert the calamity that was impend- 
ing, he fearlessly proceeded to the quarters of their leader. 

" This threatening army was under the command of General John W. Reid, 
then and now a member of the Missouri legislature, assisted by ex-senator 
Atchison, General B. F. Stringfellow, General L. A. Maclean, General J. W. 
Whitfield, General George W. Clarke, Generals Wm. A. Heiskell, Wm. H. 
Richardson, and F. A. Marshal, Colonel H. T. Titns, Captain Frederick Em- 
ory, and others of similar character. 

" Gov. Geary at once summoned the officers together, and addressed them at 
length and with great feeling. He depicted in a forcible manner the improper 
position they occupied, and the untold horrors that would result from the con- 
summation of their cruel designs : that if they persisted in their mad career, 



OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 749 

the entire Union would be involved in a civil war, and thousands and tens of 
thousands of innocent lives, be sacrificed. To Atchison, he especially addressed 
himself, telling him that when he last saw him, he was acting as vice-president 
of the nation and president of the most dignified body of men in the world, 
the senate of the United States ; but now with sorrow and pain he saw him 
leading on to a civil and disastrous war an army of men, with uncontrollable 
passions, and determined upon wholesale slaughter and destruction. He con- 
cluded his remarks by directing attention to his proclamation, and ordered the 
army to be disbanded and dispersed. Some of the more judicious of the offi- 
cers were not only willing, but anxious to obey this order ; whilst others, re- 
solved upon mischief, yielded a very reluctant assent. General Clarke said he 
was for pitching into the United States troops, if necessary, rather than aban- 
don the objects of the expedition. General Maclean didn't see any use of go- 
ing back until they had whipped the d — d abolitionists. Sheriff Jones was in 
favor, now they had a sufficient force, of ' wiping out ' Lawrence and all the 
free state towns. And these and others cursed Gov. Geary in not very gentle 
expressions for his untimely interference with their well-laid plans. They, how- 
ever, obeyed the order, and retired, not as good and law-loving citizens, but as 
bands of plunderers and destroyers, leaving in their wake ruined fortunes, 
weeping eyes, and sorrowing hearts." 

On the 16th of September, the governor dispatched the following letter to 
Secretary Marcy : 

"Executive Department, Lecompton, K. T., ") 
"September 16, 1856. j 
" Hon. Wm. L. Marcy, Secretary of State : 

" My Dear Sir: My last dispatch was dated the 12th instant, in which I 
gave you a statement of my operations to that date. Since then, I have had 
business of the deepest importance to occupy every moment of my attention, 
and to require the most constant watchfulness and untiring energy. Indeed, so 
absolutely occupied is all my time, that I scarcely have a minute to devote to 
the duty of keeping you apprised of the true condition of this territory. I 
have this instant returned from an expedition to Lawrence and the vicinity, and 
am preparing to depart almost immediately for other sections of the territory, 
where my presence is demanded. 

" After having issued my address and proclamations in this city, copies of 
which have been forwarded to you, I sent them, with a special messenger, to 
Lawrence, twelve miles to the eastward, where they v^ere made known to the 
citizens on the 12th instant. The people of that place were alarmed with a 
report that a large body of armed men, called out under the proclamation of 
the late acting-governor Woodson, were threatening them with an attack, and 
they were making the necessary preparations for resistance. So well authenti- 
cated seemed their information, that my agent forwarded an express by a United 
States trooper, announcing the fact, and calling upon me to nse my power to 
prevent the impending calamity. This express reached me at half-past one 
o'clock, on the morning of the 13th instant. I immediately made a requisi- 



750 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

tion upon Colonel Cook, commander of the United Slates forces stationed at 
this place, for as many troops as could be made available, and in about an hour 
was on my way towards Lawrence, with three hundred mounted men, including 
a battery of light artillery. On arriving at Lawrence, we found the danger 
had been exaggerated, and that there was no immediate necessity for the inter- 
vention of the military. The moral effect of our presence, however, was of 
great avail. The citizens were satisfied that the government was disposed to 
render them all needed protection, and I received from them the assurance that 
they would conduct themselves as law-abiding and peace-loving men. They 
voluntarily offered to lay down their arms, and enrol themselves as territorial 
militia, in accordance with the terms of my proclamations. I returned the 
same day with the troops, well satisfied with the result of my mission. 

"During the evening of Saturday, the 13th, I remained at my office, which 
was constantly crowded with men uttering complaints concerning outrages that 
had been and were being committed upon their persons and property. These 
complaints came in from every direction, and were made by the advocates of 
all the conflicting political sentiments with which the territory has been agi- 
tated ; and they exhibited clearly a moral condition of affairs, too lamentable 
for any language adequately to describe. The whole country was evidently in- 
fested with armed bands of marauders, who set all law at defiance, and traveled 
from place to place, assailing villages, sacking and burning houses, destroying 
crops, maltreating women and children, driving off and stealing cattle and 
horses, and murdering harmless men in their own dwellings and on the public 
highways. Many of these grievances needed immediate redress ; but unfortu- 
nately the law was a dead letter, no magistrate or judge being at hand to take 
an affidavit or issue a process, and no marshal or sheriff to be found, even had 
the judges been present to prepare them, to execute the same. 

" The next day, Sunday, matters grew worse and worse. The most positive 
evidence reached me that a large body of armed and mounted men were de- 
vastating the neighborhoods of Osawkee and Hardtville, commonly called 
Hickory Point Being well convinced of this fact, I determined to act upon 
my own responsibility, and immediately issued an order to Colonel Cook for a 
detachment of his forces, to visit the scene of disturbance. In answer to this 
requisition, a squadron of eighty-one men were detached, consisting of com- 
panies C. and H. 1st cavalry, Captains Wood and Newby, the whole under 
command of Captain Wood. This detachment left the camp at two o'clock, 
P. M., with instructions to proceed to Osawkee and Hickory Point, the former 
twelve, and the latter eighteen miles to the northward of Lecompton. It was 
accompanied by a deputy marshal. 

" In consequence of the want of proper facilities for crossing the Kansas 
river, it was late in the evening before the force could march. After having 
proceeded about six miles, intelligence was brought to Captain Wood, that a 
large party of men, under command of a person named Harvey, had come over 
from Lawrence, and made an attack upon a log house at Hickory Point, in 
which a number of the settlers had taken refuge. The assault commenced 



OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 751 

about eleven o'clock in the morning, and continued six hours. The attacking 
party had charge of a brass four-pounder, the same that was taken by Colonel 
Doniphan at the battle of Sacramento. This piece had been freely used in the 
assault, but without effecting any material damage. As far as has yet been 
ascertained, but one man was killed, and some half-dozen wounded. 

"About eleven o'clock in the evening, Captain Wood's command met a party 
of twenty-five men, with three wagons, one of which contained a wounded man. 
These he ascertained to be a portion of Harvey's forces, who had beeu engaged 
in the assault at Hickory Point, and who were returning to Lawrence. They 
were immediately arrested, without resistance, disarmed, and held as prisoners. 
Three others were soon after arrested, who also proved to be a portion of Har- 
vey's party. 

"When within about four miles of Hickory Point, Captain Wood discov- 
ered a large encampment upon the prairie, near the road leading to Lawrence. 
It was the main body of Harvey's men, then under command of a man named 
Bickerton, Harvey having left after the attack on Hickory Point. The party 
was surprised and captured. 

" After securing the prisoners, Captain Wood returned to Lecompton, which 
place he reached about day-break, on Monday, the 15th instant, bringing with 
him one hundred and one prisoners, one brass field-piece, seven wagons, thirty- 
eight United States muskets, forty-seven Sharpe's rifles, six hunting rifles, two 
shot guns, twenty revolving pistols, fourteen bowie-knives, four swords, and a 
large supply of ammunition for artillery and small arms. 

"Whilst engaged in making preparations for the foregoing expedition, sev- 
eral messengers reached me from Lawrence, announcing that a powerful army 
was marching upon that place, it being the main body of the militia called into 
service by the proclamation of Secretary Woodson, when acting-governor. 

" Satisfied that the most prompt and decisive measures were necessary to 
prevent the sacrifice of many lives, and the destruction of one of the finest and 
most prosperous towns in the territory, and avert a state of affairs which must 
have inevitably involved the couutry in a most disastrous civil war, I dispatched 
the following order to Colonel Cook : 

" 'Proceed at all speed with your command to Lawrence, and prevent a collision, if 
possible, and leave a portion of your troops there for that purpose.' 

" Accordingly, the entire available United States force was put in motion, 
and reached Lawrence at an early hour in the evening. Here, the worst ap- 
prehensions of the citizens were discovered to have been well founded. Twenty- 
seven hundred men, under command of Generals Heiskell, Reid, Atchison, 
Richardson, Stringfellow, and others, were encamped on the Wakarusa, about 
four miles from Lawrence, eager and determined to exterminate that place and 
all its inhabitants. An advanced party of three hundred men had already ta- 
ken possession of Franklin, one mile from the camp, and three miles from Law- 
rence, and skirmishing parties had begun to engage in deadly conflict. 

" Fully appreciating the awful calamities that were impending, I hastened 



752 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

with all possible dispatch to the encampment, assembled the officers of the mi- 
litia, and in the name of the President of the United States, demanded sus- 
pension of hostilities. I had sent in advance, the secretary and adjutant-gen- 
eral of the territory, with orders to carry out the spirit and letter of my procla- 
mations ; but up to the time of my arrival, these orders had been unheeded, 
and I could discover but little disposition to obey them. I addressed the offi- 
cers in council at considerable length, setting forth the disastrous consequences 
of such a demonstration as was contemplated, and the absolute necessity of 
more lawful and conciliatory measures to restore peace, tranquility, and pros- 
perity to the country. I read my instructions from the president, and convinced 
them that my whole course of procedure was in accordance therewith, and call- 
ed upon them to aid me in my efforts, not only to carry out those instructions, 
but to support and enforce the laws, and the constitution of the United States. 
I am happy to say that a more ready concurrence in my views was met, than I 
had at first any good reason to expect. It was agreed that the terms of my 
proclamation should be carried out by the disbandment of the militia ; where- 
upon the camp was broken up, and the different commands separated, to repair 
to their respective homes. 

" The occurrences, thus related, are already exerting a beneficent influence ; 
and although the work is not yet accomplished, I do not despair of success in 
my efforts to satisfy the government that I am worthy of the high trust which 
has been reposed in me. As soon as circumstances will permit, I shall visit, 
in person, every section of the territory, where I feel assured that my presence 
will tend to give confidence and security to the people. 

" In closing, I have merely to add, that unless I am more fully sustained 
hereafter by the civil authorities, and serious difficulties and disturbances con- 
tinue to agitate the territory, my only recourse will be to martial law, which I 
must needs proclaim and enforce. 

"Very respectfully, &c, Jno. W. Geaky, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

The dismissal of the Missouri invaders, the arrest of Harvey's party, and 
the departure of Col. Lane (which took place about this time) from the terri- 
tory, were followed with the most beneficial effects. The prompt, bold, rapid, 
and decisive movements of the governor struck the numerous predatory bands 
with terror, and they either dispersed, or fled the country ; and a happier con- 
dition of things began to be apparent on every hand. 

The management of the judicial affairs of the territory now merit some no- 
tice. A portion of the disbanded army, called the Kickapoo Rangers, took 
the road to Lecompton, and when within a few miles of that place they halted 
by a field where a poor lame man by the name of David C. Buffum was at 
work. Some of the party entered the field, and after robbing the man of his 
horses, one of them shot him in the abdomen, from which wound he afterwards 
died. Almost immediately after the commission of this crime, Governor Geary, 
accompanied by Judge Cato, arrived on the spot, and found the wounded man 



GLARY AND LECOMPTE. 753 

weltering in blood. The governor directed Judge Cato to take an affidavit of 
the unfortunate man's dying words, who, writhing in agony, exclaimed : " Oh, 
this was a most unprovoked and horrid murder! They asked me for my 
horses, and I plead with them not to take them. I told them that I was a 
cripple — a poor lame man— that I had an aged father, a deaf and dumb bro- 
ther, and two sisters, all depending upon me for a living, and my horses were 
all I had with which to procure it. One of them said I was a God d — d abo- 
litionist, and seizing me by the shoulder with one hand, he shut me with a 
pistol that he held in the other. I am dying ; but my blood will call to Hea- 
ven for vengeance, and this horrible deed will not go unpunished. I die a 
martyr to the cause of freedom, and my death will do much to aid that cause." 
The governor was affected to tears. He had been on many a battle-field, and 
had been familiar with suffering and death ; but, says he, " I never witnessed 
a scene that filled my mind with so much horror. There was a peculiar signi- 
ficance in the looks and words of that poor dying man that I never can forget ; 
for they seemed to tell me that I could have no rest until I brought his murderer 
to justice. And I resolved that no means in my power should be spared to 
discover, arrest and punish the author of that most villanous butchery." 

On his arrival at Lecompton, the governor immediately had a wan-ant 
drawn and placed in the hands of the United States marshal, for the arrest of 
the murderer, for the execution of which warrant the whole of the United States 
force was at his disposal. Several days elapsed and no return was made, nor 
had any disposition been discovered to effect the governor's wishes in the 
matter. The governor, besides offering a reward of five hundred dollars for 
the arrest of the murderer, employed secret agents to visit that portion of 
Missouri in which the Rangers resided, and, by making cautious inquiries, to 
obtain some clue to the perpetrators of the deed. The murderer was discov- 
ered in the person of Charles Hays, a resident of Atchison county, Missouri. 
A new warrant was issued for his arrest, and he was brought to Lecompton. 
A grand jury, composed entirely of pro-slavery men, on hearing the over- 
whelming testimony, found a true bill, and committed him for trial. At this 
time free-state men were seized almost daily by the omcers, and thrust into 
prison, and bail utterly refused by the pro-slavery magistrates. Much to the 
astonishment and indignation of Governor Geary, he was informed that Judge 
Leeompte had admitted the murderer of Buffum to bail, and that Sheriff Jones, 
a man notoriously not worth a cent, was on his bail-bond. The governor 
boldly pronounced the action of the chief justice in dismissing the murderer 
of Buffum as a "judicial outrage," and proceeded to treat it as a nullity by 
issuing the following warrant : 

"Executive Department, E. T.,| 
"Lecompton, Nov. 10, 1856. ) 
"I. B. Donelson, Esq., Marshal of Kansas Territory: 

" Sir : An indictment for murder in the first degree having been duly found 
by the grand jury of the territory against Charles Hays, for the murder of a 
certain David C. Buffum, in the county of Douglas, in this territory, and the 



754 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

said Charles Hays having been discharged upon bail, as I consider in violation 
of law, and greatly to the endangering of the peace of this territory : 

"This is therefore to authorize and command you to rearrest the said 
Charles Hays, if he be found within the limits of this territory, and safely to 
keep him until he is duly discharged by a jury of his country, according to 
law. 

" Given under my hand and seal, at the city of Lecompton, the day and 
year first above written. " Jno. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

This warrant was handed to Marshal Donelson, who, however, declined to 
execute it, saying he would take time to consider the matter. The governor 
made out a duplicate warrant, and placed it in the hands of Col. Titus, with 
orders to take a file of men and execute it without delay. The murderer was 
promptly rearrested, and remained in the custody of Col. Titus, until, during 
the absence of the governor from the city, he was again discharged by Judge 
Lecompte on a writ of habeas corpus, as shown in the subjoined letter of 
Col. Titus: 

"Lecompton, Nov. 21, 1S56. 
" His Excellency, John W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory : 

" Sir : I have the honor to state that during your recent absence from this 
place, a writ of habeas corpus, issued by Chief Justice Lecompte, was served 
upon me, by which I was commanded to produce the body of Charles Hays 
before him, with the cause of his detainer: 

" That in obedience to the writ, I caused the body of Hays to be produced 
before Judge Lecompte, and returned as cause of his detention the finding by 
the grand jury of a true bill of indictment against him for murder in the first 
degree, committed upon the person of one David C. Buffum, together with 
your warrant, commanding the rearrest of said Hays and his detention until 
his discharge by a jury of his country according to law. 

" I have further to state that Judge Lecompte discharged the said Hays 
from my custody notwithstanding my return, and that he is now at large. I 
have the honor to remain your obedient servant, " H. T. Titus." 

The governor did not attempt to interfere with the writ of habeas corpus, 
but forwarded to the president and secretary his executive minutes, containing 
a history of the circumstances, and showing the necessity of a less partial 
judiciary in order to preserve the peace of the territory. Judge Lecompte 
also wrote a letter to Washington. The following correspondence ensued be- 
tween the secretary of state and the governor : 

" Department of State, "^ 
"Washington, -1th February, 1857. ) 
" To JonN W. Geary, Esq., Governor of Kansas, Lecompton : 

" Sir : The original letter of which the inclosed is a copy, was brought to 
the notice of the president, a few days since, by Hon. James A. Pearce, of the 



GEARY AND MARCY. 755 

United States Senate. The discrepancies between the statements of this letter 
and those contained in your official communication of the 19th of September, 
are such that the president directs me to inclose you a copy for explanation. 
" I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"W. L. Marcy." 

"Executive Department, Kansas Territory,") 
" Lecomfton, February 20th, 1857. ) 

" Hon. Wm. L. Marcy, Secretary of State : 

" Sir : Your dispatch of the 4th instant, inclosing me a copy of Judge Le- 
compte's letter in the Hays case, and calling my attention ' to discrepancies 
between the statements of that letter, and those contained in your (my) official 
communication of 19th of September last,' and requesting 'explanation,' was 
received by the last mail. 

" In reply, I have simply to state, that ' what I have written, I have written,' 
and I have nothing further to add, alter or amend on this subject. 

" My executive minutes, faithfully chronicling my official actions, and the 
policy which dictated them at the time they occurred, and my various dis- 
patches to the government, contaiu but the simple truth, told without fear, 
favor, or affection, and I will esteem it a favor to have them all published for 
the inspection of the country. " Tour obedient servant, 

" Jno. W. Geary, 
" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

The president made a show of removing Lecompte, by nominating Mr. 
Harrison, of Kentucky, to the senate, without issuing a writ of supersedas. 
This enabled the senate to withhold their confirmation of Harrison's appoint- 
ment, and Judge Lecompte remained in office. 

During the latter part of September, information was received by Governor 
Geary that Colonel Lane, with a force of a thousand men and several pieces of 
artillery, was preparing to enter Kansas by way of Nebraska. A detachment 
of troops, accompanied by deputy marshal Preston, was immediately sent to 
the northern frontier. They arrested Captain James Redpath and 130 men, 
who had entered the territory armed, ecpiipped and organized, and escorted 
them to Lecompton. Redpath, in an interview with the governor, convinced 
him that the prisoners were a company of peaceable immigrants, and they were 
ix'cordiugly released. 

Another representation was made to the governor, that Redpath's party was 
but an advanced guard of the forces of Lane, who had contracted with the 
ferryman at Nebraska City, for the transit of 700 men and three pieces of can- 
non. Three hundred dragoons under Colonels Cook and Johnson were forth- 
with dispatched to intercept their passage. 

On the 1st of October a deputation waited upon the governor, stating that 
they had been sent by General Pomeroy and Colonels Eldridge and Perry, 
who were escorting three hundred immigrants into the territory by way of Ne- 
braska ; that they did not come to disturb the peace, but as bona fide settlers 



756 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

with agricultural implements ; that they did not wish to enter the territory, in 
its present disturbed state without notifying the governor. In ■ reply, the gov- 
ernor informed his visitors that he was determined no armed bodies of men, 
with cannon and munitions of war, should enter the territory to the terror of 
peaceable citizens ; that there was no further occasion for such demonstrations; 
that he would, on the other hand, welcome all immigrants who should come 
for peaceful and lawful purposes ; that he would furnish them a safe escort, and 
guarantee them protection. He then gave the deputation a letter directing all 
military commanders to give Colonel Eldridge's party a safe escort, should 
they be, as represented, a party of peaceable immigrants. 

Shortly afterwards the governor received the following dispatch from Col. 
Cook, by the hands of deputy marshal Preston. 

"Head-quarters, Camp near Nebraska River,") 
"Kansas Territory, October 10, 1856. j 
" His Excellency, J. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory. 
Sir: Colonel Preston, deputy marshal, has arrested, with my assistance, and 
disarmed, a large body of j>rofessed immigrants, being entirely provided with 
arms and munitions of war ; amongst which, two officer's and sixty-one pri- 
vate's sabres, and many boxes of new saddles. Agreeably to your requisition 
of September 26th, I send an escort to conduct them, men, arms, and muni- 
tions of war, to appear before you at the capitol. Colonel Preston will give 
you the details. 

I have the honor to be, with high respect, your obedient servant, 

P. St. George Cook, 
Lieutenant Colonel 2d Dragoons, Comm'g in the Field." 

Prom the letter of Governor Geary to Secretary Marcy, dated October 
15th, we gather the particulars of this arrest, He says : 

" Colonel Win. S. Preston, a deputy U. S. Marshal, who had accompanied 
Colonel Cook and his command to the northern frontier to look after a large 
party of professed immigrants who were reported to be about invading the ter- 
ritory in that quarter in warlike array and for hostile purposes, returned to 
Lecompton on the 12th instant. 

" He informed me that he had caused to be arrested, an organized band, 
consisting of about two hundred and forty persons, among whom were a very 
few women and children, comprising some seven families. 

" This party was regularly formed in military order, and were under the 
command of General Pomeroy, Colonels Eldridge and Perry, and others. 
They had with them twenty wagons, in which was a supply of new arms, mostly 
muskets and sabres, and a lot of saddles, &c, sufficient to equip a battalion, 
consisting one-fourth of cavalry and the remainder of infantry. Besides these 
arms, the immigrants were provided with shot-guns, rifles, pistols, knives, &c, 
sufficient for the ordinary uses of persons traveling in Kansas, or any other of 
the western territories. From the reports of the officers, I learn they had 



OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 757 

with them neither oxen, household furniture, mechanics' tools, agricultural im- 
plements, nor any of the necsseary appurtenances of peaceful settlers. 

" These persons entered the territory on the morning of the 10th instant, and 
met Colonel Cook's command a few miles south of the territorial line. Here 
the deputy-marshal questioned them as to their intentions, the contents of their 
wagons, and such other matters as he considered necessary in the exercise of 
his official duties. Not satisfied with their answers, and being refused the pri- 
vilege of searching their effects, he felt justified in considering them a party 
organized and armed in opposition to my proclamation of the 11th of Septem- 
ber. After consultation with Colonel Cook and other officers of the army, who 
agreed with him in regard to the character of the immigrants, he directed a 
search to be made, which resulted in the discovery of the arms already men- 
tioned. 

" An escort was offered them to Lecompton, that I might examine them in 
person, and decide as to their intentions, which they refused to accept. Their 
superfluous arms were then taken in charge of the troops, and the entire party 
put under arrest — the families, and all others, individually, being permitted to 
retire from the organization, if so disposed. Few availed themselves of this 
privilege. 

" But little delay, and less annoyance, was occasioned them by these pro- 
ceedings. Every thing that circumstances required or permitted was done for 
the comfort and convenience of the prisoners. Their journey was facilitated 
rather than retarded. They were accompanied by a squadron of United 
States dragoons, in command of Major H. H. Sibley. A day's rations were 
dealt out to them, and they were allowed to pursue the route themselves had 
chosen. 

"Being apprised of the time at which they would probably arrive at Tope- 
ka, I forwarded orders for their detention on the northern side of the river, 
near that place, where, as I promised, I met them on the morning of the 14th 
instant. 

" I addressed these people in their encampment, in regard to the present 
condition of the territory, the suspicious position they occupied, and the repre- 
hensible attitude they had assumed. I reminded them that there was no possi- 
ble necessity or excuse for the existence of large armed organizations at pres- 
ent in the territory. Everything was quiet and peaceful. And the very ap- 
pearance of such an unauthorized and injudicious array as they presented, 
while it could do no good, was calculated, if not intended, to spread anew dis- 
trust and consternation through the territory, and rekindle the fires of discord 
and strife that had swept over the land, ravaging and desolating everything 
that lay in their destructive path. 

" Their apology for an evident disregard of my proclamation, was, that they 
had made arrangements to emigrate to Kansas when the territory was not only 
disturbed by antagonistic political parties, armed for each other's destruction, 
but when numerous bands of marauders, whose business was plunder and assas- 



758 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

sination, infested all the highways, rendering travel extremely hazardous, even 
though every possible means for self-protection were employed. 

" After showing the necessity of so doing, I insisted on the immediate dis- 
handment of this combination, which was agreed to with great alacrity. The 
majority of the men were evidently gratified to learn that they had been de- 
ceived in relation to Kansas affairs, and that peace and quiet, instead of strife 
and contention, were reigning here. My remarks were received with frequent 
demonstrations of approbation, and at their close the organization was broken 
up, its members dispersing in various directions. After they had been dismiss- 
ed from custody, and the fact was announced to them by Major Sibley, their 
thankfulness for his kind treatment to them while under arrest was acknowl- 
edged by giving him three hearty and enthusiastic cheers." 

Soon after the letter, from which the foregoing is extracted, was forwarded 
to Washington, the following statement from the leaders of the party in ques- 
tion was received by Governor Geary : 

"Topeka, Kansas Territory,") 
"October 14, 1856. ) 

" His Excellency, John W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory: 

" Dear Sir : We, the undersigned, conductors of an emigrant train, who en- 
tered the terrritory on the 10th instant, beg leave to make the following state- 
ment of facts, which, if required, we will attest upon our oaths. 

" 1st. Our party numbered from two hundred to three hundred persons, in 
two separate companies ; the rear company, which has not yet arrived, being 
principally composed of families, with children, who left Mount Pleasant, 
Iowa, three days after this train which has arrived to-day. 

" 2d. We are all actual, bona fide settlers, intending, so far as we know, to 
become permanent inhabitants. 

"3d. The blockading of the Missouri river to free-state emigrants, and the 
reports which reached us in the early part of September, to the effect that 
armed men were infesting and marauding the northern portions of Kansas, 
were the sole reasons why we came in a company and were armed. 

" 4th. We were stopped near the northern line of the territory by the United 
States troops, acting, as we understood, under the orders of one Preston, 
deputy United States marshal, and after stating to the officers who we were 
and what we had, they commenced searching our wagons (in some instances 
breaking open trunks, and throwing bedding and wearing apparel on the 
ground in the rain,) taking arms from the wagons, wresting some private arms 
from the hands of men, carrying away a lot of sabres belonging to a gentleman 
in the territory, as also one and a half kegs of powder, purcussion caps, and 
some cartridges ; in consequence of which we were detained about two-thirds 
of a day, taken prisoners and are now presented to you. 

" All we have to say is, that our mission to this territory is entirely peaceful. 
We have no organization, save a police organization for our own regulation 
and defense on the way. And coming in that spirit to this territory, we claim 



DISPATCHES. 759 

the rights of American citizens to bear arms, and to be exempt from unlawful 
search and seizure. 

" Trusting to your integrity and impartiality, we have confidence to believe 
that our property will be restored to us, and that all that has been wrong will 
be righted. 

" We here subscribe ourselves, cordially and truly, your friends and fellow- 
citizens, "S. W. Eldridge, Conductor, 

" Samuel C. Pomeroy, 
" John A. Perry, 
" Robert Morrow, 
"Edward Daniels, 
"Richard Raelf." 

During the latter part of October, the governor made a tour of observation 
through the southern and western portions of the territory, and on his return 
addressed the following letter to Secretary Marcy, which will explain the state 

)f affairs at that time : 

"Executive Department, K. T.,> 
Lecompton, Nov. 7, 1856. J 
" Hon. Wm. L. Marcy, Secretary of State : 

" Sir : I have just returned to this place, after an extended tour of obser- 
vation through a large portion of this territory. I left Lecompton on the 17th 
ult, via Lawrence, Franklin, Wakarusa Creek, Hickory Point, Ottawa Creek, 
Osawattomie, Bull Creek, Paoli, Potawattomie, North and South Middle 
Creeks, Big and Little Sugar Creeks, and Sugar Mound, passing westward 
along the California and Santa Fe road to Fort Riley ; thence down the Kan- 
sas river, via Pawnee, Riley City, Manhattan, Waubonsee, Baptist Mission, 
Topeka, Tecumseh, and other places. I also visited, at their houses, as many 
citizens as I conveniently could, and addressed various bodies of people, as I 
have reason to believe, with beneficial results. 

" During this tour I have obtained much valuable information relative to 
affairs in Kansas, and made myself familiar with the wants and grievances of 
the people, which will enable me to make such representations to the next leg- 
islature and the government at Washington, as will be most conducive to the 
public interests. The general peace of the territory remains unimpaired ; con- 
fidence is being gradually and surely restored ; business is resuming its ordi- 
nary channels; citizens are preparing for winter; and there is a readiness 
among the good people of all parties to sustain my administration. 

"Very respectfully, your obed't servt, Jno. W. Geary, 

" Governor of Kansas Territory." 

On the 31st December, 1856, the governor again addressed Secretary Marcy 
as follows, in regard to the condition of the territory at that period : 

" In reviewing, on this, the last evening of the year, the events of the past 
four months, and contrasting the disturbed condition of affairs upon my advent 
with the present tranquil and happy state of things, which has held its sway 



760 TROUBLES m KANSAS. 

for the last three months, I must congratulate the administration and the coun- 
try upon the auspicious results. Crime, so rife and daring at the period of 
my arrival, is almost entirely banished. I can truthfully assure you, that in 
proportion to her population and extent, less crime is now being committed in 
Kansas than in any other portion of the United States. " 

The 6th of January, 1857, was the day appointed for the meeting of the free 
state legislature at Topeka. As apprehensions were entertained as to the 
results of this meeting, the governor had taken precautions against any evil 
consequences ; but there were persons about Lecompton who were unwilling 
to trust the management of the affair to the governor. A writ for the arrest 
of the Topeka legislators had been quietly issued by Judge Cato, on the oath 
of Sheriff Jones, which was served by deputy marshall Pardee — Jones being 
present — on the members assembled, who yielded themselves prisoners without 
resistance, much to the disappointment of the sheriff and his coadjutors. The 
prisoners were conveyed to Tecumseh, where they received a hearing before 
Judge Cato, who liberated them on their own recognizance. They were, of 
course, never brought to trial, the district attorney entering nolle prosequies 
in theirs, as in all other cases of free state treason prisoners. 

The territorial legislative assembly met at Lecompton on the 12th of Janu- 
ary, and was duly organized. A committee was appointed to wait upon the 
governor, and apprise him of the organization. On the following morning his 
message was read before both houses. 

MESSAGE. 

Gentlemen of the Council and op the House op Representatives : 

The All- Wise and beneficent Being, who controls alike the destinies of 
individuals and of nations, has permitted you to convene, this day, charged 
with grave responsibilities. 

The eyes, not only of the people of Kansas, but of the entire Union, are 
upon you, watching with anxiety the result of your deliberations, and of our 
joint action in the execution of the delicate and important duties devolving 
upon us. 

Selected at a critical period in the history of the country, to discharge the 
executive functions of this territory, the obligations I was required to assume 
were of the most weighty importance. And when I came seriously to contem- 
plate their magnitude, I would have shrunk from the responsibility, were it not 
for an implicit reliance upon Divine aid, and a full confidence in the virtue, 
zeal and patriotism of the citizens, without which the wisest executive suggest- 
ions must be futile and inoperative. 

To you, legislators, invested with sovereign authority, I look for that hearty 
cooperation which will enable us successfully to guide the ship of state through 
the troubled waters, into the haven of safety. It is with feelings of profound 
gratitude to Almighty God, the bounteous Giver of all good, I have the pleas- 
ure of announcing, that after the bitter contest of opinion through which we 
have recently passed, and which has unfortunately led to fratricidal strife, that 



governor geary's message. 761 

peace, which I have every reason to believe to be permanent, now reigns 
throughout the territory, and gladdens, with its genial influences, homes and 
hearts which but lately were sad and desolate ; that the robber and the mur- 
derer have been driven from our soil ; that burned cabins have been replaced 
by substantial dwellings ; that a feeling of confidence and kindness has taken 
the place of distrust and hate ; that all good citizens are disposed to deplore 
the errors and excesses of the past, and unite with fraternal zeal in repairing 
its injuries ; and that this territory, unsurpassed by any portion of the conti- 
nent for the salubrity of its climate and the fertility of its soil, its mineral and 
agricultural wealth, its timber-fringed streams and fine quarries of building 
stone, has entered upon a career of unparalleled prosperity. 

To maintain the advance we have made, and realize the bright anticipations 
of the future ; to build up a model commonwealth, enriched with all the treas- 
ures of learning, of virtue and religion, and make it a choice heritage for our 
children and generations yet unborn, let me, not only as your executive, but as 
a Kansan, devoted to the interests of Kansas, and animated solely by patriotic 
purposes, with all earnestness invoke you, with one heart and soul, to pursue 
so high and lofty a course in your deliberations, as, by its moderation and jus- 
tice, will commend itself to the approbation of the country, and command the 
respect of the people. 

This being the first occasion offered me to speak to the legislative assembly, 
it is but proper, and in accordance with general usage, that I should declare 
the principles which shall give shape and tone to my administration. These 
principles, without elaboration, I will condense into the narrowest compass. 

" Equal and exact justice " to all men, of whatever political or religious 
persuasion ; peace, comity, and friendship with neighboring states and territo- 
ries, with a sacred regard for state rights, and reverential respect for the integ- 
rity and perpetuity of the Union ; a reverence for the federal constitution as 
the concentrated wisdom of the fathers of the republic, and the very ark of 
our political safety ; the cultivation of a pure and energetic nationality, and the 
development of an excellent and intensely vital patriotism ; a jealous regard 
for the elective franchise, and the entire, security and sanctity of the ballot-box ; 
a firm determination to adhere to the doctrines of self-government and popular 
sovereignty, as guaranteed by the organic law; unqualified submission to the 
will of the majority ; the election of all officers by the people themselves ; 
the supremacy of the civil over the military power ; strict economy in public 
expenditures, with a rigid accountability of all public officers ; the preserva- 
tion of the public faith, and a currency based upon, and equal to, gold and 
silver ; free and safe immigration from every quarter of the country ; the culti- 
vation of the proper territorial pride, with a firm determination to submit to 
no invasion of our sovereignty ; the fostering care of agriculture, manufactures, 
mechanic arts, and all works of internal improvement ; the liberal and free 
education of all the children of the territory ; entire religious freedom ; a free 
press, free speech, and the peaceable right to assemble and discuss all questions 
of public interest ; trial by jurors impartially selected ; the sanctity of the 
49 



762 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

habeas corpus ; the repeal of all laws inconsistent with the constitution of the 
United States and the organic act, and the steady administration of the gov- 
ernment so as best to secure the general welfare. 

These sterling maxims, sanctioned by the wisdom and experience of the past, 
and the observance of which has brought our country to so exalted a position 
among the nations of the earth, will be steady lights by which my administra- 
tion shall be guided. 

A summary view of the state of the territory upon my advent, with an al- 
lusion to some of my official acts, may not be inappropriate to this occasion, 
and may serve to inspire your counsels with that wisdom and prudence, by a 
contemplation of the frightful excesses of the past, so essential to the adoption 
of measures to prevent their recurrence, and enable you to lay the broad and 
solid foundations of a future commonwealth which may give protection and 
happiness to millions of freemen. 

It accords not with my policy or intentions to do the least injustice to any 
citizen or party of men in this territory or elsewhere. Pledged to do " equal 
and exact justice " in my executive capacity, I am inclined to throw the veil 
of oblivion over the errors and outrages of the period antecedent to my arrival, 
except so far as reference to them may be necessary for substantial justice, and 
to explain and develope the policy which has shed the benign influences of 
peace upon Kansas, and which, if responded to by the legislature in a spirit of 
kindness and conciliation, will contribute much to soothe those feelings of bit- 
terness and contention which in the past brought upon us such untold evils. 

I arrived at Fort Leavenworth on the ninth day of September last, and 
immediately assumed the executive functions. On the eleventh, I issued my 
inaugural address, declaring the general principles upon which I intended to 
administer the government. In this address, I solemnly pledged myself to sup- 
port the constitution of the United States, and to discharge my duties as gov- 
ernor of Kansas with fidelity ; to sustain all the provisions of the organic act, 
which I pronounced to be "eminently just and beneficial ;" to stand by the 
doctrine of popular sovereignty, or the will of the majority of the actual bona 
fide inhabitants, when legitimately expressed, which I characterized "the im- 
perative rule of civil action for every law-abiding citizen. " The gigantic evils 
under which this territory was groaning were attributed to outside influences, 
and the people of Kansas were earnestly invoked to suspend unnatural strife; 
to banish all extraneous and improper influences from their deliberations ; and 
in the spirit of reason and mutual conciliation to adjust their own differences. 
Such suggestions in relation to modifications of the present statutes as I deem- 
ed for the public interests, were promised at the proper time. It was declared 
that this territory was the common property of the people of the several states, 
and that no obstacle should be interposed to its free settlement, while in a ter- 
ritorial condition, by the citizens of every state of the Union. A just territo- 
rial pride was sought to be infused ; a pledge was solemnly given to know no 
party, no section, nothing but Kansas and the Union ; and the people were 
earnestly invoked to bury the past in oblivion, to suspend hostilities and re- 



gov. geary's message. 763 

A 

frain from the indulgence of bitter feeling ; to begin anew ; to devote them- 
selves to the true and substantial interests of Kansas ; develope her rich agri- 
cultural resources ; build up manufactures ; make public roads and other works 
of internal improvement ; prepare amply for the education of their children ; 
devote themselves to all the arts of peace, and make this territory the sanctu- 
ary of those cherished principles which protect the inalienable rights of the in 
dividual, and elevate states in their sovereign capacities. 

The foregoing is a brief summary of the principles upon which my admin- 
istration was commenced. I have steadily adhered to them, and time and trial 
have but served to strengthen my convictions of their justice. 

Coincident with my inaugural were issued two proclamations, the one, dis- 
banding the territorial militia, composed of a mixed force of citizens and oth- 
ers, and commanding " all bodies of men, combined, armed and equipped with 
munitions of war, without authority of the government, instantly to disband or 
quit the territory, as they would answer the contrary at their peril." The other, 
ordering " all free male citizens qualified to bear arms, between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five years, to enroll themselves, that they might be completely 
organized by companies, regiments, brigades, and divisions, and hold them- 
selves in readiness to be mustered, by my order, into the service of the United 
States, upon a requisition of the commander of the military department in 
which Kansas is embraced, for the suppression of all unlawful combinations, 
and for the maintenance of public order and civil government." 

The policy of these proclamations is so evident, and their beneficial effects 
have been so apparent, as to require no vindication. 

The territory was declared by the acting-governor to be in a state of insur- 
rection ; the civil authority was powerless — entirely without capacity to vindi- 
cate the majesty of the law and restore the broken peace ; the existing difficul- 
ties were of a far more complicated character than I had anticipated ; preda- 
tory bands, whose sole aim, unrelieved by the mitigation of political causes, was 
assassination, arson, plunder, and rapine, had undisturbed possession of some 
portions of the territory, while every part of it was kept in constant alarm and 
terror by the advocates of political sentiments, uniting, according to their re- 
spective sympathies, in formidable bodies of armed men, completely equipped 
with munitions of war, and resolved upon mutual extermination as the only 
hope of peace ; unoffending and peaceable citizens were driven from their 
homes; others murdered in their own dwellings, which were given to the 
flames; that sacred respect for woman which has characterized all civilized na- 
tions, seemed in the hour of mad excitement to be forgotten ; partisan feeling, 
on all sides, intensely excited by a question which inflamed the entire nation, 
almost closed the minds of the people against me ; idle and mendacious ru- 
mors, well calculated to produce exasperation and destroy confidence, were 
everywhere rife ; the most unfortunate suspicions prevailed ; in isolated coun- 
try places no man's life was safe ; robberies and murders were of daily occur- 
rence ; nearly every farm-house was deserted ; and no traveler could safely 
venture on the highway without an escort. This state of affairs was greatly 



764 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

aggravated by the interference of prominent politicians outside of the territory. 
The foregoing is but a faint outline of the fearful condition of things which 
ruled Kansas and convulsed the nation. The full picture will be drawn by the 
iron pen of impartial history, and the actors in the various scenes will be as- 
signed their true positions. 

I came here a stranger to your difficulties, without prejudice, with a solemn 
sense of my official obligations, and with a lofty resolution to put a speedy ter- 
mination to events so fraught with evil, and which, if unchecked, would have 
floated the country into the most bloody civil war. 

Hesitation, or partisan affiliations, would have resulted in certain failure, and 
only served further to complicate affairs. To restore peace and order, and re- 
lieve the people from the evils under which they were laboring, it was neces- 
sary that an impartial, independent, and just policy should be adopted, which 
would embrace in its protection all good citizens, without distinction of party, 
and sternly punish all bad men who continued to disturb the public tranquility. 
Accordingly, my inaugural address and proclamations were immediately circu- 
lated among the people, in order that they might have early notice of my in 
tentions. 

On the fourteenth day of September, reliable information was received that 
a large body of armed men were marching to attack Hickory Point, on the 
north side of the Kansas river. I immediately dispatched a squadron of United 
States dragoons, with instruction to capture and bring to this place any persons 
whom they might find acting in violation of my proclamation. In pursuance 
of these instructions, one hundred and one prisoners were taken, and commit- 
ted for trial. 

While a portion of the army was performing this duty, I was advised that 
a large body of men was approaching the town of Lawrence, determined upon 
its destruction. I at once ordered three hundred United States troops to that 
place, and repaired there in person. Within four miles of Lawrence, I found 
a force of twenty-seven hundred men, consisting of citizens of this -territory 
and other places, organized as territorial militia, under a proclamation of the 
late acting governor. I disbanded this force, ordering the various companies 
composing it, to repair to their respective places of rendezvous, there to be 
mustered out of service. My orders were obeyed ; the militia retired to their 
homes ; the effusion of blood was prevented ; the preservation of Lawrence ef- 
fected ; and a great step made towards the restoration of peace and confidence. 

To recount my various official acts, following each other in quick succession 
under your immediate observation, would be a work of supererogation, and 
would occupy more space than the limits of an executive message would jus- 
tify. My executive minutes, containing a truthful history of my official trans- 
actions, with the policy which dictated them, have been forwarded to the gen- 
eral government, and are open to the inspection of the country. 

In relation to any alterations or modifications of the territorial statutes which 
I might deem advisable, I promised in my inaugural address to direct public 
attention at the proper time. In the progress of events, the time has arrived, 



gov. Geary's message. 765 

and you are the tribunal to which my suggestions must be submitted. On this 
subject I bespeak your candid attention, as it has an inseparable connection 
with the prosperity and happiness of the people. 

It has already been remarked that the territories of the United State are the 
common property of the citizens of the several states. It may be likened to 
a joint ownership in an estate, and no condition should be imposed or restric- 
tions placed upon the equal enjoyment of the benefits arising therefrom, which 
will do the least injustice to any of the owners, or which is not contemplated 
in the tenure by which it is held, which is no less than the constitution of the 
United States, the sole bond of the American Union. This being the true po- 
sition, no obstacle should be interposed to the free, speedy, and general settle- 
ment of this territory. 

The durability and imperative authority of a state constitution, when the 
interests of the people require a state government, and a direct popular vote is 
necessary to give it sanction and effect, will be the proper occasion, once for all, 
to decide the grave political questions which underlie a well regulated com- 
monwealth. 

Let this, then, be the touchstone of your deliberations. Enact no law which 
will not clearly bear the constitutional test ; and if any laws have been passed 
which do not come up to this standard, it is your solemn duty to sweep them 
from the statute book. 

The territorial government should abstain from the exercise of authority not 
clearly delegated to it, and should permit all doubtful questions to remain in 
abeyance until the formation of a state constitution. 

On the delicate and exciting question of slavery, a subject which so pecu- 
liarly engaged the attention of congress at the passage of our organic act, I 
cannot too earnestly invoke you to permit it to remain where the constitution 
of the United States and that act place it, subject to the decision of the courts 
upon all points arising during our present infant condition. 

The repeal of the Missouri line, which was a restriction on popular sover- 
eignty, anew consecrated the great doctrine of self-government, and restored 
to the people their full control over every question of interest to themselves, 
both north and south of that line. 

Justice to the country and the dictates of sound policy require that the leg- 
islature should confine itself to such subjects as will preserve the basis of entire 
equality ; and when a sufficient population is here, and they choose to adopt a 
state government, that they shall be "perfectly free," without let or hindrance, 
to form all their domestic institutions "in their own way," and to dictate that 
form of government which in their deliberate judgment may be deemed proper. 

Any attempt to incite servile insurrection and to interfere with the domestic 
institutions of sovereign states, is extremely reprehensible, and shall receive no 
countenance from me. Such intervention can result in no good, but is preg- 
nant with untold disasters. Murder, arson, rapine, and death follow in its 
wake, while not one link in the fetters of the slave is weakeued or broken, or 
any amelioration in his condition secured. Such interference is a direct inva- 



7C6 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

sion of state rights, only calculated to produce irritation and estrangement. 
Every dictate of self-respect — every consideration of state equality — the 
glories of the past and the hopes of the future — all, with soul-stirring elo- 
quence, constrain us to cultivate a reverential awe for the constitution as the 
sheet-anchor of our safety, and bid us, in good faith, to carry out all its provi- 
sions. 

Many of the statutes are excellent, and suited to our wants and condition, 
but in order that they may receive that respect and sanction which is the vital 
principle of all law, let such be abolished as are not eminently just and will 
not receive the*fullest approbation of the people. I trust you will test them 
all by the light of the general and fundamental principles of our government, 
and that all that will not bear this ordeal, be revised, amended, or repealed. 
To some of them which strike my mind as objectionable, your candid and spe- 
cial attention is respectfully invited. 

By carefully comparing the organic act, as printed in the statutes, with a 
certified copy of the same from the department of state, important discrepan- 
cies, omissions and additions will be discovered. I therefore recommend the 
appointment of a committee, to compare the printed statutes with the original 
rolls on file in the secretary's office, to ascertain whether the same liberty has 
been taken with the act under which they were made. 

Of the numerous errors discovered by me in the copy of the organic act as 
printed in the statutes, I will refer to one in illustration of my meaning. In 
the 29th section, defining the executive authority, will be found the following 
striking omission — " against the laws of said territory, and reprieves for 
offenses." This omission impairs the executive authority, and deprives the 
governor of the pardoning power for offenses committed " against the laws of 
the territory," which congress, for the wisest and most humane reasons, has 
conferred upon him. 

The organic act requires every bill to be presented to the governor, and de- 
mands his signature, as the evidence of his approval, before it can become a 
law. The statutes are defective in this respect, as they do not contain the 
date of approval, nor the proper evidence of that fact, by having the governor's 
signature. 

Your attention is invited to chapter 30, in relation to county boundaries. 
The boundary of Douglas county is imperfect, and in connection with Shaw- 
nee county, is an absurdity for both counties. The boundary lines for all the 
counties should be absolutely established. 

Chapter 44, establishing the probate court, also requires attention. The act 
is good generally, so far as it relates to the organization and duties of the 
court. But all provisions in this and other acts, vesting the appointment of 
probate judges, county commissioners, and other public officers, in the legisla- 
tive assembly, should at once be repealed, and the unqualified right of election 
conferred upon the people, whose interests are immediately affected by the acts 
of those officials. The free and unrestricted right of the people to select all 
their own agents, is a maxim so well settled in political ethics, and springs 60 



governor geary's message. 767 

legitimately from the doctrines of self-government, that I need only to allude 
to the question to satisfy every one of its justice. The "people must be per- 
fectly free " to regulate their own business in their own way ; and when the 
voice of the majority is fairly expressed, all will bow to it as the voice of God. 
Let the people, then, rule in everything. I have every confidence in the virtue 
intelligence, and "sober thought" of the toiling millions. The deliberate 
popular judgment is never wrong. When, in times of excitement, the popu- 
lar mind may be temporarily obscured from the dearth of correct information 
or the mists of passion, the day of retribution and justice speedily follows, and 
a summary reversal is the certain result. Just and patriotic sentiment is a 
sure reliance for every honest public servant. The sovereignty of the people 
must be maintained. 

Section 15th of this act allows writs of habeas corpus to be issued by the 
probate judge, but leaves him no authority to hear the case and grant justice; 
but refers the matter to the "next term of the district court." The several 
terms of the district court are at stated periods, and the provision alluded to 
amounts to a denial of justice and a virtual suspension of "the great writ of 
liberty," contrary to the letter and spirit of the constitution of the United 
States. 

Many provisions of chapter 66, entitled " Elections," are objectionable. 
Section 11th, requiring certain " test oaths " as pre-requisites to the right of 
suffrage, is wrong, unfair, and uneqal upon the citizens of different sections 
of the Union. It is exceedingly invidious to require obedience to any special 
enactment. The peculiar features of these test oaths should be abolished, and 
all citizens presumed to be law-abiding and patriotic until the contrary clearly 
appears. Sworn obedience to particular statutes has seldom secured that 
object. Justice will ever commend itself to the support of all honest men, and 
the surest means of insuring the ready execution of law, is to make it so pre- 
eminently just, equal and impartial as to command the respect of those whom 
it is intended to affect. 

Section 36th deprives electors of the great safeguard of the purity and in- 
dependence of the elective franchise : I mean the right to vote by ballot ; and 
after the first day of November, 1856, requires all voting to be viva voce. 
This provision, taken in connection with section 9th, which provides that "if 
all the votes offered cannot be taken before the hour appointed for closing the 
polls, the judges shall by public proclamation, adjourn such election until the 
following day, when the polls shall again be opened, and the election continued 
as before," &c, offers great room for fraud and corruption. Voting viva voce, 
the condition of the poll can be ascertained at any moment. If the parties 
having the election officers are likely to be defeated, they have the option of 
adjourning for the purpose of drumming up votes ; or in the insane desire of 
victory, may be tempted to resort to other means even more reprehensible. 
The right of voting by ballot is now incorporated into the constitutions of 
nearly all the states, and is classed with the privileges deemed sacred. The 
arguments in its favor are so numerous and overwhelming that I have no hesi- 



768 TROUBLES N KANSAS. 

tation in recommending its adoption. The election law should be carefully exam- 
ined, and such guards thrown around it as will most effectually secure the sanctity 
of the ballot-box and preserve it from the taint of a single illegal vote. The 
man who will deliberately tamper with the elective franchise and dare to offer 
an illegal vote, strikes at the foundation of justice, undermines the pillars of 
society, applies the torch to the temple of our liberties, and should receive 
severe puuishment. As a qualification for voting, a definite period of actual 
inhabitancy in the territory, to the exclusion of a home elsewhere, should be 
rigidly prescribed. No man should be permitted to vote upon a floating resi- 
dence. He should have resided within the territory for a period of not less 
than ninety days, and in the district where he offers to vote at least ten days 
immediately preceding such election. All the voters should be registered and 
published for a certain time previous to the election. False voting should be 
severely punished, and false swearing to receive a vote visited with the pains 
and penalties of perjury. 

In this connection your attention is also invited to chapter 92, entitled 
" Jurors." This chapter leaves the selection of jurors to the absolute discre- 
tion of the marshal, sheriff, or constable, as the case may be, and affords great 
room for partiality and corruption. The names of all properly qualified citi- 
zens, without party distinction, should be thrown into a wheel or box, and at 
stated periods, under the order of the courts, jurors should be publicly drawn 
by responsible persons. Too many safeguards cannot be thrown around the 
right of trial by jury, in order that it may still continue to occupy that cher- 
ished place in the affections of the people so essential to its preservation and 
sanctity. 

Some portions of chapter 110, " Militia," infringes the executive preroga- 
tive, impairs the governor's usefulness, and clearly conflicts with the organic 
act. This act requires the executive to reside in the territory, and makes him 
" commander-in-chief of the militia." This power must be vested some place, 
and is always conferred upon the chief magistrate. Section 2G virtually confers 
this almost sovereign prerogative " upon any commissioned officer," and per- 
mits him, " whenever and as often as any invasion or danger may come to his 
knowledge, to order out the militia or volunteer corps, or any part thereof, 
under his command, for the defense of the the territory," &c; thus almost 
giving "any commissioned officer" whatever, at his option, the power to in- 
volve the territory in war. 

Section 12 provides for a general militia training on the first Monday of 
October, the day fixed for the general election. This is wrong, and is well 
calculated to incite to terrorism. The silent ballots of the people, unawed by 
military display, should quietly and definitely determine all questions of public 
interest. 

The other sections of the law, requiring the appointment of field and com- 
missioned officers, should be repealed. All officers should derive their au- 
thority directly from their respective commands, by election. To make the 
military system complete and effective, there must be entire subordination and 



gov. Geary's message. 769 

unity running from the commander-in-chief to the humblest soldier, and one 
spirit must animate the entire system. 

The 122d chapter, in relation to "patrols," is unnecessary. It renders all 
other property liable to heavy taxation for the protection of slave property ; 
thus operating unequally upon citizens, and is liable to the odious charge of 
being a system of espionage, as it authorizes the patrols, an indefinite number 
of whom may be appointed, to visit not only negro quarters, but "any other 
places " suspected of unlawful assemblages of slaves. 

Chapter 181, "Preemption," squanders the school fund, by appropriating 
the school sections contrary to the organic act, which provides "that sections 
numbered sixteen and thirty-six, in each township in Kansas territory, shall be, 
and the same are hereby reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in 
said territory, and in the states and territories to be erected out of the same ;" 
contravenes the United States preemption laws, which forbid trafficking in 
claims, and holding more than one claim ; and directs the governor to grant 
patents for lauds belonging to the United States, and only conditionally granted 
to the territory. This act is directly calculated to destroy the effect of a mu- 
nificent grant of land by congress for educational purposes. The territory is 
the trustee of this valuable gift, and posterity has the right to demand of us 
that this sacred trust shall remain unimpaired, in order that the blessings of 
free education may be shed upon our children. 

Every state should have the best educational system which an intelligent 
government can provide. The physical, moral and mental faculties should be 
cultivated in harmonious unison, and that system of education is the best which 
will effect these objects. Congress has already provided for the support of 
common schools. In addition to this, I would recommend the legislature to 
ask congress to donate land lying in this territory for the establishment of a 
university, embracing a normal, agricultural and mechanical school. A uni- 
versity, thus endowed, would be a blessing to our people ; disseminate useful 
and scientific intelligence ; provide competent teachers for our primary schools ; 
and furnish a complete system of education adequate to our wants in all the 
departments of life. 

The subject of roads, bridges and highways, merits your especial attention. 
Nothing adds more to comfort, convenience, prosperity and happiness, and 
more greatly promotes social intercourse and kind feeling, than easy and con- 
venient inter-communication. Roads should be wide and straight, and the 
various rivers and ravines substantially bridged. 

Railroads should be encouraged ; and in granting charters, the legislature 
should have in view the interests of the whole people. The prosperity of the 
territory is intimately connected with the early and general construction of the 
rapid and satisfactory means of transit. 

While on the subject of internal improvement, I would call to your notice 
and solicit for it your serious consideration, the opening, at the earliest period, 
of a more easy means of communication with the seaboard than any we at 
present enjoy. One great obstacle to our prosperity is the immense distance 



770 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

of Kansas from all the great maritime depots of the country by any of the 
routes now traveled. This can be removed by the construction of a railway, 
commencing at an appropriate place in this territory, and running southwardly 
through the Indian territory and Texas, to the most eligible point on the Gulf 
of Mexico. The entire length of such a road would not exceed six hundred 
miles, much less than half the distance to the Atlantic, and at an ordinary 
speed of railroad travel could be traversed in less than twenty-four hours. It 
would pass through a country remarkable for beauty of scenery, fertility of 
soil and salubrity of climate, and which has properly been styled " the Eden 
of the world ;" and would open up new sources of wealth superior to any that 
have yet been discovered on the eastern division of the continent. It would 
place Kansas, isolated as she now is, in as favorable a position for commercial 
enterprises as very many of the most populous states in the Union, and furnish 
her a sure, easy and profitable market for her products, as well as a safe, expe- 
ditious and economical means of obtaining all her needed supplies at every 
season of the year. You will not fail at once to perceive the importance of 
this suggestion. Not only Kansas and Nebraska, but the entire country 
west of the Mississippi, will be vastly benefited by its adoption. The advan- 
tages to Texas would be incalculable. And should you be favorably impressed 
with the feasibility of the plan, I would advise that you communicate, in your 
legislative capacity, with the legislature of that state, and that also of the ter- 
ritory of Nebraska, in regard to the most effectual measures for its speedy ac- 
complishment. 

Chapter 149, permitting settlers to hold three hundred and twenty acres of 
land, is in violation of the preemption laws, and leads to contention and liti- 
gation. 

Chapter 151, relating to "slaves," attacks the equality which underlies the 
theory of our territorial government ; and destroys the freedom of speech, and 
the privileges of public discussion, so essential to uncloak error, and enable the 
people properly to mould their institutions in their own way. The freedom of 
speech and press, and the right of public discussion upon all matters affecting 
the interest of the people, are the great constitutional safeguards of popular 
rights, liberty and happiness. 

The act in relation to a territorial library, makes the auditor ex-officio libra- 
rian, and gives him authority to audit his own accounts. These offices should 
be distinct, as their duties conflict. 

The congressional appropriation for a territorial library has been expended 
in the purchase of a ver valuable collection of books. 

Time and space will not permit me to point cut all the inconsistencies and 
incongruities found in the Kansas statutes. Passed, as they were, under the 
influence of excitement, and in too brief a period to secure mature delibera- 
tion, many of them are open to criticism aud censure, and should pass under 
your careful revision, with a view to modification or repeal. Some which have 
been most loudly complained of have never been enforced. It is a bad princi- 
ple to suffer dead-letter laws to deface the statute book. It impairs salutary 



gov. Geary's message. 771 

reverence for law, and excites in the popular mind a questioning of all law, 
which leads to anarchy and confusion. The best way is to leave no law on the 
statute book which is not uniformly and promptly to be administered with the 
authority and power of the government. 

In traveling through the territory, I have discovered great anxiety in rela- 
tion to the damages sustained during the past civil disturbances, and every- 
where the question has been asked as to whom they should look for indemnity. 
These injuries — burning houses, plundering fields, and stealing horses and other 
property — have been a fruitful source of irritation and trouble, and have im- 
poverished many good citizens. They cannot be considered as springing from 
purely local causes, and as such, the subjects of territorial redress. Their ex- 
citing cause has been outside of this territory, and the agents in their perpe- 
tration have been the citizens of nearly every state in the Union. It has been 
a species of national warfare waged upon the soil of Kansas ; and it should 
not be forgotten that both parties were composed of men rusuiug here from 
various sections of the Union ; that both committed acts which no law can 
justify ; and the peaceable citizens of Kansas have been the victims. In ad- 
justing the question of damages, it appears proper that a broad and compre- 
hensive view of the subject should be taken ; and I have accordingly suggested 
to the general government the propriety of recommending to congress the pas- 
sage of an act providing for the appointment of a commissioner, to take testi- 
mony and report to congress for final action, at as early a day as possible. 

There is not a single officer in the territory amenable to the people or to the 
governor ; all having been appointed by the legislature, and holding their of- 
fices until 1857. This system of depriving the people of the just exercise of 
their rights, cannot be too strongly condemued. 

A faithful performance of duty should be exacted from all public officers. 

As the executive, I desire that the most cordial relations may exist between 
myself and all other departments of the government. 

Homesteads should be held sacred. Nothing so much strengthens a gov- 
ernment as giving its citizens a solid stake in the country. I am in favor of 
assuring to every industrious citizen one hundred and sixty acres of land. 

The money appropriated by congress for the erection of our capitol has been 
nearly expended. I have asked for an additional appropriation of fifty thou- 
sand dollars, which will scarcely be sufficient to complete the building upon the 
plan adopted by the architect. 

Where crime has been so abundant, the necessity for a territorial penitentiary 
is too evident to require elaboration, and I have therefore suggested a congres- 
sional appropriation for that purpose. 

The Kansas river, the natural channel to the west, which runs through a 
valley of unparalleled fertility, can be made navigable as far as Fort Riley, a 
distance of over one hundred miles, and congress should be petitioned for aid 
to accomplish this laudable purpose. Fort Riley has been built, at an expense 
exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, with the expectation that the river 



772 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

was navigable to that place, and doubtless the general government will readily 
unite with this territory to secure this object. 

A geological survey, developing the great mineral resources of this terri- 
tory, is so necessary as merely to require notice. Provision for this useful work 
should immediately be made. 

The early disposal of the public lands and their settlement will materially 
advance our substantial prosperity. Great anxiety prevails among the settlers 
to secure titles to their lands The facilities for this purpose, by but one land- 
office in the territory, are inadequate to the public wants, and I have conse- 
quently recommended the establishment of two or more additional land-offices 
in such positions as will best accommodate the people. 

After mature consideration, and from a thorough conviction of its propriety, 
I have suggested large congressional appropriations. The coming immigra- 
tion, attracted by our unrivaled soil and climate, will speedily furnish the requi- 
site population to make a sovereign state. Other territories have been for 
years the recipients of congressional bounty, and a similar amount of money 
and land bestowed upon them during a long period, should at once be given 
to Kansas, as, like the Eureka state, she will spring into full life, and the pros- 
perity of the territory, and the welfare and protection of the people coming 
here from every state of the Union, to test anew the experiment of republican 
government, require ample and munificent appropriations. 

As citizens of a territory, we are peculiarly and immediately und#r the pro- 
tecting influence of the Union, and, like the inhabitants of the states compris- 
ing it, feel a lively interest in all that concerns its welfare and prosperity. 
Within the last few years, sundry conflicting questions have been agitated 
throughout the country, and discussed in a spirit calculated to impair confi- 
dence in its strength and perpetuity, and furnish abundant cause for apprehen- 
sion and alarm. These questions have mostly been of a local or sectional char- 
acter, and as such should never have acquired general significance or import- 
ance. All American citizens should divest themselves of selfish considerations 
in relation to public affairs, and in the spirit of patriotism make dispassionate 
inquisition into the causes which have produced much alienation and bitterness 
among men whom the highest considerations require should be united in the 
bonds of fraternal fellowship. All Union-loving men should unite upon a plat- 
form of reason, equality, and patriotism. All sectionalism should be annihi- 
lated. All sections of the Union should be harmonized under a national, con- 
servative government, as during the early days of the republic. The value of 
the Union is beyond computation, and no respect is due to those who will even 
dare to calculate its value. One of our ablest statesmen has wisely and elo- 
quently said, " Who shall assign limits to the achievements of free minds and 
free hands under the protection of this glorious Union ? No treason to man- 
kind since the organization of society would be equal in atrocity to that of him 
who would lift his hand to destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest struc- 
ture of human wisdom, which protects himself and his fellow man. He would 
stop the progress of free government, and involve his country either in anarchy 



gov. Geary's message. 773 

or despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty which warms and ani- 
mates the hearts of happy millions, and invites all the nations of the earth to 
imitate our example." 

The soldier-president, whose exploits in the field were only equaled by his 
wisdom in the cabinet, with that singular sagacity which has stamped with the 
seal of prophecy all his foreshadowings, has repudiated, as morbid and un- 
wise, that philanthropy which looks to the amalgamation of the American with 
any inferior race. The white man, with his intellectual energy, far-reaching 
science, and indomitable perseverance, is the peculiar object of my sympathy, 
and should receive the especial protection and support of government. In this 
territory there are numerous " Indian reserves," of magnificent extent and 
choice fertility, capable of sustaining a dense civilized population, now held 
unimproved by numerous Indian tribes. These tribes are governed by Indian 
agents, entirely independent of the executive of this territory, and are, indeed, 
governments within a government. Frequent aggressions upou these reserves 
are occurring, which have produced collisions between the Indian agents and 
the settlers, who appeal to me for protection. Seeing so much land unoccu- 
pied and unimproved, these enterprising pioneers naturally question the policy 
which excludes them from soil devoted to no useful or legitimate purpose. Im- 
pressed with the conviction that the large Indian reserves, if permitted to re- 
main in their present condition, cannot fail to exercise a blighting influence on 
the prosperity of Kansas, and result in great injury to the Indians themselves, 
I shall be pleased to unite with the legislature in any measures deemed advis- 
able, looking to the speedy extinguishment of the Indian title to all surplus 
land lying in this territory, so as to throw it open for settlement and improve- 
ment. 

For official action, I know no better rule than a conscientious conviction of 
duty — none more variable than the vain attempt to conciliate temporary preju- 
dice. Principles and justice are eternal, and if tampered with, sooner or later 
the sure and indignant verdict of popular condemnation against those who are 
untrue to their leadings, will be rendered. Let us not be false to our country, 
our duty, and our constituents. The triumph of truth and principle, not of 
partisan and selfish objects, should be our steady purpose — the general welfare, 
and not the interests of the few, our sole aim. Let the past, which few men 
can review with satisfaction, be forgotten. Let us not deal in criminations and 
recriminations ; but, as far as possible, let us make restitution and offer regrets 
for past excesses. The dead, whom the madness of partisan fury has consign- 
ed to premature graves, cannot be recalled to life ; the insults, the outrages, 
the robberies and murders, "enough to stir a fever in the blood of age," in this 
world of imperfection and guilt, can never be fully atoned for or justly pun- 
ished. The innocent blood, however, shall not cry in vain for redress, as we 
are promised by the great Executive of the Universe, whose power is almighty 
and whose knowledge is perfect, that he "will repay." 

" To fight in a just cause and for our country's glory, is the best office of the 
best of men." Let "justice be the laurel " which crowns your deliberations; 



774 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

let your aims be purely patriotic, and your sole purpose the general welfare and 
the substantial interests of the whole people. If we fix our steady gaze upon 
the constitution and the organic act as " the cloud by clay and the pillar of fire 
by night," our footsteps will never wander into any unknown or forbidden paths. 
Then will this legislative assembly be as a beacon light, placed high in the pages 
of our history, shedding its luminous and benign influence to the most remote 
generations ; its members will be remembered with veneration and respect aa 
among the early fathers of the magnificent commonwealth, which, in the not 
distant future, will overshadow with its protection a population of freemen un- 
surpassed by any state in this beloved Union for intelligence, wealth, religion, 
and all the elements which make and insure the true greatness of a nation ; the 
present citizens of Kansas will rejoice in the benefits conferred ; the mourning 
and gloom, which too long, like a pall, have covered the people, will be dis- 
persed by the sunshine of joy with which they will hail the advent of peace, 
founded upon justice ; we will enter upon a career of unprecedented prosper- 
ity ; good feeling and confidence will prevail ; the just rule of action which 
you are about to establish, will be recognized ; the entire country, now watch- 
ing your deliberations with momentous interest, will award you their enthusi- 
astic applause ; and above and over all, you will have the sanction of your own 
consciences, enjoy self-respect, and meet with Divine approbation, without which 
all human praise is worthless and unavailing. Jno. W. Geaky. 

Lecompton, K. T., Jan. 12, 1857. 

One of the first proceedings of the members of this body was to hold a secret 
meeting, at which it was resolved, that should any act be vetoed by the gover- 
nor, there should be a mutual agreement to disregard the veto, and pass the 
act by a two-third vote, which was strictly adhered to. The governor attempt- 
ed to arrest several bills by his veto, but to no purpose. A bill was passed, 
which was intended as an indorsement of the conduct of Judge Lecompte in 
admitting the murderer Hays to bail, and giving to any district judge authority 
to bail all persons charged with any crime whatsoever, whether previously con- 
sidered bailable or not. This the governor vetoed, giving his reasons as follows, 
but the bill was passed by an almost unanimous vote : 

To the Council and Souse of Representatives of Kansas Territory: 

Gentlemen: — The bill " to authorize Courts and Judges to admit to bail 
in certain cases," has been carefully examined, and notwithstanding my earnest 
desire to agree with the legislature, I am compelled to return it without ap- 
proval, for the following reasons: 

The doctrine that the more certain the punishment of crime is made, the 
greater will be the restraints upon the evil passions of wicked men, has been 
established in all civilized communities, and approved by the wisdom and ex- 
perience of every age of the world ; and had we no other evidence of its truth, 
more than sufficient has been furnished in the disturbances and outrages which 
have so recently occurred in the territory of Kansas ; for no one can be insen- 
sible of the fact, that the impunity that has here been given to crime, has been 



VETO MESSAGE. 775 

the cause of many of the offenses that have been committed. Had but a few 
of the early agitators, and defiants of law, been brought to punishment, the 
subsequent events, which every good citizen deplores and condems, would never 
have occurred. 

It is of the utmost importance to the safety of society that the laws should 
be rendered as stringent, and their execution as certain as possible ; especially 
as regards the crime of wilful and deliberate murder. Such an offense should 
be guarded against with the utmost care. No door whatever should be open- 
ed for the escape of the criminal. Once in the hands of the proper authori- 
ties, he should there be secured until the ends of justice are effected. The 
man whose life has been forfeited to the law, will stop at no means within the 
range of human possibility to accomplish his escape ; for " what will a man not 
give in exchange for his life ?" 

The act under consideration makes it comparatively easy for the most no- 
torious criminal to escape the punishment his crimes have merited. Any judge 
of a district court is thereby allowed to set him at liberty on bail. The bill 
does not even establish the amount of bail required. This, as well as the pro- 
priety of bailing, is left to the discretion of the court or of the district judge. 
Were the bill passed expressly to tamper with and corrupt the judiciary, it 
could not have been more effectual. All human beings are fallible, aud it is a 
sound principle to throw in their way to err, as few temptations as possible. 
No judge, who has a proper regard for his own reputation, can desire the pass- 
age of a law which will render him liable to invidious imputations. If this 
bill becomes a law, appeals will be made to the district judge to bail every per- 
son charged with the crime of murder, aud the strongest inducements will be 
offered to influence his action. Should he refuse to accede to the wishes of the 
individual accused, or his importunate friends, he will subject himself to the 
charge of some unjust bias ; while, on the other hand, should he yield to such 
importunities, he is almost certain of being charged with bribery and corrup- 
tion ; and violence towards himself might ensue in either case. The judge, 
therefore, would prefer to avoid the additional responsibility which this bill 
imposes. 

But apart from this, one tendency of the act is to corrupt the judiciary. 
It will not do to affirm that this is impossible. It has frequently been done 
to such an extent as to endanger the safety of communities, and even incite to 
anarchy, with all its fearful consequences. The intention of the laws have 
been so disregarded, that the people, in self-defense, have repudiated the 
courts, and in opposition to all legislative enactments, have taken upon them- 
selves the administration of justice. Indeed, in every instance where "lynch 
law " has been resorted to, the excuse given by the people has been founded 
on the laxity of the courts, or the inefficiency or corruption of the judiciary. 

This want of confidence in the authorities regularly constituted for the 
execution of justice upon persons charged with heinous crimes, produced those 
terrible excitements in California, consequent upon the organization of the 
memorable "Vigilance Committee." 



776 TROUBLES W KANSAS. 

It is to be hoped that a similar condition of things may never transpire in 
Kansas, though it may well be anticipated, if murder is permitted by the courts 
to be perpetrated with impunity. The murmurings on this subject are even 
now loud and almost universal. Some of our best citizens have been stricken 
down by the hand of the assassin, whose blood has cried in vain upon the legal 
tribunals for justice. And although many have fallen victims to this atro- 
cious crime, not one of its numerous perpetrators has yet suffered the just pen- 
alty of the law. The murderer, his hands still reeking with human gore, walks 
unmolested in our midst, laughing to scorn the laws which condemn him to an 
ignominious death. 

Let the law contemplated in this bill be adopted, and this evil, aiready suf- 
ficiently deplorable, will be rendered far worse. The slight restraints now held 
upon the vicious, will be almost entirely removed. No good citizens can ven- 
ture in the streets or upon the highways, with a proper feeling of security. 
The personal safety of all who are well disposed, will be constantly endanger- 
ed. The odious practice of bearing concealed weapons for self-defense will 
become general, and the most disastrous results willl follow. Every man, con- 
scious of the uncertainty of punishment by the courts, will take the law in hi? 
own hands, and the slayer of one individual will fall a victim to the retaliatory 
vengeance of another. Or should he be brought before a judge or court, and 
liberated upon bail, an offended people will arise in their majesty, and prevent 
his escape by the infliction of summary punishment. 

The fact that bail has been given, will have no tendency to prevent these 
results ; for no one can have confidence in the security furnished by such bail 
as a deliberate murderer can obtain. The person who will step in between 
him and the execution of justice, must himself be destitute of those feelings 
and sentiments which will render him worthy the confidence of peace-loving 
citizens. Or even were it otherwise, and the murderer is substantially bailed 
by a wealthy relative or friend, the only object in the whole transaction is the 
criminal's escape ; for any amount of property, under such circumstances, will 
be forfeited to preserve his life. But in the majority of the cases the bail is 
entirely worthless, and its being admitted by a court or judge is equivalent to 
the murderer's discharge ; for no one who is conscious of a conviction that will 
condemn him to death, will ever present himself for trial. If he has wealth, 
he can purchase sureties; and if he has not, he may obtain the aid of those who 
are worthless, or if possessed of the property to which they swear, may dispose 
of it at pleasure, and thus defraud the territory as well as justice. Bail-bonds, 
as now given, are of little value even in trivial cases ; for when forfeited the 
amount is seldom collected. To make them of any avail, a lieu should imme- 
diately be created on the lands of the persons acknowledging them, " and the 
execution issued by virtue of a judgment thereon, may rightly command the 
taking and sale of the lands, of which defendant was seized at the time the 
recognizance was acknowledged." Were this rule of law adopted, there would 
be some value in a bail-bond, and fewer persons would be found willing to ex- 
ecute it. But as the law now rests in this territory, a criminal may be bailed 



CENSUS BILL. 777 

to-day upon what is apparently tangible security, and to-mono w, both himself 
and sureties dispose of all their property, and unmolested and quietly depart 
to another region, and thus the matter ends. In the majority of instances, 
therefore, the taking of bail in criminal cases only tends to defeat the ends of 
justice, and in every case of absolute premeditated murder, where the proof is 
clear, or sufficient to convict, is tatamount to an acquittal of the criminal. 

The fact that we have no sufficient prisons for the safe-keeping of the mur- 
derer, affords no argument for the passage of the bill. This want can soon bs 
supplied, and it will be better far to commence the work at once, than to adopt 
a law which must remove the almost only restraint that now exists upon mur- , 
derous inclinations and passions. There is no necessity for deliberate murder- 
ers to be set free, on bail or otherwise, for want of a prison to keep them in 
lengthy confinement. Frequent sessions of the courts, early trials, and speedy 
executions, will dispose of such cases, and give to the people confidence in the 
judiciary and the laws, and a sense of security of which they have so long been 
deprived. 

Remove or weaken any one of the safeguards we now possess against 
criminals and crime, and the peace we enjoy must measurably be shaken. 
Hence it becomes a subject of the utmost importance, not only to guard against 
such a result, but to adopt, if possible, laws which will strengthen the general 
confidence, by making the barriers to the escape of the criminal even more firm 
and impassable. 

Let it be established and universally known, that " though hand joined in 
naud, the guilty shall not go unpunished;" that the blood-stained murderer, once 
in the hands of the authorities, shall have no possibility or hope of escape ; 
that he who wilfully and deliberately sheds the blood of his fellow-man shall 
surely suffer the penalty by which his life is forfeit, and our laws will be more 
respected, fewer crimes will be committed, and the community will repose in 
far greater security and peace. John W. Geary. 

Lecompton, K. T., Jaifuary 22d, 1857. 

It was during this session that an attempt was made to assassinate fhe gov- 
ernor, by one Sherrard, whom the governor had refused to commission as a 
sheriff. A few days after Sherrard was himself shot down, in a melee at a 
public meeting in Lecompton, by a man whom he had assaulted. 

The most important act of this legislature was the passage of the " Census 
Bill." On the part of the free state men, this bill was objected to on the 
ground that it would deprive many citizens of the elective franchise who had 
temporarily left the territory, and could not return early in March, as the river 
would not then be navigable. 

It provides for the taking of a census, preparatory to an election to be held 
in June, 1851, for delegates to a convention to frame a state constitution, to be 
presented to the next congress for its approval. No citizen to be allowed to 
vote who was not in the territory on or before the 15th of March. "The cen- 
sus-takers and judges of election were the sheriffs and other officers appointed 
by the pro-slavery party. By this arrangement, hundreds of free state men 
50 



778 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

who had been forcibly driven from their claims and homes, and who would not 
return so early as the 15th of March, were disfranchised, as well as the thou- 
sands who would become citizens of the territory before the day of election. 
Under these regulations the free state party concluded to take no part in the 
elections. There was a clause in the bill, intended for their intimidation, that 
the voting should be viva voce. Another feature of the bill was, that, although 
it was framed to defraud the free state citizens of their rights, it required them 
to pay a tax to assist in the accomplishment of the fraud. 

"Governor Geary, before the passage of the bill, sent for the chairmen of the 
committees of the two branches of the legislature, and informed them that if 
they would consent to add a clause referring the constitution that might be 
framed by the convention to the citizens of the territory for their sanc- 
tion or rejection, before its being submitted to congress, he would waive all 
other objections and give it his approval. They replied to him, that the sug- 
gestion had already been fully discussed, and could not be adopted, as it would 
defeat the only object of the act, which was to secure, beyond any possibil- 
ity of failure, the territory of Kansas to the south as a slave state. They 
had already, in anticipation of the passage of the bill, so apportioned the ter- 
ritory, that the accomplishment of this grand object was placed beyond the 
reach of any contingency.* The bill passed both houses, aud was sent to the 
governor, who returned it with the following objections : 

Gentlemen of the Council of Kansas Territory : 

After mature consideration of the bill entititled " an act to provide for the 
taking of a census, and election for delegates to convention," I am constrained 
to return the same without my approval. 

Passing over other objections, I desire to call your serious attention to a 
material omission in the bill. 

I refer to the fact that the legislature has failed to make any provision to 
submit the constitution, when framed, to the consideration of the people, for 
their ratification or rejection. 

The position that a convention can do no wrong, and ought to be invested 
with sovereign power, and that its constituents have no right to judge of its 
acts, is extraordinary and untenable. 

The history of state constitutions, with scarcely an exception, will exhibit 
a uniform and sacred adherence to the salutary rule of popular ratification. 

The practice of the federal aud state governments, in the adoption of their 
respective constitutions, exhibiting the wisdom of the past, will furnish us with 
a safe and reliable rule of action. 

The federal constitution was first proposed by a convention of delegates 
from twelve states, assembled in Philadelphia. This constitution derived no 
authority from the first convention. It was submitted to the various states, 
fully discussed in all its features, and concurred in by the people of the states 

*Dr. Gihon's History of Kansas. 



CONVENTION BILL VETO. 770 

in convention assembled; and that concurrence armed it with power aud 
invested it with dignity. Article seventh of the constitution makes the ratifi- 
cation of niue states, three-fourths of the number represented in the conven- 
tion, essential to its adoption. 

In the adoption, not only of the federal constitution, but of nearly all the 
state constitutions, the popular ratification was made essential ; and all amend- 
ments to those of most of the states are required to pass two legislatures, and 
then be submitted to the people for their approval. 

In Kentucky, especially, all amendments to the constitution must pass two 
legislatures, and for two years be submitted to the vote of the people, upon the 
question of convention or no convention, on the specific amendments proposed. 

Treaties made by ambassadors are not binding until duly ratified by their 
respective governments, whose agents they are. 

Members of the legislature or of conventions are but the agents of the peo- 
ple, who have an inherent right to judge of the acts of their agents, and to con- 
demn or approve them, as in their deliberate judgment they may deem proper. 

The fundamental law of a commonwealth, so inseparably connected with 
the happiness aud prosperity of the citizens, caunot be too well discussed, and 
cannot pass through too many ordeals of popular scrutiny. 

What delegates to conventions may do or what omit, cannot be known 
nntil they have assembled and developed their action. If the whole power be 
vested in them without recourse over to the people, there is no guarantee that 
the popular wishes will be fairly aud fully expressed. 

Although the people may have voted for a convention to form a state con- 
stitution, yet they have by no just rule of construction voted away the usual 
and universal right of ratification. 

Special instructions, covering every point arising in the formation of a con- 
stitution, cannot be given in the elections preliminary to a convention ; and 
it is, therefore, proper that the action of the convention, necessarily covering 
new ground, should be submitted to the people for their consideration. 

The practical right of the people to ordain and establish governments, is 
found in the expressive and beautiful preamble to the federal constitution: " We 
the people," &c, "do ordain and establish this constitution." 

Let the constitution of Kansas be ratified and established by the solemn 
vote of the people, surrouuded by such safeguards as will insure a fair and 
unbiased expression of the actual bona fide citizens, and it will remain invi- 
olably fixed in the affections of the people. 

In his report upon the Toombs bill, its distinguished author thus logically 
enumerates the various steps in the formation of a constitution : " The prelim- 
inary meetings; the calling of the convention; the appointment of delegates; 
the assembling of the convention ; the formation of the constitution ; the 
voting on its ratification; the election of officers under it." 

In the same report, the author most justly remarks : " Whenever a consti- 
tution shall be formed in any territory, preparatory to its admission into the 
Union as a state, justice, the genius of our institutions, the whole theory of 



780 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

our republican system, imperatively demand that the voice of the people shall 
be fairly expressed, and their will embodied in that fundamental law, 
without fraud or violence, or intimidation, or any other improper or unlawful 
influence, and subject to no other restrictions than those imposed by the con- 
stitution of the United States." 

The voice of the people fairly expressed, and its embodiment in the funda- 
mental law, should be the earnest desire of every citizen of a republic. 

But how can the voice of a people be fairly expressed, and their will be 
embodied in the organic law, unless that law, when made, be submitted to them 
to determine whether it is their will which the convention has proclaimed ? 

The leading idea and fundamental principle of our organic act, as expressed 
in the law itself, was to leave the actual bona fide inhabitants of the territory 
" perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 
way." The act confers almost unlimited power upon the people, and the only 
restriction imposed upon its exercise is the constitution of the United States. 

The great principle, then, upon which our free institutions rest, is the 
unqualified and absolute sovereignty of the people , and constituting, as that 
principle does, the most positive and essential feature in the great charter of 
our liberties, so it is better calculated than any other to give elevation to our 
hopes and dignity to our actions. So long as the people feel that the power 
to alter the form or change the character of the government abides in them, so 
long will they be impressed with the sense of security and dignity which must 
ever spring from the consciousness that they hold within their own hands a 
remedy for every political evil — a corrective for every governmental abuse 
and usurpation. 

" This principle must be upheld and maintained, at all hazards and at every 
sacrifice — maintained in all the power and fulness — in all the breadth and depth 
of its utmost capacity and signification. It is not sufficient that it be acknowl- 
edged as a mere abstraction, or theory, or doctrine ; but as a practical, sub 
stantial, living reality, vital in every part." 

The idya of surrendering the sovereignty of the territories, the common 
property of the people of the several states, into the hands of the few who first 
chanced to wander into them, is, to me, a political novelty. Is it just that the 
territories should exercise the rights of sovereign states until their condition 
and numbers become such as to entitle them to be admitted into the Union on 
an equality with the original states ? 

In speaking of the proper construction of the organic act, its distinguished 
author remarks : " The act recognizes the rights of the people thereof, while a 
territory, to form and regulate their own domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the constitution of the United States, and to be received into 
the Union, as soon as they should attain the requisite number of inhabitants, 
on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever." 

In the report before alluded to, the author says : " The point upon which 
your committee have entertained the most serious and grave doubts in regard 
to the propriety of indorsing thi,- proposition, relates to the fact that, in the 



CONVENTION BILL VETO. 781 

absence of any census of the inhabitants, there is reason to apprehend that the 
territory does not contain sufficient population to entitle them to demand ad- 
mission under the treaty with France, if we take the ratio of representation 
for a member of congress as the rule." 

In accordance with the foregoing views, I remarked in my first message to 
your body, that " the durability and imperative authority of a state constitu- 
tion, when the interests of the people require a state government, and a di- 
i-rrl popular vote is necessary to give it sanction and effect, will be the pro- 
per occasion, once for all, to decide the grave political questions which under- 
lie a well-regulated commonwealth." Aud in another portion of the same 
message, I said : " Justice to the country and the dictates of sound policy, re- 
quire that the legislature should confine itself to such subjects as will preserve 
the basis of entire equality; and wlien a sufficient population is here, and 
they choose to adopt a state government, that they shall be ' perfectly free,' 
without let or hindrance, to form all their domestic institutions in their own 
way, and to dictate that form of government, which, in their deliberate judg- 
ment, may be deemed proper." 

The expressions, "requisite number of inhabitants," "sufficient population," 
and others, of similar import, can have no other meaning than that given them 
by our leading statesmen, and by the common judgment of the country, to wit : 
"the ratio of representation for a member of congress." 

The present ratio for a member of congress is 93,420 inhabitants. What, 
then, is the present population of Kansas ; or what will it be on the 15th of 
March next ? as after that time, no person arriving in the territory can vote 
for a member of the convention under the provisions of this bill. 

At the last October election, the whole vote polled for delegate to congress 
was four thousand two hundred and seventy-six (4276) ; while the vote in 
favor of a convention to frame a state constitution, was but two thousand six 
hundred and seventy (2670). 

It is a well known fact, to every person at all conversant with the circum- 
stances attending the last election, that the question of a state government en- 
tered but little into the canvas, and the small vote polled for a convention is 
significantly indicative of the popular indifference on the subject. 

No one will claim that 2670 is a majority of the voters of this territory, 
though it is a majority of those voting, and it is conceded that those not vot- 
ing are bound by the act of those who did. 

The bill under consideration seems to be drawn from the bill known as the 
Toombs' bill ; but in several respects it differs from that bill, and in these par- 
ticulars it does not furnish equal guarantees for fairness and impartiality. The 
former secured the appointment of five impartial commissioners to take and 
correct the census, to make a partial apportionment among the several coun- 
ties, and generally to superintend all the preliminaries so as to secure a fair 
election, while by the present bill all these important duties are to be perform- 
ed by probate judges and sheriffs, elected by and owing allegiance to a party. 
It differs in other important particulars. The bill of Mr. Toombs conferred 



782 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

valuable rights and privileges upon this territory, and provided means to pay 
the expenses of the convention ; while this bill does neither. 

If we are disposed to avail ourselves of the wisdom of the past, we will 
pause some time before we throw off our territorial condition, under present 
circumstances, by the adoption of a state government. 

The state of Michigan remained a territory for five years after she had the 
requisite population, and so with other states ; and when they were admitted, 
they were strong enough in all the elements of material wealth to be self-sup- 
porting. And hence they knocked at the door of the Union with that manly 
confidence which spoke of equality and self-reliance. 

California was admitted under peculiar and extraordinary circumstances. 
Her rich mines of the precious metals attracted a teeming population to her 
shores, and her isolated position from the parent government, with her super- 
abundant wealth, at once suggested the experiment of self-government ; and 
at the time of her state constitution, ratified by the vote of the people, the pop- 
ulation of California entitled her to two representatives in congress. 

I observe by the message of the governor of Minnesota, that the popula- 
tion of that thriving territory exceeds 180,000. The taxable property amounts 
to between thirty and thirty-five millions of dollars. And in view of these 
facts, and of the large increase of agricultural products, cash capital, etc., the 
governor favors a change from a territorial to a state government. To this 
end he suggests that a convention be called to form a constitution ; that an act 
be passed for the taking of a census in April, and for such other preliminary 
steps as are necessary ; and that if the constitution be "ratified by the people" 
at the next October election, it shall be presented to congress in December fol- 
lowing. 

These facts furnish an additional argument why the constitution should be 
submitted to the people, as the majority, preferring a territorial government, 
and thinking a state government premature, may desire to avail themselves of 
that opportunity to vote against any state constitution whatever. 

Burthened with heavy liabilities ; without titles to our lands ; our public 
buildings unfinished ; our jails and court-houses not erected ; without money 
even to pay the expenses of a convention ; and just emerging from the disas- 
trous effects of a bitter civil feud ; it seems unwise for a few thousand people, 
scarcely sufficient to make a good county, to discard the protecting and foster- 
ing care of a government, ready to assist us with her treasures and to protect 
us with her armies. Jno. W. Geary, 

Governor of Kansas Territory. 

Notwithstanding the veto of the governor, the bill passed both branches of 
the assembly by an almost unanimous vote, and without discussion. The pro- 
slavery party now exulted in the certain prospect of making Kansas a slave 
state. The time of the meeting of the convention was fixed for September. 
It was stated to Gov. Geary, as a part of the plan, that a constitution would 
be framed in which no reference would be made to the subject of slavery ; but, 



OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 7 S3 

says Dr. Gihon, " the pretended merit of this scheme will disappear as soon as 
it is understood that slavery already exists in the territory by statute ; and al- 
though no mention of it be made in the constitution, it will still remain an es- 
tablished institution of the new state." The legislative assembly adjourned on 
the 21st of February. 

During the sitting of this legislature, there were so many disturbances of 
the public peace in Lecompton, that the peaceful citizens called upon the gov- 
ernor- to send for a detachment of the United States troops to protect them. 
A messenger was accordingly dispatched to Fort Leavenworth with the follow- 
ing requisition : 

" Executive Department, Kansas Territory, > 
" February 9, 1857. ) 
" Major-General Persifer F. Smith, 

" Commanding Department of the West : 

" Dear Sir : There are certain persons present in Lecompton, who are de- 
termined, if within the bounds of possibility, to bring about a breach of the 
peace. During the last few days, a number of persons have been grossly in- 
sulted ; and to-day an insult has been offered to myself. A person named Sher- 
rard, who some days ago had been appointed sheriff of Douglas county, which 
appointment was strongly protested against by a respectable number of the 
citizens of the county, and I had deferred commissioning him. This, it ap- 
pears, gave mortal offense to Sherrard, and he has made up his mind to assas- 
sinate me. This may lead to trouble. It must be prevented, and that by 
immediate action. I require, therefore, two additional companies of dragoons 
to report to me with the least possible delay. I think this is absolutely nec- 
essary, and I trust you will immediately comply with my request. I write 
in great haste, as the messenger is about leaving. 

" I wish you would keep an eye upon Leavenworth City, as I hear of trouble- 
some indications there. I am confident that there is a conspiracy on foot to 
disturb the peace, and various pretests will be, and have been used to accom- 
plish this fell purpose. 

" I am perfectly cool, and intend to keep so ; but I am also more vigilant 
than ever. Very truly, your friend, 

" Jno. W. Geary." 

Much to the astonishment of the governor, Gen. Smith refused to comply 
with this requisition, partly on the ground that " probable breaches of the 
peace did not authorize the employment of troops," and partly, that the forces 
under his command had "just been designated by the secretary of war for 
other service." 

When Gov. Geary was sent to Kansas, he was authorized to use the regular 
forces "at his discretion" to "preserve the peace," and be governed by "the 
exigencies of affairs as they should be presented to him on the spot." 

Previous to this, the governor had applied to the department at Washing- 
ton for a draft of two thousand dollars to meet the contingent expenses of the 



784 TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

government of Kansas. He received, in reply, a statement that " the presi- 
dent had no authority to advance for the contingent expenses of the govern- 
ment of Kansas any amount whatever."- 

It is evident that the just and equitable administration of Gov. Geary re- 
ceived no approval at Washington. Yet he persevered even after the sword 
and the purse had been withdrawn from him, in maintaining the peace of the 
territory. "It could have been," says Dr. Gihon, the historian of Kansas, 
"nothing less than an enlarged patriotism that caused him to retain so long 
the most thankless and unprofitable office in the nation. For months he had 
labored for the public good with untiring energy, not even taking time for 
needed rest and sleep ; deprived of all the usual comforts of life ; occupying a 
log house, and very often unable to obtain wholesome food ; vexed and har- 
assed hourly with- the complaints of an abused people; constant drafts being 
made by persons whom he was compelled to employ, upon his pecuniary re- 
sources ; required to pay the militia called into the service by the president 
himself, from his own private funds ; every federal officer in the territory con- 
spiring to embarrass his administration ; his mails overhauled and their con- 
tents examined by government officials ; surrounded with organized bands of 
assassins ; and without a word of comfort or a particle of aid from the general 
government, he still continued, with fidelity, zeal, and unflagging energy, to 
discharge the arduous duties of his station." 

Finally, upon the incoming of a new administration at Washington, Gover- 
nor Geary forwarded to the new president the following letter of resignation : 

Executive Department, K. 
Lecompton, March 4, 1857. 

His Excellency, James Buchanan, 

President of the United States : 
Dear Sir: Please accept my resignation as governor of Kansas Territory, to 
take effect on the 20th of the present month, by which time you will be ena- 
bled to select and appoint a proper successor. 

With high respect, your friend and obedient servant, 

John W. Geary. 

Previous to leaving the territory, the governor issued the following farewell 
address : 

To the People of Kansas Territory : 

Having determined to resign the executive office, and retire again to the 
quiet scenes of private life and the enjoyment of those domestic comforts of 
which I have so long been deprived, I deem it proper to address you on the 
occasion of my departure. 

The office from which I now voluntarily withdraw, was unsought by me, 
and at the time of its acceptance was by no means desirable. This was quite 
evident, from the deplorable moral, civil and political condition of the terri- 
tory — the discord, contention and deadly strife which then and there prevailed; 
and the painful anxiety with which it was regarded by patriotic citizens in 



;*} 



GOV. GEARY RESIGNS. 785 

every portion of the American Union. To attempt to govern Kansas at such 
a period and under such circumstances, was to assume no ordinary responsibili- 
ties. Few men could have desired to undertake the task, and none would 
have been so presumptuous, without serious forebodings as to the result. That 
I should have hesitated, is no matter of astonishment to those acquainted with 
the facts ; but that I accepted the appointment, was a well-grounded source of 
regret to many of my well-tried friends, who looked upon the enterprise as one 
that could terminate in nothing but disaster to myself. It was not supposed 
possible that order could be brought, in any reasonable space of time, and with 
the means at my command, from the existing chaos. 

Without descanting upon the feelings, principles and motives which 
prompted me, suffice it to say, that I accepted the president's tender of the 
office of governor. In doing so, I sacrificed the comforts of a home, endeared 
by the strongest earthly ties and most sacred associations, to embark in an un- 
dertaking which presented at the best but a dark and unsatisfactory prospect. 
I reached Kansas and entered on the discharge of my official duties in the 
most gloomy hour of her history. Desolation and ruin reigned on every hand. 
Homes and firesides were deserted. The smoke of burning dwellings darkened 
the atmosphere. "Women and children, driven from their habitations, wandered 
over the prairies and through the woodlands, or sought refuge and protection 
even among the Indian tribes. The highways were infested with numerous 
predatory bands, and the towns were fortified and garrisoned by armies of con- 
flicting partisans, each excited almost to frenzy, and determined upon mutual 
extermination. Such was, without exaggeration, the condition of the territory 
at the period of my arrival. Her treasury was bankrupt. There were no pe- 
cuniary resources within herself to meet the exigencies of the time. The con- 
gressional appropriations, intended to defray the expenses of a year, were in- 
sufficient to meet the demands of a fortnight. The laws were null, the courts 
virtually suspended, and the civil arm of the government almost entirely pow- 
erless. Action — prompt, decisive, energetic action — was necessary. I at ojce 
saw what was needed, and without hesitation gave myself to the work. For 
six months I have labored with unceasing industry. The accustomed and 
needed hours for sleep have been employed in the public service. Night and 
day have official duties demanded unremitting attention. I have had no proper 
leisure moments for rest or recreation. My health has failed under the pres- 
sure. Nor is this all ; to my own private purse, without assurance of reim- 
bursement, have I resorted in every emergency for the required funds. Wheth- 
er these arduous services and willing sacrifices have been beneficial to Kansas 
and my country, you are abundantly qualified to determine. 

That I have met with opposition, and even bitter vituperation and vindictive 
malice, is no matter for astonishment, No man has ever yet held an important 
or responsible post in our own or any other country and escaped censure. I 
should have been weak and foolish indeed, had I expected to pass through the 
fiery ordeal entirely unscathed, especially as I was required, if not to come in 
conflict with, at least to thwart evil machinations, and hold in restraint wicked 



78G TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

passions, or rid the territory of many lawless, reckless and desperate men. 
Beside, it were impossible to come in contact with the conflicting interests 
which governed the conduct of many well-disposed persons, without becoming 
an object of mistrust and abuse. While from others, whose sole object was 
notoriously personal advancement at any sacrifice of the general good and at 
every hazard, it would have been ridiculous to anticipate the meed of praise 
for disinterested action ; and hence, however palpable might have been my 
patriotism, however just my official conduct, or however beneficial its results, I 
do not marvel that my motives have been impugned and my integrity maligned. 
It is, however, so well known, that I need scarcely record the fact, that those 
who have attributed my labors to a desire for gubernatorial or senatorial hon- 
ors, were and are themselves the aspirants for those high trusts and powers, 
aud foolishly imagined that I stood between them and the consummation of their 
ambitious designs and high-towering hopes. 

But whatever may be thought or said of my motives or desires, I have the 
proud consciousness of leaving this scene of my severe and anxious toil with 
clean hands, and the satisfactory conviction that He who can penetrate the in- 
most recesses of the heart, and read its secret thoughts, will approve my pur- 
poses and acts. In the discharge of my executive functions, I have invariably 
sought to do equal and exact justice to all men, however humble or exalted. 
I have eschewed all sectional disputations, kept aloof from all party affilia- 
tions, and have alike scorned numerous threats of personal injury and violence, 
and the most flattering promises of advancement and reward. And I ask and 
claim nothing more for the part I have acted than the simple merit of having 
endeavored to perform my duty. This I have done at all times, aud upon every 
occasion, regardless of the opinions of men, and utterly fearless of consequen- 
ces. Occasionally I have been forced to assume great responsibilities, and de- 
pend solely upon my own resources to accomplish important ends ; but in all 
such instances, I have carefully examined snrrounding circumstances, weighed 
well the probable results, and acted upon my own deliberate judgment ; and in 
now reviewing them, I am so well satisfied with the policy uniformly pursued, 
that were it to be done over again, it should not be changed iu the slightest 
particular. 

In parting with you, I can do no less than give you a few words of kindly 
advice, and even of friendly warning. You are well aware that most of the 
troubles which lately agitated the territory, were occasioned by men who had 
no especial interest in its welfare. Many of them were not even residents ; 
whilst it is quite evident that others were influenced altogether in the part they 
took in the disturbances by mercenary or other personal considerations. The 
great body of the actual citizens are conservative, law-abiding and peace-loving 
men, disposed rather to make sacrifices for conciliation and consequent peace, 
than to insist for their entire rights, should the general good thereby be caused 
to suffer. Some of them, under the influence of the prevailing excitement and 
misguided opinions, were led to the commission of grievous mistakes, but not 
with the deliberate intention of doing wrong. 



GOV. GEART S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 787 

A very few men, resolved upon mischief, may keep in a state of unhealthy 
excitement and involve in fearful strife an entire community. This was de- 
monstrated during the civil commotions with which the territory was convulsed. 
While the people generally were anxious to pursue their peaceful callings, 
small combinations of crafty, scheming and designing men succeeded, from 
pure selfish motives, in bringing upon them a series of most lamentable and 
destructive difficulties. Nor are they satisfied with the mischief already done. 
They never desired that the present peace should be effected ; nor do they in- 
tend that it shall continue if they have the power to prevent it. In the con- 
stant croakiugs of disaffected individuals in various sections, you hear only 
the expressions of evil desires and intentions. Watch, then, with a special, 
jealous and suspicions eye those who are continually indulging surmises of 
renewed hostilities. They are not the friends of Kansas, and there is reason 
to fear that some of them are not only enemies of this territory but of the 
Union itself. Its dissolution is their ardent wish, and Kansas has been selected 
as a fit place to commence the accomplishment of a most nefarious design. 
The scheme has thus far been frustrated ; but it has not been abandoned. You 
are entrusted, not only with the guardianship of this territory, but the peace 
of the Union, which depends upon you in a greater degree than you may at 
present suppose. 

You should, therefore, frown down every effort to foment discord, and 
especially to array settlers from different sections of the Union in hostility 
against each other. All true patriots, whether from the north or south, the 
east or west, should unite together for that which is and must be regarded as a 
common cause, the preservation of the Union ; and he who shall whisper a desire 
for its dissolution, no matter what may be his pretensions, or to what faction 
or party he claims to belong, is unworthy of your confidence, deserves your 
strongest reprobation, and should be branded as a traitor to his country. 
There is a voice crying from the grave of one whose memory is dearly cherish- 
ed in every patriotic heart, and let it not cry in vain. It tells you that this 
attempt at dissolution is no new thing ; but that, even as early as the days of 
our first president, it was agitated by ambitious aspirants for place and power. 
And if the appeal of a still more recent hero and patriot was needed in his 
time, how much more applicable is it now, and in this territory 1 

" The possible dissolution of the Union," he says, " has at length become an 
ordinary and familiar subject of discusion. Has the warning voice of Wash- 
ington been forgotten? or have designs already been formed to sever the 
Union ? Let it not be supposed, that I impute to all of those who have taken 
an active part in these unwise and unprofitable discussions, a want of patriot- 
ism or of public virtue. The honorable feelings of state pride and local 
attachments find a place in the bosoms of the most enlightened and pure. But 
while such men are conscious of their own integrity and honesty of purpose, 
they ought never to forget that the citizens of other states are their political 
brethren ; and that, however mistaken they may be in their views, the great 
t>ody of them are equally honest and upright with themselves. Mutual suspi- 



788 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

cions and reproaches may, in time, create mutual hostility, and artful and 
designing men will always be found who are ready to foment these fatal divis- 
ions, and to inflame the natural jealousies of different sections of the country. 
The history of the world is full of such examples, and especially the history of 
republics. " 

"When I look upon the present condition of the territory, and contrast it 
with what it was when I first entered it, I feel satisfied that my administration 
has not been prejudicial to its interests. On every hand, I now perceive unmis- 
takable indications of welfare and prosperity. The honest settler occupies his 
quiet dwelling, with his wife and children clustering around him, unmolested, 
and fearless of danger. The solitary traveler pursues his way unharmed over 
every public thoroughfare. The torch of the incendiary has been extinguished, 
and the cabins which were destroyed, have been replaced by more substantial 
buildings. Hordes of banditti no longer lie in wait in every ravine for plunder 
and assassination. Invasions of hostile armies have ceased, and infuriated 
partisans, living in our midst, have emphatically turned their swords into 
plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Laborers are everywhere 
at work — farms are undergoing rapid improvements — merchants are driving a 
thriving trade, and mechanics pursuing with profit their various occupations. 
Real estate, in town and country, has increased in value almost without prece- 
dent, until in some places it is commanding prices that never could have been 
anticipated. Whether this healthy and happy change is the result solely of my 
executive labors, or not, it certainly has occurred during my administration. 
Upon yourselves must mainly depend the preservation and perpetuity of the 
present prosperous condition of affairs. Guard it with unceasing vigilance, 
and protect it as you would your lives. Keep down that party spirit, which, 
if permitted to obtain the mastery, must lead to desolation. Watch closely, 
and condemn in its infancy, every insidious movement that can possibly tend to 
discord and disunion. Suffer no local prejudices to disturb the prevailing har- 
mony. To every appeal to these, turn a deaf ear, as did the Savior of men 
to the promptings of the deceiver. Act as a united band of brothers, bound 
together by one common tie. Your interests are the same, and by this course 
alone can they be maintained. Follow this, and your hearts and homes will be 
made light and happy by the richest blessings of a kind and munificent Provi- 
dence. 

To you, the peaceable citizens of Kansas, I owe my grateful acknowledg- 
ments for the aid and comfort your kind assurances and hearty cooperation 
have afforded in many dark and trying hours. You have my sincerest thanks, 
and my earnest prayers that you may be abundantly rewarded of heaven. 

To the ladies of the territory — the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters 
of the honest settlers— I am also under a weight of obligation. Their pious 
prayers have not been raised in vain, nor their numerous assurances of confi- 
dence in the policy of my administration failed to exert a salutary influence. 

And last, though not the least, I must not be unmindful of the noble men 
who form the military department of the west. To Gen. Persifer F. Smith, 



THE APPORTIONMENT. 789 

and the officers acting under his command, I return my thanks for many vula- 
able services. Although from different parts of the Union, and naturally im- 
bued with sectional prejudices, I know of no instance in which such prejudices 
have, been permitted to stand in the way of a faithful, ready, cheerful and ener- 
getic discharge of duty. Their conduct in this respect is worthy of universal 
commendation, and presents a bright example for those executing the civil 
power. The good behavior of all the soldiers who were called upon to assist 
me, is, in fact, deserving of especial notice. Many of these troops, officers 
and men, had served with me on the fields of Mexico against a foreign foe, 
and it is a source of no little satisfaction to know that the laurels there won 
have been further adorned by the praiseworthy alacrity with which they aided 
to allay a destructive fratricidal strife at home. 

With a firm reliance in the protecting care and overruling providence of 
that Great Being who holds in his hand the destinies alike of men and of 
nations, I bid farewell to Kansas and her people, trusting that whatever events 
may hereafter befall them, they will, in the exercise of His wisdom, goodness 
and power, be so directed as to promote their own best interest and that of the 
beloved country of which they are destined to form a most important part. 

Jno. W. Geary. 

Lecompton, March 10, 1857. 

The Hon. Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, was appointed successor to 
Governor Geary, and Frederick P. Stanton was appointed Secretary. Stanton 
proceeded to Kansas as acting governor, and immediately issued an address, 
the main features of which were afterwards incorporated in the inaugural of 
Governor Walker. The first official act of the secretary was to make an ap- 
portionment of delegates to the convention to frame a state constitution. In 
regard to this apportionment it is stated, that "out of thirty-six counties, as 
organized by the authorities, only twenty-one have even a nominal representa- 
tion. The census has only been taken in ten of these, and in only some por- 
tions of these ten. In six of these twenty-one counties thus reported, no cen- 
sus was taken, but a list of voters was taken from their old poll-books ; this 
having been done after the time for taking the census had expired. The other 
five are counties forming parts of districts which are mentioned because they 
are connected with others ; but in these no census was taken, and no former 
vote or representation on account of former vote, has been allowed. By this 
apportionment three-fifths of the settled counties of the territory are allowed no 
representation. In these there are at least two-fifths of the people in the whole 
territory, and including the emigration of this spring, one-half. 

" There are twenty counties to the south of the Kansas river, lying in a great 
solid mass, and filled with free state towns and settlements, teeming with active 
life and industry ; in one-half of them the great majority of claims are taken, 
and all are about as well settled as the majority of counties in most of the 
western states, and the whole of these are left without a particle of rppresen 
tat ; in by this proclamation." 



790 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

Governor Walker reached Kansas on the 25th of May, and a few days after 
he issued his inaugural address at Lecompton. This document was intended 
to conciliate both political parties. 

GOVERNOR WALKER'S INAUGURAL. 

Fellow-Citizens of Kansas : At the earnest request of the president 
of the United States, I have accepted the position of governor of the ter- 
ritory of Kansas. The president, with the cordial concurrence of all his cabinet, 
expressed to me the conviction that the condition of Kansas was fraught with 
imminent peril to the Union, and asked me to undertake the settlement of that 
momentous question, which has introduced discord and civil war throughout 
your borders, and threatens to involve you and our couutry in the same com- 
mon ruin. This was a duty thus presented, the performance of which I could 
not decline consistently with my view of the sacred obligation which every 
citizen owes to his country. 

The mode of adjustment is provided in the act organizing your territory — 
namely, by the people of Kansas, who, by a majority of their own votes, must 
decide this question for themselves in forming their state constitution. 

Under our practice, the preliminary act of framing a state constitution is 
uniformly performed through the instrumentality of a convention of delegates 
chosen by the people themselves. That convention is now about to be 
elected by you under the call of the territorial legislature, created ami still re- 
cognized by the authority of congress, and clothed by it, in the comprehensive 
language of the organic law, with full power to make such an enactment. 
The territorial legislature, then, in assembling this convention, were fully sus- 
tained by the act of congress, aud the authority of the convention is distinctly 
recognized in my instructions from the President of the United States. Those 
who oppose this course cannot aver the alleged irregularity of the territorial 
legislature, whose laws in town aud city elections, iu corporate franchises, and 
on all other subjects but slavery, they acknowledge by their votes and ac- 
quiescence. If that legislature was invalid, then are we without law or order 
in Kansas ; without town, city, or county organization ; all legal and judicial 
transactions are void, all titles null, and anarchy reigns throughout our 
borders. 

It is my duty, in seeing that all constitutional laws are executed, to take 
care, as far as practicable, that this election of delegates to the convention 
shall be free from fraud or violence, and that they shall be protected in their 
deliberations. 

The people of Kansas, then, are invited by the highest authority known to 
the constitution to participate freely and fairly in the election of delegates to 
frame a constitution and state government. The law has performed its entire 
appropriate function when it extends to the people the right of suffrage, but it 
cannot compel the performance of that duty. Throughout our whole union, 
however, and wherever free government prevails, those who abstain from the 
exercise of the right of suffrage authorize those who do vote to act for them in 



gov. walker's inaugural. 791 

that contingency, and the absentees are as much bound under the law and the 
constitution, where there is no fraud or violence, by the act of the majority 
of those who do vote, as although all had participated in the election. Other- 
wise, as voting must be voluntary, self-government would be impracticable, 
and monarchy or despotism would remain as the only alternative. 

You should not console yourselves, my fellow-citizens, with the reflection 
that you may, by a subsequent vote, defeat the ratification of the constitution. 
Although most anxious to secure to you the exercise of that great consti- 
tutional right, and believing that the convention is the servant, and not the 
master of the people, yet I have no power to dictate proceedings to that body. 
I cannot doubt, however, the course they will adopt on this subject. But why 
incur the hazard of the preliminary formation of a constitution by a minority, 
as alleged by you, when a majority, by their own votes, could control the 
forming of that instrument ? 

But it is said that the convention is not legally called, and that the election 
will not be freely and fairly conducted. The territorial legislature is the power 
ordained for this purpose by the congress of the United States ; and in oppos- 
ing it you resist the authority of the federal government. That legislature 
was called into being by the congress of 1854, and is recognized in the very 
latest congressional legislation. It is recognized by the present chief magis- 
trate of the Union, just chosen by the American people, and many of its acts 
are now in operation here by universal assent. As the governor of the terri- 
tory of Kansas, I must support the laws and the constitution ; and I have no 
other alternative under my oath but to see that all constitutional laws are fully 
and fairly executed. 

I see in this act, calling the convention, no improper or unconstitutional re- 
strictions upon the right of suffrage. I see in it no test-oath or other similar 
provisions objected to in relation to previous laws, but clearly repealed as re- 
pugnant to the provisions of this act, so far as regards the election of delegates 
to this convention. It is said that a fair and full vote will not be taken. Who 
can safely predict such a result ? Nor is it just for a majority, as they allege, 
to throw the power into the hands of a minority, from a mere apprehension — 
I trust entirely unfounded — that they will not be permitted to exercise the right 
of suffrage. If, by fraud or violence, a majority should not be permitted to 
vote, there is a remedy, it is hoped, in the wisdom and justice of the conven- 
tion itself, acting under the obligations of an oath, and a proper responsibility 
to the tribunal of public opinion. There is a remedy, also, if such facts can 
be demonstrated, in the refusal of congress to admit a state into the union 
under a constitution imposed by a minority upon a majority by fraud or violence. 
Indeed, I cannot doubt that the convention, after having framed a state con- 
stitution, will submit it for ratification or rejection, by a majority of the then 
actual bona fide resident settlers of Kansas. 

With these views, well known to the president and cabinet, and approved by 
them, I accepted the appointment of governor of Kansas. My instructions 
from the president, through the secretary of state, under date of the 30th of 



792 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

March last, sustain " the regular legislature of the territory " in " assembling a 
convention to form a constitution ;" and they express the opinion of the presi- 
dent that "when such a constitution shall be submitted to the people of the 
territory, they must be protected in the exercise of their right of voting for or 
or against that instrument ; and the fair expression of the popular will must 
not be interrupted by fraud or violence." 

I repeat, then, as my clear conviction, that unless the convention submit the 
constitution to the vote of all the actual resident settlers of Kansas, and 
the election be fairly and justly conducted, the constitution will be, and 
ought to be, rejected by congress. 

There are other important reasons why you should participate in the elec- 
tion of delegates to this convention. Kansas is to become a new state, created 
out of the public domain, and will designate her boundaries in the fundamental 
law. To most of the land within her limits the Indian title, unfortunately, is 
not yet extinguished, and this land is exempt from settlement, to the grievous 
injury of the people of the state. Having passed many years of my life in a 
new state, and represented it for a long period in the senate of the United 
States, I know the serious incumbrance arising from large bodies of lands 
within a state to which the Indian title is not extinguished. Upon this sub- 
ject the convention may act by such just and constitutional provisions as will 
accelerate the extinguishment of Indian title. 

There is, furthermore, the question of railroad grants made by congress to 
. all the new states but one, (where the routes could not be agreed upon,) and 
within a few months past, to the flourishing territory of Minnesota. This mu- 
nificent grant of four millions and a half of acres was made to Minnesota, 
even in advance of her becoming a state, under the auspices of her present 
distinguished executive, and will enable our sister state of the northwest 
speedily to uuite her railroad system with ours. 

Kansas is undoubtedly entitled to grants similar to those just made to Min 
nesota, and upon this question the convention may take important action. 

These, recollect, are grants by congress, not to companies, but to states. 
Now, if Kansas, like the state of Illinois, in granting hereafter these lauds to 
companies to build these roads, should reserve, at least, the seven per cent, of 
their gross annual receipts, it is quite certain that so soon as these roads are 
constructed, such will be the large payments into the treasury of our state that 
there will be no necessity to impose in Kansas any state tax whatever, es- 
pecially if the constitution should contain wise provisions against the creation 
i if shite debts. 

The grant to the state of Illinois for the Illinois Central Railroad, passed 
under the wise and patriotic auspices of her distinguished senator, was made 
before the pernicious system lately exposed in Washington had invaded the 
halls of congress ; and, therefore, that state, unlike most others which obtained 
recent grants, was enabled to make the great reservation for the benefit of the 
state. This constitutes of itself a conclusive reason why these railroad grants 
should be reserved in the ordinance accompanying our state constitutions, so 



gov. walker's inaugural. 793 

that our state might have the whole benefit of the grant, instead of large por- 
tions being given to agents appointed to obtain these grants by companies 
substantially in many cases for their own benefit, although in the name of the 
state. 

There is another reason why these railroad grants should thus be reserved 
in our ordinance. 

It is to secure these lands to the state before large bodies of them are en- 
grossed by speculators, especially along the contemplated lines of railroads. 
In no case should these reservations interfere with the preemption rights re- 
served to settlers, or with school sections. 

These grants to states, as is proved by the official documents, have greatly 
augmented the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, increasing their value, 
accelerating their sale and settlement, and bringing enhanced prices to the 
government, whilst greatly benefiting the lands of the settler by furnishing 
him new markets and diminished cost of transportation. On this subject, Mr. 
Buchanan, always the friend of the new states, in his recent inaugural, uses 
the following language : 

" No nation in the tide of time has ever been blessed with so rich and noble 
an inheritance as we enjoy in the public lands. In administering this impor- 
tant trust, whilst it may be wise to grant portions of them for improvement of 
the remainder, yet we should never forget that it is our cardinal policy to re- 
serve the lands as much as may be for actual settlers ; and this at moderate 
prices. We shall thus not only best promote -the prosperity of the new states 
by furnishing them a hardy and independent race of honest and industrious 
citizens, but shall secure homes for our children and our children's children, 
as well as those exiled from foreign shores, who may seek in this country to 
improve their condition and enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty." 

Our American railoads, now exceeding twenty-four thousand miles comple- 
ted, have greatly advanced the power, prosperity, and progress of the country, 
whilst liukiug it together in bonds of ever-increasing commerce and intercourse, 
and tending by these results, to soften or extinguish sectional passions and 
prejudice, and thus perpetuate the union of the states. This system it is 
clearly the interest of the whole country shall progress until the states west of 
the Mississippi shall be intersected, like those east of that river, by a network 
of railroads, until the whole, at various points, shall reach the shores of the 
Pacific. The policy of such grants by congress is now clearly established ; 
and whatever doubts may have prevailed in the minds of a few persons as to 
the constitutionality of such grants, when based only upon the transfer of a 
portion of the public domain, in the language of the inaugural of the presi- 
dent, "for the improvement of the remainder," yet when they are made, as 
now proposed in the ordinance accompanying our constitution, in consideration 
of our relinquishing the right to tax the public lands, such grants become, in 
fact, sales for ample equivalents, and their constitutionality is placed beyond 
all doubt or controversy. For this reason, also, and iu order that these grants 
may be made for ample equivalents, and upon grounds of clear, constitutional 
51 



794 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

authority, it is most wise that they should be included in our ordinance, ana 
take effect by compact when the state is admitted into the Union. If my will 
could have prevailed as regards the public lands, as indicated in my public 
career, and especially in the bill presented by me, as chairman of the committee 
on public lauds, to the senate of the United States, which passed that body, 
but failed in the house, I would authorize no sales of these lands except for 
settlement and cultivation, reserving not merely a preemption, but a home- 
stead of a quarter-section of land in favor of every actual settler, whether 
coming from other states or emigrating from Europe. Great and populous 
states would thus rapidly be added to the confederacy, until we should soon 
have one unbroken line of states from the Atlantic to the Pacific, giving im- 
mense additional power and security to the Union, and facilitating intercourse 
between all its parts. This would be alike beneficial to the old and to the new 
states. To the working-men of the old states, as well as of the new, it would 
be of incalculable advantage, not merely by affording them a home in the west, 
but by maintaining the wages of labor, by enabling the workiug classes to em- 
igrate and become cultivators of the soil, when the rewards of daily toil should 
sink below a fair remuneration. Every new state, besides, adds to the custom- 
ers of the old states, consuming their manufactures, employing their mer- 
chants, giving business to their vessels and canals, their railroads and cities, 
and a powerful impulse to their industry and prosperity. Indeed, it is the 
growth of the mighty west which has added, more than all other causes com- 
bined, to the power and prosperity of the whole country, whilst at the same 
time, through the channels of business and commerce, it has been building up im- 
mense cities in the eastern, Atlantic, and middle states, and replenishing the 
federal treasury with large payments from the settlers upon the public lands, 
rendered of real value only by their labor; and thus, from increased exports, 
bringing back augmented imports, and soon largely increasing the revenue of 
the government from that source also. 

Without asking anything new from congress, if Kansas can receive, on com- 
ing into the Union, all the usual grants, and use them judiciously, she can not 
only speedily cover herself with a network of railroads, but, by devoting all 
the rest to purposes of education, she would soon have a complete system of 
common schools, with normal schools, free academies, and a great university, in 
all of which tuition should be free to all our people. In that university the 
mechanic arts, with model workshops, and all the sciences should be taught, 
and especially agriculture in connection with a model farm. 

Although you ask nothing more in your ordinance than has already been 
granted to the other new states, yet in view of the sacrifice of life and property 
incurred by the people of Kansas, in establishing here the great principles of 
state and popular sovereignty, and thus perpetuating the Union, congress, 
doubtless, will regard with indulgent favor the new state of Kansas, and will 
welcome her into the Union with joyful congratulations and a most liberal 
policy as to the public domain. 

The full benefit of that great measure, the graduation and reduction of the 



gov. walker's inaugural. 795 

price of the public lands in favor only of settlers and cultivators, so often urged 
by me in the senate and in the treasury department, and finally adopted by 
congress, should also be secured in our ordinance. Having witnessed in new- 
states the deep injury inflicted upon them by large bodies of their most fertile 
land being monopolized by speculators, I suggest, in accordance with the pub- 
lic policy ever advocated by me, that our entire land tax, uuder the constitu- 
tion, for the next twenty years should be confined exclusively to unoccupied 
land — whether owned by residents or non-residents — as one of the best means 
of guarding against a monopoly of our choice lands by speculators. I desire, 
in fact, to see our convention exercise the whole constitutional power of a state, 
to guard our rights and interests, and especially to protect the settlers and cul- 
tivators against the monopoly of our public domain by speculators. 

As regards the school lands of the new states, the following views will be 
found in my reports of the 8th of December, 1847, and 9th of December, 
1848, as secretary of the treasury of the United States: 

" The recommendation contained in my last report for the establishment of 
ports of entry in Oregon, and the extension there of our revenue laws, is again 
respectfully presented to the consideration of congress, together with donations 
of farms to settlers and emigrants, and the grant of a school section in the cen- 
ter of every quarter of a township, which would bring the school-house within 
a point not exceeding a mile and a half in distance from the most remote in- 
habitants of such quarter township." 

And again : " My last report recommended the grant of one section of land 
for schools in every quarter township in Oregon. ***** Con- 
gress, to some extent, adopted this recommendation by granting two school sec- 
tions in each township, instead of one, for education in Oregon ; but it is re- 
spectfully suggested that even thus extended the grant is still inadequate in 
amount, whilst the location is inconvenient, and too remote for a school which 
all can attend. The subject is again presented to the attention of congress, 
with the recommendation that it shall be extended to California and New 
Mexico, and also to all the other new states and territories containing the pub- 
lic domain." 

Acting upon the first of these recommendations, but not carrying them fully 
into effect, congress doubled the school section grants — an advance upon the 
former system. But, in my judgment, the benefits intended will never be fully 
realized until four school sections, instead of two, are granted in every town- 
ship, locating the school section in the center of every quarter township ; thus, 
by only doubling the school sections, causing every section of the public domain 
in the new states to adjoin a school section, which would add immensely to the 
value of the public lands, whilst, at the same time, affording an adequate fund 
not only for the establishment of common schools in every township, but of high 
schools, normal schools, and free academies, which, together with the five per 
cent, fund and university grant before referred to, would place Kansas in a few- 
years, in point of science and education, in the front rank of the states of the 
American Union and of the world. This is a subject always regarded by me 



7 90 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

with intense interest, inasmuch as my highest hope of the perpetuity of our 
Union, and of the continued success of self-government, is based upon the pro- 
gressive education and enlightenment of the people, enabling them fully 
to comprehend their own true interests, the incalculable advantages of our 
Union, the exemption from the power of demagogues, the control of sectional 
passions and prejudice, the progress of the arts and sciences, and the accumu- 
lation of knowledge, which is every day more and more becoming real power, 
and which will advance so much the great interests of our whole country. 

These noble grants for schools and education iu some of the new states 
have not produced all the advantages designed, for want of adequate checks 
aud guards against improvident legislation ; but I trust that the convention, 
by a distinct constitutional provision, will surround these lands with such guar- 
antees, legislative, executive, judicial, and popular, as to require the combined 
action of the whole under the authority of the legislature in the administration 
of a fund so sacred. 

It will be observed that these school sections and the five per cent, fund, or 
their equivalent, have always been made good to the new states by congress, 
whether the lauds were sold iu trust, for Indians, or otherwise. 

Upon looking at the location of Kansas, equidistant from north to south, 
aud from the Atlantic to the Pacific, I find, that, within reasonable boun- 
daries, she would be the central state of the American Union. On the north 
lies the Nebraska territory, soon to become a state ; on the south the great and 
fertile southwestern Indian territory, soon, I hope, to become a state also. To 
the boundary of Kansas run nearly all the railroads of Missouri, whilst west- 
ward, northward, and southward, these routes continued through Kansas would 
connect her directly with Puget Sound, the mouth of the Oregon river, and 
San Francisco. The southern boundary of Kansas is but five hundred miles 
from the Gulf of Mexico, aud the same railroad through the great southwest- 
ern Indian territory aud Texas would connect her with New Orleans, with 
Galveston, with all the roads of Arkansas, and through Texas to San. Francis- 
co, and other points upon the Pacific ; northward and eastward our lines would 
connect with the roads of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and the lakes of 
the north. 

It is the people of Kansas who, in forming their state constitution, are to 
declare the terms on which they propose to enter the Union. Congress can 
not compel the people of the territory to enter the Union as a state, or change, 
without their consent, the constitution framed by the people. Congress, it is 
true, may for constitutional reasons refuse admission, but the state alone, in 
forming her constitution, can prescribe the terms on which she will enter the 
Union. This power of the people of a territory in forming a state constitu- 
tion is one of vital importance, especially iu the states carved out of the pub- 
lic domain. Nearly all the lauds of Kansas are public lands, and most of 
them are occupied by Indian tribes. These lands are the property of the fed- 
eral government, but their right is exclusively that of a proprietor, carrying 
with it no political power. 



gov. walker's inaugural. 797 

Although the states cannot tax the constitutional functions of the federal 
government, they may assess its real estate within the limits of the state. Thus, 
although a state cannot tax the federal mint or custom houses, yet it may tax 
the ground on which they stand, unless exempted by state authority. Such is 
the well-settled doctrine of the supreme court of the United States. In 1838, 
Judge McLean, of the supreme court of the United States, made the follow- 
ing decision : 

" It is true, the United States held the proprietary right under the act of ces- 
sion, and also the right of sovereignty until the state government was estab- 
lished ; but the mere proprietary right, if it exists, gives no right of sover- 
eignty. The United States may own laud within a state, but political juris- 
diction does not follow this ownership. Where jurisdiction is necessary, as for 
forts and arsenals, a cession of it is obtained from the state. Even the lands of 
the United States within the state are exempted from taxation by compact." 

By the recent decision of the supreme court of the United States, so justly 
favorable to the rights and interest of the new states, especially those formed 
out of the territory acquired, like Kansas, since the adoption of the constitu- 
tion, it is clear that the ownership of the public lands of such territory is 
viewed by the court exclusively as a proprietary right, carrying with it no 
political power or right of eminent domain, and affecting in no way the exer- 
cise of any of the soveereigu attributes of state authority. "When Kansas be- 
comes a state, with all the attributes of state sovereignty coextensive with her 
limit-, among these must be the taxing power, which is an inherent element of 
state authority. I do not dispute the title of the government to the public 
lands of Kansas, but I do say this right is that of an owner only, and that, 
wheu Kansas becomes a state, the public lands are subject to taxation by state 
authority, like those of any individual proprietor, unless that power is relin- 
quished by the state in the ordinance, assuming the form of a compact, by 
which the state is admitted into the Uuion. 

This relinquishment of the taxing power as to the public lands, so import- 
ant to the general government, and which has heretofore been exacted by con- 
gress on their own terms from all the new states, is deeply injurious to a state, 
depriving her almost entirely of the principal recourse of a new state by taxa- 
tion to support her government. Now that this question is conclusively set- 
tled by the supreme court of the United States, as a consequence of their 
recent decision, it is proper for the state, in making this relinquishment of the 
right to tax the public lands, to annex the conditions on which she consents to 
such exemption. This should be done in the constitution upon terms just to 
Kansas and to the federal government. 

Should Kansas relinquish the right of taxing the public lands for an equivalent, 
she should, in my judgment, although sustained by irresistible conclusions from 
the decision of the supreme court of the United States, and sound constitu- 
tional views of state rights, place the question in its strongest form, by asking 
nothing more than has been granted to the other new states, including the 
grants for education, railroads, etc. She will thus give the highest proof that 



798 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

she is not governed by sordid views, and that she means to exact nothing from 
congress that is unjust or unusual. 

I cannot too earnestly impress upon you the necessity of removing the slav> 
ery agitation from the halls of congress and presidential conflicts. It is con- 
ceded that congress has no power to interfere with slavery in the states where 
it exists ; and if it can now be established, as is clearly the doctrine of the 
constitution, that congress has no authority to interfere with the people of a terri- 
tory on this subject, in forming a state constitution, the question must be 
removed from congressional and presidential elections. 

This is the principle affirmed by congress in the act organizing this territory, 
ratified by the people of the United States in the recent election, and main- 
tained by the late decision of the supreme court of the United States. If this 
principle can be carried into successful operation in Kansas — that her people 
shall determine what shall be her social institutions — the slavery question must 
be withdrawn from the halls of congress, and from our presidential conflicts, and 
the safety of the Union be placed beyond all peril ; whereas, if the principle 
should be defeated here, the slavery agitation must be renewed in all elections 
throughout the country, with increasing bitterness, until it shall eventually 
overthrow the government. 

It is this agitation which, to European powers, presents the only hope of 
subverting our free institutions, and, as a consequence, destroying the principle 
of self-government throughout the world. It is this hope that has already 
inflicted deep injury upon our country, exciting monarchical or despotic inter- 
ference with our domestic as well as foreign affairs, and inducing their interpo- 
sition, not only in our elections, but in diplomatic intercourse, to arrest our 
progress, to limit our influence and power, depriving us of great advantages in 
peaceful territorial expansion, as well as in trade with the nations of the world. 

Indeed, when I reflect upon the hostile position of the European press du- 
ring the recent election, and their exulting predictions of the dissolution of our 
Union as a consequence of the triumph of a sectional candidate, I cannot 
doubt that the peaceful and permauent establishment of these principles, now 
being subjected to their final test in Kansas, will terminate European opposi- 
tion to all those measures which must so much iucrease our commerce, furnish 
new markets for our products and fabrics, and by conservative, peaceful progress, 
carry our flag and the empire of our constitution into new and adjacent regions 
indispensable as a part of the Union to our welfare and security, adding coffee, 
sugar, aud other articles to our staple exports, whilst greatly reducing their 
price to the consumer. 

Nor is it only in our foreign intercourse that peace will be preserved and our 
prosperity advanced by the accepted fact of the permanence of our govern- 
ment, based upon the peaceful settlement of this question in Kansas, but at 
home the same sentiment will awaken renewed confidence in the stability of our 
institutions, give a new impulse to all our industry, and carry us onward in a 
career of progress and prosperity exceeding even our most sanguine expecta- 
tions ; a new movement of European capital will flow in upon us for perma- 



gov. walker's inaugural. 799 

nent investment, and a new exodus of the European masses, aided by the 
preemption principle, carry westward the advancing column of American states 
in one unbroken phalanx to the Pacific. 

And let me ask you, what possible good has been accomplished by agitating 
in congress and in presidential conflcts the slavery question ? Has it emanci- 
pated a single slave, or improved their condition ? Has it made a single state 
free where slavery otherwise would have existed ? Has it accelerated the 
disappearance of slavery from the more northern of the slaveholding states, or 
accomplished any practical good whatever ? No, my fellow-citizens, nothing 
but unmitigated evil has already ensued, with disasters still more fearful im- 
pending for the future, as a consequence of this agitation. 

There is a law more powerful than the legislation of man — more potent 
than passion or prejudice — that must ultimately determine the location of slav- 
ery in this country ; it is the isothermal line ; it is the law of the thermometer, 
of latitude or altitude, regulating climate, labor, and productions, and, as a 
consequence, profit and loss. Thus even upon the mountain heights of the 
tropics slavery can no more exist than in northern latitudes, because it is un- 
profitable, being unsuited to the constitution of that sable race transplanted 
here from the equatorial heats of Africa. Why is it that in the Union slavery 
recedes from the north and progresses south ? It is this same great climatic 
law now operating for or against slavery in Kansas. If, on the elevated plains 
of Kansas, stretching to the base of our American alps — the Rocky moun- 
tains — and including their eastern crest, crowned with perpetual snow, from 
which sweep over her open prairies those chilling blasts, reducing the average 
range of the thermometer here to a temperature nearly as low as that of New 
England, should render slavery unprofitable here, because unsuited to the trop- 
ical constitution of the negro race, the law above referred to must ultimately 
determine that question here, and can no more be controlled by the legislation 
of man than any other moral or physical law of the Almighty. Especially 
must this law operate with irresistible force in this country, where the number 
of slaves is limited, and cannot be increased by importation, where many mil- 
lions of acres of sugar and cotton lands are still uncultivated, and, from the 
ever-augmenting demand, exceeding the supply, the price of those great sta- 
ples has nearly doubled, demanding vastly more slave labor for their produc- 
tion. 

If, from the operation of these causes, slavery should not exist here, I trust 
it by no means follows that Kansas should become a state controlled by the 
treason and fanaticism of abolitionism. She has, in any event, certain consti- 
tutional duties to perform to her sister states, and especially to her immediate 
neighbor— the slaveholding state of Missouri. Through that great state, by 
rivers and railroads, must flow, to a great extent, our trade and intercourse, 
our imports and exports. Our entire eastern front is upon her border ; from 
Missouri come a great number of her citizens ; even the farms of the two 
states are cut up by the line of the state boundary, part in Kansas, part in 
Missouri ; her citizens meet us in daily intercourse ; and that Kansas should 



800 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

become hostile to Missouri, an asylum for her fugitive slaves, or a propagandist 
of abolition treason, would lie alike inexpedient and unjust, and fatal to the 
continuance of the American Union. In any event, then, I trust that the con- 
stitution of Kansas will contain such clauses as will forever secure to the state 
of Missouri the faithful performance of all constitutional guarantees, not only 
by federal, hut by state authority, and the supremacy within our limits of the 
authority of the supreme court of the United States on all constitutional ques- 
tions be firmly established. 

Upon the south, Kansas is bounded by the great southwestern Indian terri- 
tory. This is one of the most salubrious and fertile portions of this continent. 
It is a great cotton-growing region, admirably adapted by soil and climate for 
the products of the south, embracing the valleys of the Arkansas and Red 
rivers, adjoining Texas on the south and west, and Arkansas on the east, and 
it ought speedily to become a state of the American Union. The Indian trea- 
ties will constitute no obstacle any more than precisely similar treaties did in 
Kansas ; for their lands, valueless to them, now for sale, but which, sold with 
their consent and for their benefit, like the Indian land of Kansas, would make 
them a most wealthy and prosperous people ; and their consent, on these terms, 
would be most cheerfully given. This territory contains double the area of the 
state of Indiana, and, if necessary, an adequate portion of the western and 
more elevated part could be set apart exclusively for these tribes, and the east- 
ern and larger portion be formed into a state, and its lands sold for the benefit 
of these tribes, (like the Indian lands of Kansas,) thus greatly promoting all 
their interests. To the eastern boundary of this region on the state of Arkan- 
sas, run the railroads of that state ; to her southern limits come the great rail- 
roads from Louisiana and Texas, from New Orleans and Galveston, which will 
ultimately be joined by railroads from Kansas, leading through this Indian ter- 
ritory, connecting Kansas with New Orleans, the Gulf of Mexico, and with the 
Southern Pacific railroad, leading through Texas to San Francisco. 

It is essential to the true interests not only of Kansas, but of Louisiana, 
Texas, and Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri, and the whole region west of the 
Mississippi, that this conterminous southwestern Indian territory should speed- 
ily become a state, not only to supply us with cotton, and receive our products 
in return, but as occupying the area over which that portion of our railroads 
should run which connect us with New Orleans and Galveston, and by the 
southern route with the Pacific. From her central position, through or con- 
nected with Kansas, must run the central, northern, and southern routes to the 
Pacific ; and with the latter, as well as with the Gulf, the connection can only 
be secured by this southwestern territory becoming a state, Vnd to this Kansas 
should direct her earnest attention as essential to her prosperity. 

Our country and the world are regarding with profound interest the struggle 
now impending in Kansas. Whether we are competent to self-government — 
whether we can decide this controversy peacefully for ourselves by our own 
votes, without fraud or violence — whether the great principles of self-govern- 
ment and state sovereignty can be carried here into successful operation — are 



gov. walker's inaugural. 801 

the questions now to be determined, and upon the plains of Kansas may now 
be fought the last great and decisive battle, involving the fate of the Union, of 
state sovereignty, of self-government, and the liberties of the world. If, my 
fellow-citizens, you could, even for a brief period, soften or extinguish sectional 
passions or prejudice, and lift yourselves to the full realization of the momen- 
tous issues intrusted to your decision, you would feel that no greater responsi- 
bility was ever devolved upon any people. It is not merely, shall slavery exist 
in or disappear from Kansas ? but, shall the great principles of self govern- 
ment and state sovereignty be maintained or subverted? State sovereignty is 
mainly a practical principle, in so far as it is illustrated by the great sovereign 
right of the majority of the people, in forming a state government, to adopt 
their own social institutions ; and this principle is disregarded whenever such 
decision is subverted by congress, or overthrown by external intrusion, or by 
domestic fraud or violence. All those who oppose this principle are the ene- 
mies of state rights, of self-government, of the constitution and the Union. 
Do you love slavery so much, or hate it so intensely, that you would endeavor 
to establish or exclude it by fraud or violence, against the will of the majority 
of the people ? What is Kansas, with or without slavery, if she should de- 
stroy the rights and union of the states ? Where would be her schools, her 
free academies, her colleges and university, her towns and cities, her railroads, 
farms, and villages, without the Union, and the principles of self-government ? 
Where would be her peace and prosperity, and what the value of her lauds 
and property ? Who can decide this question for Kansas, if not the people 
themselves ? And if they cannot, nothing but the sword can become the 
arbiter. 

On the one hand, if you can and will decide peacefully this question your- 
selves, I see for Kansas an immediate career of power, progress, and prosper- 
ity, unsurpassed in the history of the world. I see the peaceful establishment 
of our state constitution, its ratification by the people, and our immediate ad- 
mission into the Union ; the rapid extinguishment of the Indian title, and the 
occupancy of those lands by settlers and cultivators ; the diffusion of universal 
education ; preemptions for the actual settlers; the state rapidly intersected by 
a network of railroads ; our churches, schools, colleges, and university carry- 
ing westward the progress of law, religion, liberty, and civilization ; our towns, 
cities, and villages prosperous and progressing ; our farms teeming with abun- 
dant products, and greatly appreciated in value ; and peace, happiness, and 
prosperity smiling throughout our borders. With proper clauses in our con- 
stitution, and the peaceful arbitrament of this question, Kansas may become 
the model state of the American Union. She may bring down upon us from 
north to south, from east to west, the praises and blessings of every patriotic 
American, and of every friend of self-government throughout the world. She 
may record her name on the proudest page of the history of our country and 
of the world, and as the youngest and last-born child of the American Union, 
all will hail and regard her with respect and affection. 

On the other hand, if you cannot thus peacefully decide this question, fraud, 



802 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

violence, and injustice will reign supreme throughout our borders, and we will 
have achieved the undying infamy of having destroyed the liberty of oar coun- 
try and of the world. We will become a byword of reproach and obloquy ; 
and all history will record the fact that Kansas was the grave of the American 
Union. Never was so momentous a question submitted to the decision of any 
people ; and we cannot avoid the alternative now placed before us of glory or 
of shame. 

May that overruling Providence who brought our forefathers in safety to 
amestown and Plymouth — who watched over our colonial pupilage — who con- 
vened our ancestors in harmonious councils on the birthday of American inde- 
pendence — who gave us Washington, and carried us successfully through the 
struggles and perils of the revolution — who assembled, in 17S7, that noble 
band of patriots aud statesmen from north and south who framed the federal 
constitution — who has augmented our numbers from three millions to thirty 
millions, has carried us from the eastern slope of the Alleghanies through the 
great valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri, and now salutes our stand- 
ard on the shores of the Pacific; — rouse in our hearts a love of the whole Union, 
and a patriotic devotion to the whole country. May it extinguish or control 
all sectional passions and prejudice, and enable us to conduct to a successful 
conclusion the great experiment of self-government now being made within 
your boundaries. 

Is it not infinitely better that slavery should be abolished or established in 
Kansas, rather than that we should become slaves and not permitted to gov- 
ern ourselves ? Is the absence or existence of slavery in Kansas paramount 
to the great questions of state sovereignty, of self-government, and of the 
Union ? Is the sable African alone entitled to your sympathy and considera- 
tion, even if he were happier as a freeman than as a slave, either here or in St. 
Domingo, or the British West Indies or Spanish America, where the emanci- 
pated slave has receded to barbarism, and approaches the lowest point in the 
descending scale of moral, physical, and intellectual degradation ? Have our 
white brethren of the great American and European race no claims upon our 
attention ? Have they no rights or interests entitled to regard and protection ? 
Shall the destiny of the African in Kansas exclude all considerations connect- 
ed with our own happiness and prosperity ? And is it for the handful of that 
race now in Kansas, or that may be hereafter introduced, that we should sub- 
vert the Union and the great principles of self-government and state sover- 
eignty, and imbrue our hands in the blood of our countrymen ! Important as 
this African question may be in Kansas, and which it is your solemn right to 
determine, it sinks into insignificance compared with the perpetuity of the 
Union and the final successful establishment of the principles of state sover- 
eignty and free government. If patriotism, if devotion to the constitution and 
love of the Union, should not induce the minority to yield to the majority on 
this question, let them reflect that in no event can the minority successfully de- 
termine this question permanently, and that in no contingency will congress 
admit Kansas as a slave or free state unless a majority of the people of Kan- 



gov. walker's inaugural. 803 

sas shall first have fairly and freely decided this question for themselves by a 
direct vote on the adoption of the constitution, excluding all fraud or violence. 
The minority, in resisting the will of the majority, may involve Kansas again 
in civil war ; they may bring upon her reproach and obloquy, and destroy her 
progress aud prosperity ; they may keep her for years out of the Union, and, 
in the whirlwind of agitation, sweep away the government itself ; but Kansas 
never can be brought into the Union with or without slavery except by a pre- 
\ ions solemn decision, fully, freely, and fairly made by a majority of her peo- 
j : (! in voting for or against the adoption of her state constitution. Why, then, 
should this just, peaceful, and constitutional mode of settlement meet with op- 
position from any quarter ? Is Kansas willing to destroy her own hopes of 
prosperity, merely that she may afford political capital to any party, and per- 
petuate the agitation of slavery throughout the Union ? Is she to become a 
mere theme for agitators in other states, the theatre ou which they shall per- 
form the bloody drama of treason and disunion ? Does she want to see the 
solemn acts of congress, the decision of the people of the Union in the recent 
election, the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities of the country all 
overthrown, and revolution and civil war inaugurated throughout her limits ? 
Does she want to be " bleeding Kansas " for the benefit of political agitators, 
within or out of her limits? or does she prefer the peaceful and quiet arbitra- 
ment of this question for herself? What benefit will the great body of the 
people of Kansas derive from these agitations ? They may, for a brief pe- 
riod, give consequence and power to political leaders aud agitators, but it is at 
the expense of the happiness aud welfare of the great body of the people of 
this territory. 

Those who oppose slavery in Kansas do not base their opposition upon any 
philanthropic principles, or any sympathy for the African race ; for in their so- 
called constitution, framed at Topeka, they deem that entire race so inferior 
and degraded as to exclude them all forever from Kansas, whether they be 
bond or free — thus depriving them of all rights here, and denying even that 
they can be citizens of the United States ; for, if they are citizens, they 
could not constitutionally lie excluded from Kansas. Yet such a clause, in- 
serted in the Topeka constitution, was submitted by that convention for the 
vote of the people, and ratified here by an overwhelming majority of the anti- 
slavery party. This party, here, therefore, has, in the most positive manner, 
affirmed the constitutionality of that portion of the recent decision of the su- 
preme court of the United States, declaring that Africans are not citizens of 
the United States. 

This is the more important, inasmuch as this Topeka constitution was ratified 
with this clause inserted by the entire republican party in congress — thus dis- 
tinctly affirming the recent decision of the supreme court of the Union, that 
Africans are not citizens of the United States ; for if citizens, they may be 
elected to all offices, state and national, including the presidency itself; they 
must be placed upon a basis of perfect equality with the whites, serve with 
them in the militia, on the bench, the legislature, the jury-box, vote in all 



804 AFFAIRS OF KANSAS. 

elections, meet us in social intercourse, and intermarry freely with the whites. 
This doctrine of the perfect equality of the white with the black, in all respects 
whatsoever, social and political, clearly follows from the position that Africans 
are citizens of the United States. Nor is the supreme court of the Union less 
clearly vindicated by the position now assumed here by the published creed of 
tins party, that the people of Kansas, in forming their state constitution, (and 
not congress,) must decide, this question of slavery for themselves. Having 
thus sustained the court on both the controverted points decided by that tribu- 
nal, it is hoped they will not approve the anarchical and revolutionary proceed- 
ings in other states, expunging the supreme court from our system by depriv- 
ing it of the great power for which it was created, of expounding the consti- 
tution. If that be done, we can have in fact no unity of government or fun- 
damental law, but just as many ever-varying constitutions as passion, preju- 
dice, and local interests may from time to time prescribe in the thirty-one states 
of the Union. 

I have endeavored heretofore faintly to foreshadow the wonderful prosperity 
which would follow at once in Kansas the peaceful and final settlement of this 
question. But, if it should be in the power of agitators to prevent such a re- 
sult, nothing but ruin will pervade our territory. Confidence will expire and 
law and order will be subverted. Anarchy and civil war will be reinaugurated 
among us. All property will greatly depreciate in value. Even the best 
farms will become almost worthless. Our towns and cities will sink into de- 
cay. Emigration to our territory will cease. A mournful train of returning 
settlers, with ruined hopes and blasted fortunes, will leave our borders. All 
who have purchased property at present prices will be sacrificed, and Kansas 
will be marked by universal ruin and desolation. 

Nor will the mischief be arrested here. It will extend into every other state. 
Despots will exult over the failure here of the great principles of self-govern- 
ment, and the approaching downfall of our confederacy. The pillars of the 
union will rock upon their base, and we may close the next presidential con- 
flict amid the scattered fragments of the constitution of our once happy and 
united people. The banner of the stars and stripes, the emblem of our coun- 
try's glory, will be rent by contending factions. We shall uo longer have a 
country. The friends of human liberty in other realms will shrink despairing 
from the conflict. Despotic power will resume its sway throughout the world, 
and man will have tried in vain the last experiment of self-government. The 
architects of our country's ruin, the assassins of her peace and prosperity, will 
share the same common ruin of all our race. They will meet, whilst living, 
the bitter curses of a ruined people, whilst history will record as their only 
epitaph: These were the destroyers of the American Union, of the liber- 
ties of their country and the world. 

But I do not despair of the republic. My hope is in the patriotism and in- 
telligence of the people ; in their love of country, of liberty, and of the 
Union. Especially is my confidence unbounded in the hardy pioneers and set- 
tlers of the west. It was such settlers of a new state devoted to the consti- 



THE SOUTHERN PRESS. 805 

tution and the Union, whom I long represented in the senate of the United 
States, and whose rights and interests it was my pride and pleasure there, as 
well as in the treasury department, to protect and advocate. It was men like 
these whose rifles drove back the invader from the plains of Orleans, and 
planted the stars and stripes upon the victorious fields of Mexico. These are 
the men whom gold cannot corrupt nor foes intimidate. From their towns and 
villages, from their farms and cottages, Spread over the beautiful prairies of 
Kansas, they will come forward now in defense of the constitution and the 
Union. These are the glorious legacy they received from our fathers, and 
they will transmit to their children the priceless heritage. Before the peaceful 
power of their suffrage this dangerous sectional agitation will disappear, aud 
peace and prosperity once more reign throughout our borders. In the hearts 
of this noble band of patriotic settlers, the love of their country and of the 
Union. is inextinguishable. It leaves them not in death, but follows them into 
that higher realm, where, with Washington and Franklin, and their noble com- 
patriots, they look down with undying affection upon their country, and offer 
up prayers that the Union and the constitution may be perpetual. For, recol- 
lect, my fellow-citizens, that it is the constitution that makes the Union, aud 
unless that immortal instrument, bearing the name of the Father of his Country, 
shall be maintained entire in all its wise provisions and sacred guarantees, our 
free institutions must perish. 

My reliance also is unshaken upon the same overruling Providence which 
has carried us triumphantly through so many perils and conflicts, which has 
lifted us to a height and power of prosperity unexampled in history, and, if 
we shall maintain the constitution and the Union, points us to a future more 
glorious and sublime than mind can conceive or pen describe. The march of 
our country's destiny, like that of His first chosen people, is marked by the 
foot-prints of the steps of God. The constitution and the Union are " the 
«Ioud by day, and the pillar of fire by night," which will carry us safely, under 
his guidance, through the wilderness and bitter waters, into the promised and 
ever-exteuding fields of our country's glory. It is his hand which beckons us 
onward in the pathway of peaceful progress and expansion, of power and re- 
nown, until our continent, in the distant future, shall be covered by the folds of 
the American banner, and, instructed by our example, all the nations of the 
world, through many trials and sacrifices, shall establish the great principles of 
our constitutional confederacy of free aud sovereign states. 

R. J. Walker. 

The suggestion of Governor Walker to refer the constitution then to be 
framed back to the people of Kansas for their ratification or rejection, met 
with most decided condemnation, not only by the pro-slavery party in Kansas, 
but by the southern press generally. The Charleston Mercury said : " Now 
we hold that the submitting of the constitution soon to be framed by the peo- 
ple of Kansas in convention assembled, back again to the people individually, 
for ratification, is a work of supererogation — a matter to be done or not, en- 



806 AFFAIB3 OF KANSAS. 

tirely to the discretion of the convention, as a thing of contingent expediency 
only, and not by any means a thing of necessity. And we cannot but look 
upon this suggestion of Mr. Stanton, however coupled with declarations of 
southern feeling, and the determination expressed by Governor Walker, as par- 
taking of the nature of official dictation, and being, in fact, a violation of the 
promised neutrality — an insidious and high-handed breach of faith towards the 
south and southern men in Kansas. We, therefore, desire in the outset to 
stamp this game as it deserves, and to protest against all attempts to influence 
the action of the convention from without, whether coming from the territorial 
officers appointed by the president, or the free-soil schemers of New York and 
Boston. The real object and end is under the guise of fair words to the south 
to make a free state of Kansas." 

The Richmond South said : " Upon the new plan which Governor Walker 
promulgates for the settlement of the Kansas difficulty, we cannot venture an 
opinion before we scrutinize it in detail. There is one point, however, upon 
which we can give an instant and emphatic judgment ; and that is, the propo- 
sition to submit the constitution of Kansas to a popular vote. The convention 
can do nothing for which there is not an express authority in the law ; and as 
there is neither an express or implied authority in the law to submit the consti- 
tution of Kansas to the vote of the inhabitants of the territory, the step would 
be an illegal and invalid usurpation of power. The proposition is too plain to 
allow of controversy. Submit it to any lawyer in the land, from Chief Justice 
Taney or Reverdy Johnson to the poorest pettifogger in the most obscure coun- 
try village, and the instant answer will be that the convention in Kansas has 
no right to submit the constitution to a popular vote. The journals of the 
north concede the point, and declaim against the law calling the convention on 
the ground that it makes no provision for a popular vote on the constitution. 
Why then does Governor Walker raise the question ? It is especially surpris- 
ing that he should assume an undeniably untenable position." 

Such is a brief history of the troubles in Kansas down to the summer of 
1857. The constitutional convention met at Lecompton in September, was 
duly organized, and then adjourned to meet again on the 25th of October. 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 807 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Statistical Tables constructed from the Census op 1850. 

Territory — Areaof Free States ; area of Slave States. — Population — Free colored in Free 
States; Free colored in Slave States ; Slaves. — Amalgamation; Mnlattoes of Free States; 
ttulattoes of Slave States ; Proportion to Whites. — Manumitted Slaves ; Fugitive Slaves; 
Occupation of Slaves ; Number of Slave Holders ; Proportion to Non-Slave Holders. — 
Representation — Number of Representatives from Slave States. — Number of Repre- 
sentatives from Free States ; Basis in numbers and classes. — Mokal and Social — 
Churche>, Church Property, Colleges, Public Schools, Private Schools ; Number of 
Pupils; Annual Expenditure ; Persons who cannot read and write ; Lands appropriated 
by General Government for Education ; Periodical Press ; Libraries. — Charities — Pau- 
perism in Free States ; in Slave States. — Criminals — Number of Prisoners. — Agkicul- 
ture — Value of Farms and Implements in Free and Slave States. — Manufactures, 
Mining, Mechanic Arts — Capital invested; Annual Product. — Rail Roads and Ca- 
nals — Number of Miles ; Cost. — Total Real and Personal Estate. — Value of Real 
Estate in Free States ; in Slave States ; value of Personal in Free States ; in Slave 
States, including and excluding Slaves. — Miscellaneous. 



T 



HE United States consist at the present time of thirty-one independent 
states, and eight organized territories, including the District of Columbia. 

TERRITORY. 

Area in Square Miles op the Free States. 

California .155,980 New Hampshire 9,280 

Connecticut - 4,674 NewYork 47,000 

Illinois - 55,405 New Jersey . 8,320 

Indiana 33,809 Ohio 39,964 

Iowa 50,914 Pennsylvania - 46,000 

Maine 31,766 Rhode Island 1,306 

Massachusetts 7,800 Vermont -- 10,212 

Michigan 56,243 Wisconsin 53,924 

Total area of the Free States _ - - - 612,597 

Area in Square Miles of the Slave States. 

Alabama 50,722 Maryland - 11,124 

Arkansas - 52,198 Mississippi 47,156 

District of Columbia 60 Missouri 67,380 

Delaware 2,120 North Carolina 50,704 

Florida 59,268 South Carolina 29,385 

Georgia -. 58,000 Tennessee 45,600 

Kentucky 37,680 Texas.... ..237,504 

Louisiana 41,255 Virginia 61,352 

Total area of the Slave States 851,500 

Area of the thirty-one states in square miles - 1,464,105 

Area of the territories in square miles... » uoi 



808 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



POPULATION. 

White population in the Free States 13,330 650 

White population in the Slave States 6,222,418 

Free colored population of Free States 196,016 

Free colored population of Slave States 238,187 

Slaves 3,204,313 

Proportion of colored to white in Free States _. lto 68 

Proportion of colored to white in Slave States.. lto 2 



California 

Connecticut . . 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts 
Michigan . 



Free Colored in Free States. 

962 New Hampshire .. . 520 

7,693 NewTork 49,069 

5,436 New Jersey .... . ....... 23,810 

11,262 Ohio 25,279 

333 Pennsylvania 53,626 

1,356 Rhode Island 3,670 

9,064 Vermont 718 

2,583 Wisconsin.. 635 



Total ..196,016 

Free Colored in Slave States. 



Alabama 2,265 

Arkansas 608 

District of Columbia 10,059 

Delaware. 18,733 

Georgia 2,932 

Florida 932 

Kentucky 10,011 

Louisiana '. 17,462 



Maryland 74,723 

Mississippi 930 

Missouri 2,618 

North Carolina 27,463 

South Carolina 8,960 

Tennessee.- 6,422 

Texas 397 

Virginia 54,333 



Total 238,187 

Slave Population. 



Alabama 342,844 

Arkansas 47,100 

District of Columbia 3,687 

Delaware 2,290 

Georgia 381,682 

Florida 39,310 

Kentucky 210,981 

Louisiana 244,809 



Maryland 90,368 

Mississippi.. 309,878 

Missouri 87,422 

North Carolina 288,548 

South Carolina 384,984 

Tennessee _ 239,459 

Texas 58,161 

Virginia 472,528 



California... 
Connecticut . 
Illinois 



Total 3,204,313 

Mulatto Population op Free States. 

87 New Hampshire 184 

„ 1,798 New Jersey 3,697 

2,506 New York 8,139 



731 
206 

297 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 809 

Indiana 5,321 Ohio... 14 265 

Iowa 155 Pennsylvania 15,341 

Maiue ■--- - 461 Rhodelsland 

Massachusetts 2,340 Vermont 

Michigan 1,118 Wisconsin 

Total - 56,646 

Mulatto Population of Slave States. 

Free. Slaves. Total. 

Alabama 1,698 21,605 23 303 

Arkansas.. 407 6,361 6^768 

District of Columbia 3,276 802 4 078 

Delaware 1,648 83 1,731 

Florida 703 3,022 3*725 

Georgia 1,528 22,669 24,197 

Kentucky 2,630 29,729 32,359 

Louisiana 14,083 19,835 33,918 

Maryland 13,614 7,889 21,503 

Mississippi . 635 19,730 20,365 

Missouri 931 13,235 14,166 

North Carolina 17,205 16,815 34,020 

South Carolina 4,372 12,502 16,874 

Tennessee 3,766 20,356 24,132 

Texas 257 7,703 7,960 

Virginia 35,476 44,299 79,775 



Total 102,239 246,635 348,874 

Mulatto population of Free States 56,646 

Mulatto population of Slave States Free, 102,239 

Slave, 246,635 348,874 

White population of Free States ...13,330,650 

Mulatto population of Free States.. 56,646 Proportion, 1 to 235 

White population of Slave States . 6,222,418 

Mulatto population of Slave States.. 348,814 ... Proportion, 1 to 18 

Manumitted and Fugitive Slaves in 1850. 

States. Manumitted. Fugitive. States. Manumitted Fugitive. 

Alabama ... 16 29 Missouri 50 60 

Arkansas . .. . 1 21 Mississippi 6 41 

Delaware 277 26 North Carolina 2 64 

Florida 22 18 South Carolina 2 16 

Georgia 19 89 Tennessee 45 70 

Kentucky 152 96 Texas 5 29 

Louisiana. _ 159 90 Virginia 218 83 

Maryland 493 279 

Total 1,467 1,011 

52 



810 STATISTICAL TABLES. 

On the schedules 1,467 slaves are returned in 1850 as emancipated in the 
slavehokling states during the previous year. The number of slaves who had 
absconded during the year 1849-50, and had not been heard from, was 1,011 
by the reports. 

Proportion of Fugitive Slaves.. one in 3,200 

Proportion of Manumitted Slaves - .one in 2,200 

In Maryland there was one fugitive in 320 slaves ; in Virginia there was 
one in 5,695 ; in Missouri, one in 1,450; in Kentucky, one in 2,100; in Geor- 
gia, one in 2,700 ; and in Louisiana, one in 4,000. 

Deaf and Dumb Slaves 531 

Blind 1,387 

Insane 327 

Idiotic - 1,182 

Total.. 3,427 

Occupations of Slaves. 

Residents of Towns... - 400,000 

Rural - 2,804,313 

Of the latter class 2,500,000 are directly employed in agriculture, including 
males and females, and persons of all ages. Slaves under 10 and over 60 
years of age are seldom employed industrially. These 2,500,000 are dis- 
tributed between the great staples of the south in something like the following 
proportions, bearing in mind that large quantities of breadstuffs are produced 
in addition : 

Hemp... 60,000 

Rice _.. -- 125,000 

Sugar - 150,000 

Tobacco - 350,000 

Cotton, &c - - -- 1,815,000 

Number of Slave Holders. 

Alabama - 29,295 Maryland 16,040 

Arkansas 5,999 Mississippi 23,116 

District of Columbia 1,477 Missouri 19,185 

Delaware 809 North Carolina 28,303 

Florida .- . 3,520 South Carolina 25,596 

Georgia 38,456 Tennessee.. . 33,864 

Kentucky.. .. 38,385 Texas 7,747 

Louisiana 20,670 Virginia 55,063 

Total ... 347,525 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



811 



Proportion op Slave Holders to Non-Slave Holders 
States. 

States. Slave Holders. 

Alabama 29 295 

Arkansas 5 999 

District of Columbia 1 477 

Delaware ___ 809 

Florida ._ 3,520 

Georgia.. 38,456 

Kentucky.. 38,385 

Louisiana 20 670 

Maryland 16,040 

Mississippi 23,116 

Missouri.. 19,185 

North Carolina 28,303 

South Carolina.. 25,596 

Tennessee 33,864 

Texas 7 747 

Virginia 55,063 



in the Slave 

Non-Slave Holders. 
397,219 
156,190 

36,464 

70,360 

43,683 
483,110 
723,028 
234,821 
401,903 
272,602 
572,819 
524,725 
248,967 
722,972 
146,287 
839,737 



Representation 

States. Slaves. 

Alabama . 342,844 

Arkansas 47,100 

Delaware 2,290 

Florida 39,310 

Georgia 381,682 

Kentucky 210,981 

Louisiana . 244,809 

Maryland 90,368 

Mississippi 309,878 

Missouri 87,422 

North Carolina . . . 288,548 

South Carolina ... 384,984 

Tennessee 239,459 

Texas 58,161 

Virginia 472,528 

3,200,626 



347,525 




5,873,893 


in Congress.- 


-Slave States 




Free Colored. 


White. 


No. of Rep; 


2,265 


426,514 


7 


608 


162,189 


2 


18,073 


71,169 


1 


932 


47,203 


1 


2,932 


521,572 


8 


10,011 


761,413 


10 


17,462 


255,491 


4 


74,723 


417,943 


6 


930 


295,718 


5 


2,618 


592,004 


7 


27,463 


553,028 


8 


8,960 


274,563 


6 


6,422 


756,836 


10 


397 


154,034 


2 


54,333 


894,800 


13 



238,187 



6,222,418 



III) 



812 STATISTICAL TABLES. 



Representation in Congress.. 

States. Colored. 

California - 962 

Connecticut 7,693 

Illinois 5,436 

Indiana - 11,262 

Iowa 333 

Maine - 1,356 

Massachusetts - 9,064 

Michigan 2,583 

New Hampshire 520 

New York 49,069 

New Jersey 23,816 

Ohio - --- 25,279 

Pennsylvania .. 53,626 

Rhode Island 3,670 

Vermont 718 

Wisconsin 635 



— Free States. 




WMte. 


No. of Reps. 


91,635 


2 


363,099 


4 


846,034 


9 


977,154 


11 


191,881 


2 


581,813 


6 


985,450 


11 


395,071 


4 


317,456 


3 


3,048,325 


33 


465,509 


5 


1,955,050 


21 


2,258,160 


25 


143,875 


2 


313,402 


3 


304,756 


3 



196,016 13,330,650 144 

Northern Representatives based on White Pop"lation 142 

Northern Representatives based on Colored Population 2 

Southern Representatives based on White Population 68 

Sonthern Representatives based on Free Colored Population 2 

Southern Representatives based on Slave Population . 20 

Ratio of Representation for 1853, 93,420 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



813 



MORAL AND SOCIAL. 

Religious Worship. 

Slave States. No. or Churches. Value Church Property. 

Alabama 1,325 $1,131,616 

Arkansas 362 89,315 

District of Columbia . . 46 363,000 

Delaware 180 340,345 

Florida 177 165,400 

Georgia. 1,862 1,269,359 

Kentucky . . . . .. . 1,849 2,251,918 

Louisiana.. . . ... 307 1,782,470 

Maryland ... 909 3,947,884 

Mississippi 1,016 755,542 

Missouri 909 1,587,410 

North Carolina .. .. . 1,787 905,573 

South Carolina .. ,. 1,182 2,172,246 

Tennessee . . . 2,027 1,216,201 

Texas 328 206,930 

Virginia. 2,386 2,860,876 

Totals . .16,652 $22,142,085 

Religious Worship. 

Free States. No. of Churches. Valuo Church Property. 

California . 28 $ 267,800 

Connecticut 734 3,555,194 

Illinois 1,223 1,482,185 

Indiana 2,035 1,529,585 

Iowa... 207 177,425 

Maine ... 945 1,725,845 

Massachusetts 1,447 10,206,184 

Michigan _ _._:._ 399 723,600 

New Hampshire . . . 626 1,405,786 

New Jersey .. . 814 3,680,936 

New York ... 4,169 21,219,207 

Ohio. 3,939 5,793,099 

Pennsylvania . 3,596 11,586,315 

Rhode Island 231 1,254,400 

Vermont. 599 1,216,125 

Wisconsin . 365 353,900 



Church A ceo ru modal I o 

440,155 

60.226 

34,120 

55,741 

44,960 

632,992 

673,528 

109,615 

379,465 

294,104 

264,979 

574,924 

460,450 

628,495 

64,155 

858,086 



5,574,995 



Church Accommodation*. 

10,020 

307,299 

486,576 

709,655 
43,529 

321,167 

692,828 

12.0,117 

237,417 

345,733 
1,915,179 
1,457,769 
1,576,245 

102,040 

234,534 
97,773 



Totals.. .21,357 



$65,167,586 



8,647,881 






814 



STATISTICAL TABLIiS. 



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816 STATISTICAL TABLES. 

Estimated Educational Income in Slave States 6,819,808 

Estimated Educational Income in Free States 10,962,368 

Persons over 20 years of age who cannot Read and Write. 

Slave States. Whites. Free Colored. White & Free Colored. 

Native. Foreign. AgLrn*g:tte. 

Alabama 33,157 235 33,853 139 33,902 

Arkansas 16,819 116 16,908 27 16,935 

District of Columbia 1,457 3,214 4,349 322 4,671 

Delaware 4,536 5,645 9,777 404 10,181 

Florida 3,859 270 3,834 295 4,129 

Georgia .. 41,200 467 41,261 406 41,067 

Kentucky 66,687 3,019 67,359 2,347 09,706 

Louisiana 21,221 3,389 18,339 6,271 24,610 

Maryland ... 20,815 21,062 38,426 3,451 41,877 

Mississippi 13,405 123 13,447 81 13,528 

Missouri .. . 36,281 497 34,917 1,861 36,778 

North Carolina 73,566 6,857 80,083 340 80,423 

South Carolina 15,684 880 16,460 104 16,564 

Tennessee . 77,522 1,097 78,114 505 78,619 

Texas 10,525 58 8,095 2,488 10,583 

Virginia . . 77,005 11,515 87,383 1,137 88,520 

Totals 514,339 58,444 552,605 20,178 572,782 

Persons over 20 years of age who cannot Read and Write. 

Free States. Whites. Free Colored. White & Free Colored. 

Native. Foreign. Aggregate. 

California 5,118 117 2,318 2,917 5,235 

Connecticut 4,739 567 1,293 4,013 5,306 

Illinois 40,054 1,229 35,336 5,947 41,283 

Indiana 70,540 2,170 69,445 :i,265 72,710 

Iowa 8,120 33 7,076 1,077 8,153 

Maine 6,147 135 2,134 4,148 6,282 

Massachusetts 27,539 806 1,861 26,484 28,345 

Michigan... 7,912 369 5,272 3,009 8,281 

New Hampshire 2,957 52 945 2,064 3,009 

New Jersey 14,248 4,417 12,787 5,878 18,665 

New York 91,293 7,429 30,670 68,052 98,722 

Ohio .61,030 4,990 56,958 9,002 66,020 

Pennsylvania 66,928 9,344 51,283 24,989 76,272 

Rhode Island 3,340 267 1,248 2,359 3,607 

Vermont 6,1S9 51 616 5,024 6,240 

Wisconsin 6,361 92 1,551 4,902 6,453 

Totals 422,515 32,068 280,793 173,790 454,583 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



817 



Lands appropriated by General Goveenment foe Educational 

Pueposes to Jandaey 1, 1854. 

Slave States. Acres for Schools. Acres for Universities. 

A,i """'i 1,199,139 23,040 

Alabama 902,774 23,040 

Mississippi 837,584 23',040 

Louisiana 786,044 4g!oSO 

Arkansas 886,460 46^080 

Florida 908,503 46,080 

Tennessee ... 3,553,824* 

Total 9,074,328 207,360 

Free States. Acres for Schools. Acres for Universitea. 

Ohio 704,488 23,040 

Indiana.. 650,317 23,040 

Illinois 978,755 23,040 

Michigan 1,067,397 46,080 

Iowa _ 905,144 46,080 

Wisconsin 958,648 46,080 

California... 6,719,324 46,080 

Total . 11,984,073 253,440 

Newspaper and Periodical Press. 
Aggregate number of copies printed annually in Slave States.. 92,165,919 
Aggregate number of copies printed annually in Free States . 334,146,081 



Libraries. 

Libraries other than Private in Slave States . 
Libraries other than Private in Free States 

These Libraries include Public, School, 
Church. 



Libraries. Volumes. 

722 742,794 

14,902 3,882,217 

Sunday School, College and 



* Forty thousand dollars of proceeds to he applied to establish and support a College. 



818 STATISTICAL TABLES. 

CHARITIES. 
Pauperism. — Whole Number op Persons June 1, 1850. 

Slave States. Native. Foreign. Total. 

Alabama 306 9 315 

Arkansas .-. 67 67 

Delaware-. 240 33 273 

Florida - 53 4 62 

Georgia.... 825 29 854 

Kentucky 690 87 777 

Louisiana . 76 30 106 

Maryland.... ....1,681 320 2,001 

Mississippi ........ 24A 12 257 

Missouri --- 251 254 505 

North Carolina .. --- 1,567 13 1,580 

South Carolina 1,113 180 1,293 

Tennessee 577 14 594 

Texas - - 4 4 

Vir inia . ... -- 4,356 102 4,458 

Totals 12,056 1,087 13,143 

Free States. Native. Foreign. Total 

California. — - 

Connecticut - 1,463 281 1,744 

Illinois... 279 155 434 

Indiana -. 446 137 583 

Iowa 27 17 44 

Maine ... 3,209 326 3,535 

Massachusetts - 4,059 1,490 5,549 

Michigan.. 248 181 429 

New Hampshire 1,998 186 2,184 

New Jersey... 1,339 239 1,578 

New York. 5,755 7,078 12,833 

Ohio.. 1,254 419 1,673 

Pennsylvania 2,654 1,157 3,811 

Rhode Island. 492 204 696 

Vermont .1,565 314 1,879 

Wisconsin.. 72 166 238 

Totals... 24,860 12,350 37,210 

CRIMINAL STATISTICS. 

Slave States. — Number in State Prisons and Penitentiaries : 

Whites— Native 988 

Foreign 370 

Colored, including slaves.. 323 Total 1,681 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 819 

Free States.— Number in State Prisons and Penitentiaries : 

Whites — Native 2,2T1 

Foreign 1,129 

Colored ... 565.. Total . 3,965 

INDUSTRY. 
Farming Lands and Improvements. 

Slave States. Cash value of Farms Value of Farming Implement 

and Plantations. and Machinery. 

Alabama $64,323,224 $5,125,663 

Arkansas 15,265,245 1,601,296 

District of Columbia 1,730,460 40,220 

Delaware. 18,880,031 510,279 

Florida.. 6,323,109 658,795 

Georgia 95,753,445 5,894,150 

Kentucky. 155,021,262 5,169,037 

Louisiana.. 75,814,398 11,576,938 

Maryland.. 87,178,545 2,463,443 

Mississippi 54,738,634 5,762,927 

Missouri 63,225,543 3,981,525 

North Carolina 67,891,766 3,931,532 

South Carolina 82,431,684 4,136,354 

Tennessee 97,851,212 ■ 5,360,210 

Texas 16,550,008 2,151,704 

Virginia 216,401,543 7,021,762 



Totals $1,119,380,109 $65,386,045 

Farming Lands and Improvements. 

Free States. Cash value of Farms Value of Farming Iinplei 

and Plantations. and Machinery. 

California.. $3,874,041 $103,483 

Connecticut 72,726,422 1,892,541 

Illinois 96,133,290 6,405,561 

Indiana 136,385,173 6.704,144 

Iowa 16,657,567 1,172,869 

Maine 54,861,748 2,284,557 

Massachusetts.. 109,076,347 3,209,584 

Michigan... 51,872,446 2,891,371 

New Hampshire 55,245,997 2,314,125 

New Jersey 120,237,511 4,425,503 

New York 554,546,642 22,084,926 

Ohio... 358,758,603 12,750,585 

Pennsylvania 407,876,099 14,722,541 

Rhode Island. 17,070,802 497,201 

Vermont 63,367,227 2,739,282 

Wisconsin 28,528,563 1,641,568 



Totals $2,147,21S,47S $85,840,141 



S20 STATISTICAL TABLES. 

Manufactures, Mining and Mechanic Arts. 

Slave States. Capital Invested. K:iw Material used. Aanual Product. 

Alabama $3,450,606 $2,224,960 $4,528,878 

Arkansas 324,065 268,564 607,436 

District of Columbia 888,965 1,339,146 2,493,008 

Delaware . 2,978,945 2,864,607 4,649,296 

Florida 547,060 220,611 668,335 

Georgia _ 5,460,483 3,404,917 7,086,525 

Kentucky. 12,350,734 12,170,225 24,588,483 

Louisiana ... 5,318,074 2,958,988 7,320,948 

Maryland. 14,753,143 17,326,734 32,477,702 

Mississippi.. 1,833,420 1,290,271 2,972,038 

Missouri... 9,079,695 12,446,738 23,749,265 

North Carolina 7,252,225 4,805,463 9,111,245 

South Carolina . ... 6,056,865 2,809,534 7,063,513 

Tennessee ... 6,975,279 4,900,952 9,728,438 

Texas 539,290 394,642 1,165,538 

Virginia . 18,109,993 18,103,433 29,705,387 

Totals $95,918,842 $87,529,785 $167,906,035 

Manufactures, Mining and Mechanic Arts. 

Free States. Capital Invested. Raw Material used. Annual Product. 

California $1,006,197 $1,201,154 $12,862,522 

Connecticut- 23,890,348 23,589,397 45,110,102 

Illinois 6,385,387 8,915,173 17,236,073 

Indiana. __ 7,941,602 10,214,337 18,922,651 

Iowa... 1,292,875 2,356,881 3,551,783 

Maine. ... . 14,700,452 13,555,806 24,664,135 

Massachusetts. 83,357,642 85,856,771 151,137,145 

Michigan 6,534,250 6,105,561 10,976,894 

New Hampshire 18,242,114 12,745,466 23,164,503 

New Jersey 22,184,730 21,992,186 39,713,586 

New York 99,904,405 134,655,074 237,597,249 

Ohio .. 29,019,538 34,677,937 62,647,259 

Pennsylvania 94,473,810 87,206,377 155,044,910 

Rhode Island. 12,923,176 13,183,889 22,093,258 

Vermont 5,001,377 4,173,552 8,570,920 

Wisconsin 3,382,148 5,414,931 9,293,068 

Totals $431,290,351 $467,125,253 $845,430,428 

Rail Roads and Canals in 1854. 

Miles of Canals Miles of Railroads. Cost of Railroads. 

Slave States . . 1,116 4,212 $92,620,204 

Free States 3,682 13,105 $390,980,924 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 821 
Real and Personal Estate. 

Slave States. Real Estate Personal Estate including Slaves. Total. 

Alabama $78,870,718 $162,463,705 $241,334,423 

Arkansas 17,372,524 19,056,151 36,428,676 

District of Columbia 14,409,413 1,774,342 16,183,755 

Delaware . . 14,486,595 1,410,275 15,896,870 

Florida 7,924,588 15,274,146 23,198,734 

Georgia 121,619,739 213,490,486 335,110,225 

Kentucky 177,013,407 114,374,147 291,387,554 

Louisiana .. 176,623,654 49,832,464 226,456,118 

Maryland 139,026,610 69,536,956 208,563,566 

Mississippi 65,171,438 143,250,729 208,422,167 

Missouri 66,802,223 36,793,240 98,595,463 

North Carolina ... 71,702,740 140,368,673 212,071,413 

South Carolina . . . 105,737,402 178,130,217 283,867,709 

Tennessee 107,981,793 87,299,565 195,281,358 

Texas 28,149,671 25,414,000 53,563,671 

Virginia.. 252,105,824 130,198,429 383,304,253 



Totals $1,444,998,429 $1,383,667 525 $2,828,665,954 

Real and Personal Estate. 

Free States. Real Estate. Personal Estate. Total. 

California $16,347,442 $5,575,731 $21,923,173 

Connecticut .. 96,412,947 22,675,725 119,088,672 

Dlinois 81,524,835 33,257,810 114,782,645 

Indiana 112,947,740 39,922,659 152,870,399 

Iowa 15,672,332 6,018,310 21,690,642 

Maine 64,336,119 32,463,434 96,799,553 

Massachusetts 349,129,932 201,976,892 551,106,824 

Michigan 25,580,371 5,296,852 30,877,223 

New Hampshire ... 67,839,108 27,412,488 95,251,596 

New Jersey.. 153,151,619 30,000,000 183,151,619 

New York 564,649,649 150,719,379 715,369,028 

Ohio 337,521,075 96,351,557 433,872,632 

Pennsylvania 427,865,660 72,410,191 500,275,851 

Rhode Island 54,358,231 23,400,743 77,758,974 

Vermont 57,320,369 15,660,114 72,980,483 

Wisconsin .„ 22,468,442 4,257,083 26,715,525 



Totals $2,447,115,871 $9767,398,968 $3,214,514,839 



822 STATISTICAL TABLES. 

Value of Real Estate is Free States $2,441,115,871 

Value of Real Estate in Slave States 1,444,998,429 

Value of Personal Estate in Free States $767,398,968 

Value of Personal Estate in Slave States including Slaves . 1,383,667,525 
Value of Personal Estate in Slave States excluding Slaves 422,373,625 

Total value of Real and Personal Estate in Free States - $3,214,514,839 
Total value of Real and Personal Estate in Slave States in- 
cluding Slaves -- $2,828,665,954 

Total value Real and Personal Estate in Slave States exclud- 
ing Slaves ..., $1,867,372,054 

Estimated average value of Slaves, in above calculation, $300. 

Slave Labor Products in 1850. 

Cotton $98,603,720 

Tobacco -~ - 13,982,686 

Cane Sugar 12,378,850 

Hemp 5,000,000 

Rice --- 4,000,000 

Molasses -- 2,540,179 

$136,505,435 

Slave Population in America. 

In United States 3,204,313 

" Brazil - 3,250,000 

" Spanish Colonies - - 900,000 

" Dutch Colonies - — 85,000 

" South American Republics 140,000 



A.PPENDIX. 



SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Case op Dred Scott vs. Sandford. 

The Supreme Court of the United States, at the December term, in 1856, 
gave its decision in what is popularly known as the " Dred Scott case." This 
case involved not only private rights but constitutional principles of the highest 
importance. In reference to the questions involved, Judge Daniel declared, 
that since the establishment of the several communities now constituting the 
states of this confederacy, there never had been submitted to any tribunal within 
its limits, questions surpassing in importance those submitted in this case to 
the consideration of the court. Judge Wayne remarked, that there had be- 
come such a difference of opinion in respect to the questions presented that 
the peace and harmony of the country required the settlement of them by 
judicial decision. 

STATEMENT OP THE CASE. 

This case, Dred Scott vs. Sandford, was brought up by writ of error from 
the circuit court of the United States for the district of Missouri. It was an 
action for trespass vi et armis instituted in the circuit court by Scott against 
o^ndford. 

Prior to the institution of the present suit, an action was brought by Scott 
for his freedom in the circuit court of St. Louis county, (state court,) where 
there was a verdict and judgment in his favor. On a writ of error to the su- 
preme court of the state, the judgment below was reversed, and the case 
remanded to the circuit court, where it was continued to await the decision of 
the case now in question. 

The declaration of Scott contained three counts ; one, that Sandford had as- 
saulted the plaintiff; one, that he had assaulted Harriet Scott, his wife; and 
one, that he had assaulted Eliza Scott and Lizzie Scott, his children. 

Sandford appeared and filed the following plea : "And the said John F. A. 
Sandford, in his own proper person, comes and says that this court ought not to 
have or take further cognizance of the action aforesaid, because he says that 



824 APPENDIX. 

said cause of action, and each and every of them, (if any such have accrued to tha 
said Dred Scott,) accrued to the said Dred Scott out of the jurisdiction of 
this court, and exclusively within the jurisdiction of the courts of the state of 
Missouri, for that, to wit : the said plaintiff, Dred Scott, is not a citizen of 
the state of Missouri, as alleged in his declaration, because he is a negro of 
Africau descent ; his ancestors were of pure African blood, and were brought 
into this country and sold as negro slaves, and this the said Sandford is ready to 
verify. Wherefore, he prays judgment whether this court can or will take fur- 
ther cognizance of the action aforesaid. " 

To this plea there was a demurrer in the usual form, which was argued in 
April, 1854, when the court gave judgment that the demurrer should be sus- 
tained. 

In May, 1854, the defendant, in pursuance of an agreement between counsel, 
and with the leave of -the court, pleaded in bar of the action : 1. Not guilty. 
2. That the plaintiff was a negro slave, the lawful property of the defendant, 
and, as such, the defendant gently laid his hands upon him, and thereby had 
only restrained him, as the defendant had a right to do. 3. That with respect 
to the wife and daughters of the plaintiff, in the second and third counts of the 
declaration mentioned, the defendant had, as to them, only acted in the same 
manner, and iu virtue of the same legal right. 

In the first of these pleas, the plaintiff joined issue ; and to the second and 
third, filed replications alleging that the defendant, of his own wrong and with- 
out the cause iu his second and third pleas alleged, committed the trespasses, 
&c. The counsel then filed the following agreed statement of facts, viz : 

Iu the year 1834, the plaintiff was a negro slave belonging to Dr. Emerson, 
who was a surgeon in the army of the United States. Iu that year, 1834, said 
Dr. Emersou took the plaintiff from the state of Missouri to the military post 
at Rock Island, in the state of Illinois, and held him there as a slave until 
the month of April or May, 1836. At the time last mentioned, said Dr. Em- 
erson removed the plaintiff from said military post at Rock Island to the mili- 
tary post at Fort Suelling, situate on the west bank of the Mississippi river, 
in the territory known as Upper Louisiana, acquired by the United States of 
France'and situated north of the latitude of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes 
north, and north of the state of Missouri. Said Dr. Emerson held the plain- 
tiff in slavery at said Fort Snelling, from said last mentioned date until the 
year 1838. 

In the year 1835, Harriet, who is named iu the second count of the plain- 
tiff's declaration, was the negro slave of Major Taliaferro, who belonged to 
the army of the United States. In that year, 1835, said Major Taliaferro took 
said Harriet to said Fort Suelling, a military post, situated as hereinbefore 
stated, and kept her there as a slave until the year 1836, and then sold and 
delivered her as a slave at said Fort Snelling unto the said Dr. Emerson here- 
inbefore named. Said Dr. Emerson held said Harriet in slavery at said Fort 
Snelling until the year 1838. 

In the year 1836, the plaintiff and said Harriet, at said Fort Snelling, with 



APPENDIX. 825 

the consent of said Dr. Emerson, who then claimed to be their master and 
owner, intermarried, and took each other for husband and wife. Eliza and 
Lizzie, named in the third count of the plaintiff's declaration, are the fruit .if 
that marriage. Eliza is about fourteen years old, and was born on board the 
Steamboat Gipsey, north of the north line of the state of Missouri, and upon 
the river Mississippi. Lizzie is about seven years old, and was born in the 
state of Missouri, at the military post called Jefferson Barracks. 

In the year 1838, said Dr. Emerson removed the plaintiff and said Harriet 
and their said daughter Eliza, from said Fort Snelling to the state of Missouri, 
where they have ever since resided. 

Before the commencement of this suit, said Dr. Emerson sold and conveyed 
the plaintiff, said Harriet, Eliza and Lizzie, to the defendant, as slaves, and the 
defendant has ever since claimed to hold them and each of them as slaves. 

At the time mentioned in the plaiutiff's declaration, the" defendant, claiming 
to be owner as aforesaid, laid his hands upon said plaintiff, Harriet, Eliza and 
Lizzie, and imprisoned them, doing, in this respect, however, no more than 
what he might lawfully do if they were of right his slaves at such times. 

It is agreed that Dred Scott brought suit for his freedom in the circuit court 
of St. Louis county ; that there was a verdict and judgment in his favor ; that 
on a writ of error to the supreme court, the judgment below was reversed, 
and the same remanded to the circuit court, where it has been continued to 
await the decision of this case. 

In May, 1854, the cause went before a jury, who found the following verdict, 
viz : " As to the first issue joined in this case, we of the jury find the defend- 
ant not guilty; and as to the issue secondly above joined, we of the jury find 
that before and at the time when, &c, in the first count mentioned, the said 
Dred Scott was a negro slave, the lawful property of the defendant ; and as 
to the issue thirdly above joined, we, the jury, find that before and at the time 
when, &c, in the second and third counts mentioned, the said Harriet, wife of 
said Dred Scott, and Eliza and Lizzie, the daughters of the said Dred Scott, 
were negro slaves, the lawful property of the defendant." Whereupon the 
court gave judgment for the defendant. After an ineffectual motion for a 
new trial, the plaintiff filed the following bill of exceptions : 

On the trial of this cause by the jury, the plaintiff, to maintain the issues on 
his part, read to the jury the following agreed statement of facts, (see agree- 
ment above.) No further testimony was given to the jury by either party. 
Thereupon the plaintiff moved the court to give to the jury the folowing in- 
struction, viz : "That upon the facts agreed to by the parties, they ought to 
find for the plaitiff. The court refused to give such instruction to the jury, 
and the plaintiff, to such refusal, then and there duly excepted." 

The court then gave the following instruction to the jury, on motion of the 
defendant: " The jury are instructed, that upon the facts in this case, tho law 
is with the defendant." The plaintiff excepted to this instruction. Upon 
these exceptions, the case came up to the supreme court. 
53 



826 



DECISION OF THE COUBT. 
I. 



1. Upon a writ of error to the Circuit Court of the United States, the tran- 
script of the record of all the proceedings in the case is brought before this 
court, and is open to its inspection and revision. 

2. When a plea to the jurisdiction, in abatement, is overruled by the court 
upon demurrer, and the defendant pleads in bar, and upon these pleas the final 
judgment of the court is in his favor — if the plaintiff brings a writ of error, 
the judgment of the court upon the plea in abatement is before this court, 
although it was in favor of the plaintiff — and if the court erred in overruling 
it, the judgment must be reversed, and a mandate issued to the Circuit Court 
to dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction. 

3. In the Circuit Courts of the United States, the record must show that the 
case is oue in which, by the constitution and laws of the United States, the court 
had jurisdiction — and if this does not appear, and the court gives judgment 
either for plaintiff or defendant, it is error, and the judgment must be reversed 
by (his court — and the parties cannot by consent waive the objection to the 
jurisdiction of the Circuit Court. 

4. A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to this 
country and sold as slaves, is not a " citizen " within the meaning of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

5. When the Constitution was adopted, they were not regarded in any of 
the States as members of the community which constituted the State, and were 
not numbered among its " people or citizens." Consequently, the special rights 
and immunities guaranteed to citizens do not apply to them. And not being 
" citizens " within the meaning of the Constitution, they are not entitled to sue 
in that character in a court of the United States, and the Circuit Court has 
not jurisdiction in such a suit. 

6. The only two clauses in the Constitution which point to this race, treat 
them as persons whom it was morally lawful to deal in as articles of property 
and to hold as slaves. 

7. Since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, no State 
can by any subsequent law make a foreigner or any other description of per- 
sons citizens of the United States, nor entitle them to the rights and privileges 
secured to citizens by that instrument. 

8. A state, by its laws passed since the adoption of the Constitution, may 
put a foreigner or any other description of persons upon a footing with its own 
citizens, as to all the rights and privileges enjoyed by them within its dominion 
and by its laws. But that will not make him a citizen of the United States, 
nor entitle him to sue in its courts, nor to any of the privileges and immunities 
of a citizen in another state. 

9. The change in public opinion and feeling in relation to the African race, 
which has taken place since the adoption of the Constitution, cannot change its 
construction and meaning, and it must be construed and administered now ac- 
cording to its true meaning and intention when it was formed and adopted 



APPENDIX. 827 

10. The plaintiff having admitted, by his demurrer to the plea in abatement, 
that his ancestors were imported from Africa and sold as slave 

citizen of the state of Missouri according to the Constitution of the I 
States, and was not entitled to sue in that character in the Circuit Court 

11. This being the case, the judgment of the court below, in favor of the 
plaintiff on the plea in abatement, was erroneous. 

II. 

1. But if the plea in abatement is not brought up by this writ of error the 
objection to the citizenship of the plaintiff is still apparent on the record, as 
he himself, in making oat his case, states that he is of African descent, was 
born a slave, and claims that he and his family became entitled to freedom by 
being taken, by their owner, to reside in a territory where slavery is prohibited 
by act of congress — and that, in addition to this claim, he himself beca en- 
titled to freedom by being taken to Rock Island, in the state of Illinois and 

being free when he was brought back to Missouri, he was by the laws of that 
state a citizen. 

2. If, therefore, the facts he states do not give him or his family a right to 
freedom, the plaintiff is still a slave, and not entitled to sue as a "citizen," 
and the judgment of the Circuit Court was erroneous on that ground also, with- 
out any reference to the plea in abatement. 

3. The Circuit Court can give no judgment for plaintiff or defendant in a 
case where it has not jurisdiction', no matter whether there be a plea in abate- 
ment or not. And unless it appears upon the face of the record, when brought 
here by writ of error, that the Circuit Court had jurisdiction, the judgment 
must be reversed. 

4. When the record, as brought here by writ of error, does not show that 
the Circuit Court had jurisdiction, this court has jurisdiction to revise and cor- 
rect the error, like any other error in the court below. It does not ami can- 
not dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction here ; for that would leave 1 1 r- 

roneons judgment of the court below in full force, and the party injured with- 
out remedy. But it must reverse the judgment, and, as in any other ease of re- 
versal, send a mandate to the Circuit Court to conform its judgment to the 
opinion of this court. 

5. The difference of the jurisdiction in this court in the cases of writs of 
error to state courts and to Circuit Cour'.s of the United States, pointed out : 
and the mistakes made as to the jurisdiction of this court in the latti 

by confounding it with its limited jurisdiction in the former. 

6. If the court reverses a judgment upon the ground that it appei if by a 
particular part of the record that the Circuit Court had not jurisdiction, it does 
not take away the jurisdiction of this court to examine into and correi 
reversal of the judgment, any other errors, either as to the jurisdiction or any 
other matter, where it appears from other parts of the record that thi - 
Court had fallen into error. On the contrary, it is the daily ami familiar prac- 
tice of this court to reverse on several grounds, where more than one error ap- 



828 APPENDIX. 

pears to have been committed. And the error of a Circuit Court in its juris- 
diction stands on the same ground, and is to be treated in the same manner as 
any other error upon which its judgment is founded. 

7. The decision, therefore, that the judgment of the Circuit Court upon the 
plea in abatement is erroneous, is no reason why the alleged error apparent in 
the exception should not also be examined, and the judgment reversed on that 
ground also, if it discloses a want of jurisdiction in the Circuit Court. 

8. It is often the duty of this court, after having decided that a particular 
decision of the Circuit Court was erroneous, to examine into other alleged er- 
rors, and to correct them if they are found to exist. And this has been uni- 
formly done by this court, when the questions are in any degree connected with 
the controversy, and the silence of the court might create doubts which would 
lead to further and useless litigation. 

III. 

1. The facts upon which the plaintiff relies, did not give him his freedom, 
and make him a citizen of Missouri. 

2. The clause in the Constitution authorizing congress to make all needful 
rules and regulations for the government of the territory and other property 
of the United States, applies only to territory within the chartered limits of 
some one of the states when they were colonies of Great Britain, and which 
was surrendered by the British government to the old confederation of the 
states in the treaty of peace. It does not apply to territory acquired by the 
present federal government, by treaty or conquest, from a foreign nation. 

The case of the American and Ocean Insurance Companies v. Canter (1 Pe- 
ters, 511) referred to and examined, showing that the decision in this case is 
not in conflict with that opinion, and that the court did not, in the case refer- 
red to, decide upon the construction of the clause of the constitution above 
mentioned, because the case before them did not make it necessary to decide 
the question. 

3. The United States, under the present constitution, cannot acquire territory 
to be held as a colony, to be governed at its will and pleasure. But it may 
acquire terrritory, which, at the time, has not a population that fits it to be- 
come a state, and may govern it as a territory until it has a population which, 
in the judgment of Congress, entitles it to be admitted as a state of the Union. 

4. During the time it remains a territory, Congress may legislate over it 
within the scope of its constitutional powers in relation to citizens of the Unit- 
ed States — and may establish a territorial government — and the form of this 
.ocal government must be regulated by the discretion of Congress — but with 
powers not exceeding those which Congress itself, by the constitution, is author- 
ized to exercise over citizens of the United States, in respect to their rights of 
persons or rights of property. 

IT. 
1. The territory thus acquired, is acquired by the citizens of the United States 
for their common and equal benefit, through their agent aud trustee, the fede- 



* APPENDIX. 829 

ral government. Congress can exercise no power over the rights of persons 
or property of a citizen in the territory which is prohibited by the constitution. 
The government and the citizen, whenever the territory is open to settlement, 
both enter it with their respective rights defined and limited by the constitution! 

2. Congress has no right to prohibit the citizens of any particular slate or 
states from taking up their home there, while it permits citizens of other 

to do so. Nor has it a right to give privileges to one class of citizen 
it refuses to another. The territory is acquired for their equal and co 
benefit— and if open to any, it must be open to all upon equal and the same 
terms. 

3. Every citizen has a right to take with him into the territory any article 
of property which the constitution of the United States recognizes as property. 

4. The constitution of the United States recognizes slaves as property, and 
pledges the federal government to protect it. And Congress cannot exercise 
any more authority over property of that description than it may constitution- 
ally exercise over property of any other kind. 

5. The act of Congress, therefore, prohibiting a citizen of the United States 
from taking with him his slaves when he removes to the territory in question 
to reside, is an exercise of authority over private property which is not war- 
ranted by the constitution — and the removal of the plaintiff, by his owner, to 
that territory, gave him no title to freedom. 

Y. 

1. The plaintiff acquired no title to freedom by being taken, by his owner, 
to Rock Island, in Illinois, and brought back to Missouri. This court hits 
heretofore decided that the status or condition of a person of African descent 
depended on the laws of the state in which he resided. 

2. It has been settled by the decisions of the highest court in Missouri, that, 
by the laws of that state, a slave does not become entitled to his freedom 
where the owner takes him to reside in a state where slavery is not permitted, 
and afterwards brings him back to Missouri. 

Conclusion. It follows that it is apparent upon the record that the court 
below erred in its judgment on the plea in abatement, and also erred in giving 
judgment for the defendant, when the exception shows that the plaintiff was 
not a citizen of the United States. And as the Circuit Court had no jurisdic- 
tion, either in the case stated in the plea in abatement, or in the one stated in 
the exception, its judgment in favor of the defendant is erroneous, and must 
be reversed. 

ANALYSIS OF THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. 

It was held by seven judges (M'Lean and Curtis dissenting) that the 
record showed on the part of Scott a disability to maintain his suit. Of these 
judges, Taney, Wayne and Daniel held that the fact set forth in the plea in 
abatement in the court below, and admitted in the demurrer, " that the plain- 
tiff was a negro of African descent, whose ancestors were of pure African 
blood, and who were brought into this country and sold as slaves," showed him 



830 APPENDIX. t 

not to be a citizen of the United States, and therefore disqualified to sue in a 
United States Court ; and that the suit ought, on that ground, to be remanded 
to be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. Grier and Campbell (making with 
the other three a majority of the court) concurred in this remanding for dis- 
missal, and such was the judgment of the court, Both Grier and Campbell 
based themselves, however, not on the plea in abatement, but on the fact ap- 
parent, as they thought, in the agreed statement of facts which made apart of 
the record, that Scott was a slave, and on that ground disqualified to sue, and 
they both seemed to think that the more regular course would be to confirm 
the judgment of the court below. Such a confirmation of the judgment of 
the court below, Nelson and Catron held to be the only proper course, thus 
siding, so far as the question of jurisdiction was concerned, with Curtis and 
McLean, while even Grier (making up, with the other four, a majority of the 
court) went so far as to admit that the record showed & prima facie case of 
jurisdiction. 

McLean and Catron held, that as there was no appeal from the judgment of 
the Circuit Court on the plea in abatement, the question of jurisdiction was not 
before the court. Taney, Wayne, Daniel and Curtis held, per contra, that, as 
the courts of the United States were of limited jurisdiction, the question of 
jurisdiction was always in order. Grier, Nelson and Campbell were silent on 
this point. 

Three judges — Taney, Wayne and Daniel — held that, although the court 
below had no jurisdiction, and the case must be dismissed on that ground, 
it was still competent for the Supreme Court to give an opinion on the merits of 
tire case, and on all the questions therein involved. McLean and Curtis dis- 
sented from this view-. In their opinion, any doctrines laid down under such 
circumstances must be regarded as extra-judicial. They based their right of 
going into the merits on the assumption that the court below had jurisdiction, 
a view in which they were sustained by Catron and Grier. Nelson and Camp- 
bell, as they had avoided any expression of opinion on the question of juris- 
diction, did the same on this question of judicial propriety ; but Nelson, by 
confining himself, in his opinion, to the single point of the revival of Scott's 
condition of slavery by his return to Missouri, seemed to concur in the view of 
judicial propriety taken by McLean and Curtis. 

Three judges — Taney, Wayne and Daniel — held that a negro of African 
descent was incapable of being a citizen of the United States, or even of 
suing as such in a federal court. From this doctrine McLean and Curtis ex- 
pressly dissented, while Nelson, Grier, Campbell aud Catron avoided any ex- 
pression of opinion upon it. 

Taney, Wayne, Daniel and Campbell held that the constitution conferred no 
power on Congress to legislate for the territories, the power to make all needful 
rules and regulations being confined solely to the disposition of lands as prop- 
erty, and even that authority being limited to the territories belonging to the 
United States (i. e. the territory northwest of the Ohio) when the constitution.; 
was made. They, however, seemed to admit a certain power of legislation 



APPENDIX. 831 

in Congress, based on the fact of acquisition and growing out of the necessity 
of the case. McLean, Catron and Curtis held, on the other hand, that under 
authority to make needful rules and regulations, as well as by the necessity of 
the case, Congress had a full power of legislation for the territories, limited 
only by the general restraints upon its legislative power contained in the con- 
stitution. Nelson expressed no opinion on this point ; nor did Grier, except 
the implication in favor of the first view from his joining in pronouncing the 
Missouri prohibition of 1820 unconstitutional, though ou what particular 
ground he held it to be so does not appear. 

Taney, Wayne, and Daniel held that the ordinance of 1787, though good 
and binding under the confederation, expired with the confederation, and that 
the act of Congress passed to confirm it was void, because Congress had no 
power to legislate for the territories. M'Lean, Catron, and Curtis heli 
contra, that the reenactment of the ordinance of 17S7 was a valid exercise of 
the power of Congress ; while Campbell admitted — and in this Catron concur- 
red with him (Daniel contra, the others silent) — that the ordinance of 17S7, 
having been agreed to by Virginia, became thereby a part of the compact of 
cession permanently binding on the parties, and was so regarded by the con- 
vention that framed the constitution. 

Five judges, a majority of the court — Taney, Wayne, Daniel, Campbell, 
and Grier — held that the Missouri prohibition of 1820 was unconstitutional 
and void ; while Catron argued that it was void because it conflicted with the 
French treaty for the cession of Louisiana, M'Lean and Curtis held the pro- 
hibition constitutional and valid. Nelson silent. 

Five judges — Taney, Wayne, Daniel, Campbell, and Catron — a majority 
of the court, held that slaves were property in a general sense, as much so as 
cattle, or at least were so recognized by the constitution of the United States; 
and as such might be carried into territories, notwithstanding any congressional 
prohibition. M'Lean and Curtis held, per contra, that slaves are recognized 
property only locally and by the laws of particular states, being out of those 
states not property, nor even slaves, except in the single case of fugitives. 
Grier and Nelson silent. 

It was held by six judges — Taney, Wayne, Daniel, Campbell, Catron, and 
Nelson — that, whatever claim to freedom Scott might have had (if any, which 
most of them denied,) he lost it by his return to Missouri. This opinion, on 
the part of Taney, Wayne, and Daniel, was based solely on the law of Mis- 
souri, as recently laid down by the Supreme Court of that state. Nelson and 
Catron based it on what they thought the prevailing current of legal decision 
on the subject ; and Campbell on the fact that no sufficient domicil, either in 
slave or master, appeared in Illinois or Minnesota. M'Lean and Curtis held, 
per contra, that Scott had been made free by his residence in Illinois and 
Minnesota, and that the rules of international law respecting the emancipation 
of slaves by residence were a part of the law of Missouri, which law had been 
improperly departed from and set at nought by the Missouri decision in the 
plaintiffs case ; and that, on questions depending not on any statute or local 



832 APPENDIX. 

usage, but on principles of universal jurisprudence, the decisions of state 
courts are not conclusive on the United States courts as to the laws of the 
states. 

Seven judges (M'Lean and Curtis dissenting) held that by the facts on the 
record, it appeared that Scott was a slave, notwithstanding his residence in Il- 
linois and Minnesota. 

It appears from this analysis that only the following points commanded a 
majority of voices, and can be considered as having been ruled in this case : 

1. That Scott was a slave notwithstanding his residence in Illinois and Min- 
nesota. Seven judges to two. 

2. That the Missouri prohibition of 1820 was unconstitutional and void. 
Five judges against two ; one silent, and one holding it void but not unconsti- 
tutional. 

3. That, under the constitution of the United States, slaves are as much 
property as horses. Five judges, all slaveholders, against two non-slavehold- 
ers, the two other non-slaveholders being silent. 

The question whether any power of legislation over the territories is given 
to Congress, by the power to make needful rules and regulations, is left unde- 
cided, four judges denying any such power, three maintaining it, Nelson si- 
lent, and Grier in nubibus. 



